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

of the flintlock. Our collection keeps four such items. Two of them are of the type with steel magazines as air reservoirs, while the other two have the compression chamber built within their stocks. These were made by the gunsmiths Lechner in Kassa (Kosice), Seifner and Senger of Vienna and Blaschaty of Pancsova (PanQevo). Their first recorded mention in Hungary is in the journals of László Rákóczi: “I happened to shoot a German servant in the hand with an air gun, not believing that the bullet could be as efficient without gunpowder, only with the use of air”.12 This was probably the first encounter of the Count with this type, as the air gun was not quite as widespread in 17th-century Hungary.

This weapon uses the energy of compressed air instead of the chemical energy of gunpowder to discharge the projectile.13 The stock of the gun was an air reservoir made of metal, or the container itself was built within the stock, and the gun was made operational with the use of a pump.14 Whether they were used in warfare or hunting, in most European languages they are referred to as air guns.15

The first air guns were manufactured towards the end of the 16th century, when a single shot could be discharged at once. In other types a pump was built in the stock of the gun, the piston of which was pushed forward by a strong spring when the trigger was fired, thereby compressing the air in the container. Inventors made attempts to find the right place for the air reservoir within the traditional shape of the gun, either in the stock or on the side of the barrel.

The first multiple-shot breech-loading air gun was made by the Tyrolean watchmaker Bartholomäus Girandoni. Its lock mechanism was quite simple: when the trigger was pulled the spring valve of the air reservoir opened for a moment, and the air pumped into the barrel projected the bullet.

Twenty bullets were placed in a tubular magazine that could be projected by the energy of compressed air. Behind the rifled barrel a mobile piston was placed with a hole the size of the bullets. A bullet rolled into the barrel from the ammunition feed, and when the piston moved back, the bullet reached the opening at the end of the barrel. The steel magazine ended in a screw thread that could be attached to an air compressor or pump.16

In the case of air guns used for hunting small game the pump was built within the weapon. According to contemporary reports around 2000 strokes of a hand pump were needed to create 200 atm of pressure in the container, which enabled the shooter to discharge about twenty rounds, with decreasing accuracy.17

With the first six attempts it was possible to hit a deer from a distance of 50-60 metres. The first truly practical air guns appeared in the mid-17th century, but this type spread to general use, especially as a hunting or sporting gun, during the 18th century. The silent weapon was particularly favoured by poachers, for whom it was obviously a great advantage that the barely audible sound of the discharge did not alert the game.

By the first half of the 19th century metallurgy reached a level of development that ensured the precise fitting of gun parts and thereby decreased windage, that is the escape of powder gases in the barrel. Another important step was the invention of the integrated cartridge.

The first breech-loading gun that was generally used is associated with the gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse of Sömmerda in Prussia, who invented the needle gun in 1841. The origins of the invention go back tot he beginning of the century, when Napoleon I gave an assignment to gunsmiths to eliminate the disadvantages of smoothbore muzzle-loading guns. In 1812 Jean Samuel Pauly, a Swiss-born Parisian gunsmith, created a breech-loading firearm that projected bullets with metal casing.18 During this period Dreyse was working in Pauly’s workshop. He later created his weapons based on the expertise acquired there.19

A guest of Archduke Friedrich at a snipe-shooting, Karapancsa, c. 1925.

As in warfare, the spread of breech-loading weapons also brought significant development in hunting. Our collection contains items that represent this early stage of the breech-loading period. An item, made circa 1860 in the workshop of Johann Peterlongo in Innsbruck, is particularly interesting. The double-barrelled gun has straight rifling, the bore is 15.5 mm in diameter and 71

12 Rákóczi László naplója, Ed. Ildikó Horn (Budapest, 1990), p. 356.

13 Air guns are not considered firearms, but according to current regulations on weapons they are treated in the same catergory.

14 Ferenc Temesváry, Vadászfegyverek (Budapest, 1992), pp. 23-24. Also: József Lugosi, Szélpuskák (Budapest, 1977).

15 Air gun (English), Winbüchse (German), fusil a vent (Feench), arquabes de viento (Spanish), archibugio a venti (Italian) etc.

16 More on air compression: János Kalmár, Régi magyar fegyverek (Budapest, 1971), fig.. 161.; Temesváry (1992).

17 Lugosi, p. 8.

18 Since the projectiles of this gun had to be lathed separately, it was made in small numbers and was mainly used as a hunting weapon. See József Lugosi, “Egylövetű hátultöltő puskák a Hadtörténeti Múzeum gyűjteményében", Hadtörténelmi Közlemények (1984:2), pp. 305-331.; Attila Zoltán, Vadászfegyver - és löismeret I. (Budapest, 1981), pp. 16-17.

19 Balázs Németh, “A porosz gyútűs puska és töltényei", Hadtudományi Szemle (2017:3), pp. 160-173.; Frederick Wilkinson, Guns (London, 1979), p. 162.

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