Sánta Ákos: Vadászfegyverek - A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum tárgykatalógusai 4. (Budapest, 2018)

Double barrelled guns, known as doubles, started to appear in the use of civilians and hunters. These could be both smoothbore or rifled, known as “bock” guns, with an over-and-under configuration of barrels, but these could also have combination barrels. The flintlock reached the zenith of its development in the early 19th century. Our collection includes such items made by outstanding masters such as Moretta, Inibausen or Franz Bastarz. Several of them were made in St Etienne, the centre of French arms manufacture.

The most advanced forms of the muzzle-loading firearm are caplock and percussion rifles. Our museum has several items of the latter type. These are mostly the works of European gunsmiths: Kuchenreiter of Regensburg, Lebeda of Prague, represented by one weapon each in our collection, but other outstanding makers include Wlaschek of Prague, Sickander of Vienna, Hoffmann of Wiener Neustadt, or the excellent Kimer Company of Pest, whose several caplock rifles found their way to our collection.6 Among our percussion rifles the most valuable is the item made in the 1820s by the London gunsmith Joseph Manton, which was purchased personally by Count István Széchenyi, “the Greatest Hungarian”, during one of his journeys to London.7

The basic difference between the flintlock and percussion mechanism is the method of igniting the charge. These weapons were still muzzle-loading and used socalled black powder. There were already experiments in the late 18th century to replace black powder, which was too sensitive to dampness, but too explosive when dry. After several attempts, the breakthrough was reached in 1799 by E. C. Howard in Britain, who invented mercury fulminate, Hg(CNO)2, which ignited on impact and was a far more reliable primer. The appearance of a shock-sensitive material made it possible to construct a new lock mechanism, which was named percussion after the Latin word for striking. The first percussion lock was patented by Alexander Forsyth of Scotland in 1807. The advantages of the percussion ignition was explained by Dienes Pák in the following way: “A particular aspect of these firearms is the lightning-fast speed which ignites the gunpowder in the pan, and the almost infallible surety that the weapon will discharge every time’’.8 Weapons with a chemical ignition system were far more reliable than their flintlock predecessors. Out of a hundred firing attempts 92-98 were successful. The reason for this was the use of different types of percussion cap, which had different shapes but an identical mechanism. Instead of the flint or the black powder the cap was used to ignite the charge. The first type involved a 10-12 mm long cylinder with a diameter of 2-3 mm, while the percussion cap proper was a small brass or copper

cup a few millimetres in diameter, both of which were filled with mercuric fulminate. The difference in priming was that the larger cylinder was placed in the powder pan while the cap was fastened on a hollow metal nipple with screws, after which the hammer was cocked. The actual shape of the hammer or cock also transformed and became more reminiscent of an actual hammer, and the jaws were eliminated. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer hit the cylinder in the pan or the cap itself, the impact of which exploded the mercuric fulminate creating a flame, which travelling through the 1 mm wide nipple ignited the main charge wadded in the barrel.9 In the 1830s and 1840s it became increasingly common to remodel flintlocks as percussion rifles. The trombone10 carbine kept in our collection was originally made with a flintlock mechanism in the 18th century. It was transformed into a caplock gun after 1830 by replacing the powder pan with a nipple. The cock was also replaced with a more hammer-like striking apparatus.

BREECH-LOADING GUNS

Even in the 16th to 18th centuries there had been attempts to develop breech-loading firearms. Though it was fairly rare, in the early 16th century some breech-loading matchlock guns were already made. There are some examples of breech-loading wheellocks as well. In the 18th century gunsmiths experimented with several types of locks. These are unique constructions, the mutual characteristic of which is that they could not yet solve the insulation problem of the lock mechanism to an extent that could impede the reflow of powder gases and consequently the decrease in muzzle velocity. These early constructions are considered quite rare today. Our collection includes an item that represents a significant stage in the transition from muzzle-loading to breech-loading. An evidence of the inventiveness and expertise of the gunsmith Antal Bogovits in Pécs is a double-barrelled shotgun “with separate chamber”. Its barrel moves forward (but does not tilt) with the aid of a key, making it possible to tilt two 3 cm long chambers, in which the paper-wrapped charge was placed and ignited with a percussion cap. When the chamber was tilted back, a nail punctured the paper casing across an opening in the bottom of the chamber, making it easier for the flame of the percussion cap to create a spark. After the barrel is pulled back, a lower key with a complicated structure acts as a further bolt. Its Damascus barrel, 71 cm in length and 19.2 cm in diameter, has straight rifling.11

The most successful breech-loading gun of the period was not a firearm, but the air gun, a contemporary

6 Ferenc Temesváry, “Egy magyar puskaműves család élete és működése", Folia Archeologica (1959: II) pp. 207-227.

7 For further information on Joseph Manton: Richard Akehurt, Sporting guns (London, n.d.) pp. 60-61, 79.

8 Dienes Pák, Vadászattudomány (Buda: 1829), p. 30. (reprint).

9 Gyula Kedves, “Fegyverek a szabadságharcban", Györgyi Cs. Kottra, „Fényesebb a láncnál a kard..." Emlékkiállítás az 1848-49 évi forradalom és szabadságharc 150. évfordulójára. Katalógus, (Budapest: Hadtörténeti Múzeum, 1999), pp. 47-48.

10 Trombon is a name applied to firearms with a muzzle reminiscent of a trumpet.

11 Further inforamtion on Antal Bogovits and the gunsmiths of Pécs: Éva Gál, “A pécsi fegyvermüvesség történetéhez", Hadtörténelmi Közlemények. (2006:1), pp. 3-33.