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Image 7536
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Image 7535
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Image 7534
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Doubtless on the coasts of Scandinavia and North Germany, the chief
home of these composite crossbows after the time of the Crusades, whalebone
was easily obtainable, whilst in other parts of the Continent, the pieces which
formed the heart of the bow, were made from the straightened horn of an
animal.
This ancient form of crossbow with a composite bow, survived in an
improved form in Scandinavia and in the north of Europe, as a weapon
of sport and war, till about 1460, or for nearly a hundred years after the
far superior crossbow with a thick steel bow and a windlass had been in use in
France, Spain and Italy. Some of these later weapons were made so strong
in the fifteenth century, that after the invention of the powerful cranequin
for bending steel bows, this apparatus was also employed for bending the
composite bow
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From MS. Gaston Phosbus. Fourteenth century
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A troop of mounted crossbowmen, of special skill and courage, usually formed the bodyguard of the king, and attended him in battle. Mounted crossbowmen
were largely employed on the Continent in the fourteenth, and first half of the
fifteenth century, and these men were usually allowed one and sometimes even
two horses apiece, besides being supplied, when on the march, with carts to
carry their crossbows and quarrels
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The kneeling figure is fitting his belt-claw to the string of his crossbow, preparatory to bending its bow.
From Manuscript No. 2813 in the National Library, Paris, reproduced by J. Quicherat in his ' History of Costume in France,' 1875.
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Joannes Stradanus, born at Bruges 1536, died at Florence 1605, a Flemish historical painter who delighted in portraying all kinds of sport, such as shooting, hunting, fishing and coursing, which he did with wonderful skill and in most realistic fashion. This picture is reduced from ' Venationes Ferarum,' a work consisting of 105 large plates of sporting scenes, dated 1578. The hunters carry stonebows, and the rabbits are being driven from their burrows by smoke and fire. Purse nets and stop nets may also be seen in use.
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The centre figure may be seen bending his crossbow with a windlass, with his foot in the stirrup of the weapon.
From Manuscript, Froissart's ' Chronicles.
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I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, military bolts ;
6, bolt with tow soaked in oil for firing ships and houses ;
7, bolt for a slur bow ;
8, bolt for killing deer ;
9, 10, bolts for killing large birds ;
11, 12, bolts for killing game birds. The latter had not metal heads, and were blunt, so as not to damage the game.
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The crossbowman is aiming at a target to the left of the picture.
From a catalogue of the Arsenal of the Emperor Maximilian I. (6. 1459, d. 1519).
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Crossbowman approaching game by means of a stalkig horse
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How a crossbowman should approach animals by means of a cart concealed with foliage.
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The narrow cruciform loophole, called by architects ' Arbalestina,' which is usually to be seen in the masonry of a mediaeval fortress, was designed for the special use of crossbowmen in repelling an assault.
To enable the crossbow, or longbow, to be aimed to the right or left through a loophole, the aperture was greatly widened out on the inside face of the perforated wall.
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They represent French soldiers at the defence of Rouen, 1419, shooting from behind the shelter of shields propped up in front of them.
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The centre figure is winding up his windlass crossbow behind the shelter of a shield.
From Manuscript, Froissarts ' Chronicles.'
The larger shields, which were carried before the knights (by their pages) when on the march, and which were propped up in front of them as a protection from arrows in a battle or a siege, were known as pavises or mantlets.
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The soldiers carry windlass crossbows. One man is winding up his weapon ; the other is shooting, with his windlass laid on the ground at his feet.
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Hunters with crossbows
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Image 6930
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Image 6929
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Image 6524
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Carry the point of the bayonet down until it is at the height of the knee, moving the point of the bayonet sufficiently to the right (left) to keep the opponent's attacks clear of the point threatened.
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Tighten the grasp of the hands and swing the rifle to the front and downward, directing it at the head of the opponent, and immediately return to the position of club rifle by completing the swing of the rifle downward and to the rear.
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The men may be permitted to wield the rifle left handed, that is on the left side of the body, left hand at the small of the stock. Many men will be able to use this method to advantage. It is also of value in case the left band is wounded.
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Executed in the same manner as the thrust, except that the left foot is carried forward about twice its length. The left heel must always be in rear of the left knee. Guard is resumed immediately without command. Guard may also be resumed by advancing the right foot if for any reason it is desired to hold the ground gained in lunging
501 visits
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At the second command take the position of guard; at the same time throw the rifle smartly to the front, grasp the rifle with the left hand just below the lower band, fingers between the stock and gun sling, barrel turned slightly to the left, the right hand grasping the small of the stock about 6 inches in front of the right hip, elbows free from the body, bayonet point at the height of the chin.
484 visits
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Thrust the rifle quickly forward to the full length of the left arm, turning the barrel to the left, and direct the point of the bayonet at the point to be attacked, butt covering the right fore-arm. At the same time straighten the right leg vigorously and throw the weight of the body forward and on the left leg, the ball of the right foot always on the ground. Guard is resumed immediately without command.
499 visits
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Sometimes the sling is attached to a staff or truncheon, about three or four feet in length, wielded with both hands, and charged with a stone of no small magnitude. Those slings appear to have been chiefly used in besieging of cities, and on board of ships in engagements by sea. The following engraving represents a sling of this kind, from a drawing supposed to have been made by Matthew Paris, in a MS. at Bennet College, Cambridge.
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This engraving is made from a manuscript of the tenth century in the Cotton Library. The bow is curiously ornamented having the head and tail of a serpent carved at the ends; and was, probably, such a one as was used by the nobility. In all these bows we may observe one thing remarkable, that is, the string not being made fast to the extremities, but permitted to play at some distance from them. How far this might be more or less advantageous than the present method, I shall not presume to determine.
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In other instances we see it depicted with both the ends held in the hand, the figure being placed in the action of taking his aim, and a bird is generally the object of his exertion, as in the following engraving from a parchment roll in the Royal Library, containing a genealogical account of the kings of England, to the time of Henry III.
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Already, anticipating war in the air, a fighting aeroplane has been evolved; and a machine of this type is shown in Figure. The body, in which pilot and gunner sit, is armoured lightly with plates which will resist the penetration of a bullet. Such armouring was found necessary after the use of aeroplanes in Tripoli and the Balkans. When flying unavoidably low in these campaigns, and when fired at from the ground, the wooden bodies of machines were pierced by shot, and in several instances their occupants wounded.
A fighting aeroplane
A. Machine-gun projecting from opening in bow
B. Gunner’s position
C. Pilot’s seat
D.D. Side windows for observation
E. Engine and propeller.
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A machine that has achieved success, owing to its power of varying speed, is the Sopwith military biplane. Adopting a practice that has become general, its wings are fitted upon what is practically a monoplane body. Tail-planes and rudder are the same as in a monoplane. The top main-plane, as will be seen, is set slightly in advance of the lower. The system is called “staggering”; and the idea is that, by placing the upper plane ahead of the lower, the total lifting power will be increased. It has been proved a disadvantage of the biplane that, when the main-planes are placed one above another, there is a slight loss of lift owing to the fact that, acting upon the air as they do quite close to each other, a certain amount of interference occurs between them—one tending to disturb the air-stream in which the other moves. By “staggering” the two planes this interference is overcome; but some makers regard it as a small consideration, and build their planes in the ordinary way, allowing as large a gap as possible between them. In the Sopwith military machine, engine and propeller are in front of the main-planes; then come the places for pilot and observer. The pilot sits first, and the body of the machine is so high that only his head appears above it, while just in front of his face, to deflect the wind-rush from the propeller, there is a raised section of the hull which acts as a screen. Behind the pilot, sitting in a second opening in the hull, is the observer. He has a view forward, rendered the better by setting back the lower-plane; while at the point at which it joins the body of the machine, immediately below him, this plane is hollowed out, so that he can look directly upon the earth below. Small windows are also fitted upon either side of the hull. Through those in front the pilot may glance when descending from a flight, so as to judge his distance from the ground, while the others are utilised by the observer, as he turns to look from side to side. This biplane, and many others, is balanced against sideway roll by ailerons, and not by warping the wings. Constant warping, such as is necessary in the everyday use of machines, has been declared to strain a plane and render it weak; therefore the use of ailerons is now favoured.
A. Propeller
B. Motor, partly hidden by shield
C.C. Main-planes
D. Pilot’s seat
E. Observer’s seat
F. Outlook windows in side of hull
G. Rudder
H. Elevating-plane
I. Landing gear.
291 visits
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A coastal sea-plane, as now planned, is a craft having, say, two engines, each devolving 120 h.p., with a wing span of some 80 feet, and an accommodation in its hull for three men—the pilot, a combatant with a machine-gun, and an observer with an installation of wireless. But types are changing constantly, and the tendency is to build larger craft. A machine weighing a couple of tons is shown, and a novelty in regard to it is that it has wheels upon either side of its boat-shaped car, upon which it can move on land, and which fold upward when it rests upon the water.
A. Hull upon which the machine floats when in the sea
B.B.B. Wheels upon which it may move when on land, and which fold upward when it is on the water
C. Pilot’s controlling wheel
D.D. Main sustaining planes
E. Four-bladed propeller driven by chain-gearing from engine within the hull.
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A. Lower part of aeroplane’s hull
B. Revolving barrel to which bombs are clipped
C. Bombs
D. Releasing mechanism operated by marksman in machine.
Bombs may be carried and dropped when opportunity offers; and as an improvement upon the early method, which was simply to throw these from the machine, there are releasing mechanisms now devised which carry a number of projectiles and drop them one by one as a lever is moved. The bombs, which are long, pointed, and balanced so that they will fall head first, are clipped round a barrel rather like that of a revolver, which is fixed beneath the aeroplane’s hull just below the occupants’ seat. Mechanism causes the carrying chamber to revolve and bring each bomb against a releasing catch, which—at a movement of the marksman’s lever—throws it outwards and downward.
607 visits
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Airships, like aeroplanes, are being armed with guns and bombs; and their power of raising weights enables them to carry heavy weapons. Large and highly destructive bombs have been tested in the German airships, being released over the sea and aimed at targets in the form of rafts. Latest-type airships also carry guns in their cars; and the Zeppelins have a platform upon the tops of their hulls, reached by a ladder through the middle of the ship, from which a machine-gun can be fired upward. This is a very necessary precaution, and is intended to frustrate the attack of an aeroplane. It would be the aim of the latter, whenever possible, to manœuvre above its big enemy—as suggested in figure —and drop a bomb upon its hull. Hence the construction of the top platform of the airship, from which her gunners can direct a vigorous fire aloft.
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Bullet Mold
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From the Museum of Mitau in Courland
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Fig. 7. Norwegian Sword. The pommel and cross-piece are of iron.
Figs. 8 to 11. From Livonian graves : the originals are in the British Museum. Fig. 10 is single-edged : its pommel and the chape of the scabbard are of bronze. Fig. 11 has its pommel and guard ornamented with silver
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Fig. 1. Found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fairford. It measures upwards of 2 ft. 11 inches, and is one of the finest examples extant.
Fig. 2. In the Hon. Mr. Neville's collection : found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. Length of blade, 2 ft. 7 in. It retains the bronze mountings of the sheath, which have been gilt.
Fig. 3. Same collection and find • a specimen re-markable for the cross-piece at the hilt.
Fig. 4 Ancient-. Irish Sword of the same period : length, 30 inches. From Mr. Wakeman's paper in vol. iii. of Colleetanea Antigua.
Fig. 5. Danish sword with engraved runes : in the Copenhagen Museum.
Fig. 6. Danish : from the Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed. Remarkable for the form of its cross-piece
756 visits
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Mechanical Bombs.
Hand Grenade No. 5, known as Mills’ Hand Grenade. Mills’ Hand Grenade No. 5 weighs about one and one-half pounds and is in constant and steady use at the front, being the best known of all grenades. It consists of an oval cast iron case, containing explosives and serrated to provide numerous missiles on detonation. In the center is a spring striking pin, kept back by a lever or handle, which, in its turn, is held in position by a safety pin.
960 visits
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There are three kinds of bombs: (1) percussion; (2) ignition;, and (3) mechanical. It is not possible to describe every bomb in use under these three headings, but the most typical are selected for description, although it does not follow that they are all in use at the present time, but will give a fairly good idea of what is required.
Percussion Bombs.
1. Hand Grenade No. 1.
2. Hand Grenade No. 2, formerly known as Mexican Hand Grenade.
3. Rifle grenade No. 3, formerly known as Hale’s Rifle Grenade.
Hand Grenade No. 1 consists of a brass case screwed on to a block of wood, to which is fixed a small cane handle about half way up the case. Outside it is a cast iron ring serrated into 16 parts. The upper end is covered by a moveable cap with a striker pin in the center. On the cap are the words “Remove,” “Travel,” and “Fire” in duplicate. These are marked in red and can be made to correspond with red pointers painted on case. To prepare a bomb, turn cap so that pointer is at “Remove,” take off cap, insert detonator in hole and turn it to the left until the spring on the flange is released and goes into position under the pin; replace cap and turn to “Travel,” which is a safety position. When the bomb is to be thrown, turn cap to “Fire” and then remove safety pin. This bomb explodes on impact, and to insure its falling on the head, streamers are attached. Care should be taken that streamers do not get entangled. The bomb must be thrown well into the air.
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Ignition Bombs.
Hand Grenade No. 7—Grenade heavy friction pattern.
Hand Grenades Nos. 6 and 7 consist of metal cases filled with T.N.T and a composite explosive and are exactly alike, except that No. 7 contains shrapnel bullets or scrap iron, while No. 6 contains only explosive. At the top of each case is a place to fix the friction igniter, which is supplied separately. When these bombs are to be used, detonator fuse and igniter are put in and firmly fixed. Before throwing the becket on, head of igniter should be pulled smartly off.
Ball Hand Grenade.
The Ball Hand Grenade consists of a cast iron sphere, 3 inches in diameter, filled with ammonal and closed by a screwed steel plug which has attached to it a covered tube to take detonator in the center of grenade. It is also lighted by a Brock lighter.
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Battleplanes convoying photographing aeroplanes
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An aeroplpane in war
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Image 3081
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Image 3080
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Image 3079
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Image 3078
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Gardner Five-Barrel Machine Gun, on portable tripod, adapted for Naval use. Weight of gun 235 lbs; of mounting 134 lbs. ; calibre .045 ; rapidity of fire, maximum, 1200 shots per minute
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Gardner Two-Barrel Machine Gun, on cone mounting, for Naval use. Weight of gun 103 lbs; of mounting 153 lbs. ; calibre .045 ; rapidity of fire, maximum, 680 shots per minute
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The archers of the castle found shelter behind the merlons of the battlements, and had the windows from which they shot screened by movable shutters; as may be seen in the next woodcut of the assault on a castle. It would have put the archers of the assailants at a great disadvantage if they had had to stand out in the open space, exposed defenceless to the aim of the foe; all neighbouring trees which could give shelter were, of course, cut down, in order to reduce them to this defenceless condition, and works were erected so as to command every possible coigne of vantage which the nooks and angles of the walls might have afforded. But the archers of the besiegers sought to put themselves on more equal terms with their opponents by using the pavis or mantelet. The pavis was a tall shield, curved so as partly to envelop the person of the bearer, broad at the top and tapering to the feet.
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Seizing that moment, a party of camp followers run forward with a couple of planks, which they throw over the moat to make a temporary bridge. They are across in an instant, and place scaling-ladders against the walls. The knights, following close at their heels, mount rapidly, each man carrying his shield over his head, so that the bare ladder is converted into a covered stair, from whose shield-roof arrows glint and stones roll off innocuous. It is easy to see that a body of the enemy might thus, in a few minutes, effect a lodgment on the castle-wall, and open a way for the whole party of assailants into the interior.
1679 visits
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In the monumental effigy of Sir Robert Shurland, who was made a knight-banneret in 1300, we seem to have a curious and probably unique effigy of a knight in the gameson. We give a woodcut of it, reduced from Stothard’s engraving. The smaller figure of the man placed at the feet of the effigy is in the same costume, and affords us an additional example.
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Of the quilted armours we know very little. In the illuminations is often seen armour covered over with lines arranged in a lozenge pattern, which perhaps represents garments stuffed and sewn in this commonest of all patterns of quilting; but it has been suggested that it may represent lozenged-shaped scales, of horn or metal, fastened upon the face of the garments. In the wood-cut here given from the MS. Caligula A. vii., we have one of the clearest and best extant illustrations of this quilted armour.
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Picture represents very clearly the half-armour worn by the pikeman and the weapon from which they took their name.
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We have specially to call attention to the two men who are throwing shells, which are probably charged with Greek fire. This invention, which inspired such terror in the Middle Ages, seems to have been discovered in the east of Europe, and to have been employed as early as the seventh century. We hear much of its use in the Crusades, by the Greeks, who early possessed the secret of its fabrication. They used it either by ejecting it through pipes to set fire to the shipping or military engines, or to annoy and kill the soldiers of the enemy; or they cast it to a distance by means of vessels charged with it affixed to javelins; or they hurled larger vessels by means of the great engines for casting stones; or they threw the fire by hand in a hand-to-hand conflict; or used hollow maces charged with it, which were broken over the person of the enemy, and the liquid fire poured down, finding its way through the crevices of his armour.
1317 visits
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The other great invention of this period was that of armorial bearings, properly so called. Devices painted upon the shield were common in classical times. They are found ordinarily on the shields in the Bayeux tapestry, and were habitually used by the Norman knights. In the Bayeux tapestry they seem to be fanciful or merely decorative; later they were symbolical or significant. But it was only towards the close of the twelfth century that each knight assumed a fixed device, which was exclusively appropriated to him, by which he was known, and which became hereditary in his family.
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The cross-bowman is winding up his weapon with a winch, his shield is slung at his back.
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The engravings of Hans Burgmaier, in the Triumphs of Maximilian and the Weise Könige contain numerous authorities very valuable for the clearness and artistic skill with which the armour is depicted. We have given an illustration which represents a combat of two knights, on foot. The armour is partly covered by a surcoat; in the left-hand figure it will be seen that it is fluted. The shields will be noticed as illustrating one of the shapes then in use.
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The man on the right of the cut wears a visored helmet, but it has no amail; his body is protected by a skirt of mail, which appears at the shoulders and hips, and at the openings of his blue surcoat; the legs are in brown hose, and the feet in brown shoes. The centre figure has a helmet and camail, sleeves of mail, and iron breastplate of overlapping plates; the upper plate and the skirt are of red spotted with gold; his hose and shoes are of dark grey. The third man has a helmet with camail, and the body protected by mail, which shows under the arm, but he has also shoulder-pieces and elbow-pieces of plate; his surcoat is yellow, and his hose red. The artist has here admirably illustrated the use of the crossbow. In one case we see the archer stringing it by help of a little winch; in the next he is taking a bolt out of the quiver at his side with which to load his weapon; in the third we have the attitude in which it was discharged.
1322 visits
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In the cut we give a representation of the battering-ram It contains curious contrivances for throwing up scaling-ladders and affixing them to the battlements, from which the inventors of our fire-escapes may have borrowed suggestions; and others for bridging wide moats and rivers with light scaffolding, which could be handled and fixed as easily and quickly as the scaling-ladders. The drawing of the ram only indicates that the machine consists of a heavy square beam of timber, provided, probably, with a metal head, which is suspended by a rope from a tall frame, and worked by manual strength. The cut is especially interesting as an illustration of the style of armour of the latter part of the fifteenth century. It gives the back as well as the front of the figure, and also several varieties of helmet.
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The illustration, from a fourteenth-century manuscript, represents a siege. A walled town is on the right, and in front of the wall, acting on the part of the town, are the cross-bowmen in the cut, protected by great shields which are kept upright by a rest. The men seem to be preparing to fire, and the uniformity of their attitude, compared with the studied variety of attitude of groups of bowmen in other illustrations, suggests that they are preparing to fire a volley.
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Greek Sea Fight, 550 B.C.
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5 inch Rapid-fire gun (Pedestal Mount.)
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5 Inch R.F. gun (showing breech mechanism)
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4.7 inch. Breech closing and firing gear
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Firing a demiculverine from a bastion at “James Fort.” (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
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Jamestown soldiers carrying polearms (a halberd and a bill). (conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
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A Jamestown sentry on duty shouldering his heavy matchlock musket. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
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Like Miles Standish, some of the soldiers had swords at their sides, and all carried either flintlock or matchlock muskets so big and heavy that, before they could fire them off, they had to rest them upon supports stuck into the ground for the purpose.
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Brewster's and Standish's Swords
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Sword maker
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Warrior of Java
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Image 416
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Image 414
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Image 412
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Staff slings, Longbows, Crossbows and Flail
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The Chinese of the present day make use of a species of matchlock revolvers, and also of another matchlock, consisting of several barrels, placed on a common stock, diverging from each other, and fired simultaneously.
1535 visits
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At Dover there is a culverine, presented to Queen Elizabeth, by the States General of Holland, and called Queen Elizabeth’s Pocket-pistol. It is 24 feet long, diameter of bore 4 1⁄2 inches, weight of shot 12lbs.; it was manufactured in 1544, and is mounted on an ornamented iron carriage made in 1827, at the Royal Carriage Department, Woolwich Arsenal.
1550 visits
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The three ingredients are now ground separately to a very fine powder. The mills which effect this, and incorporate, are so similar, that a description will be given under the head of “Incorporation.” Screening.After being ground in this way, the saltpetre is passed through a slope cylindrical reel, covered with copper sieving wire of 60 meshes to the inch, which, as it revolves, sifts it to the required fineness, being then received in a box or bin underneath. The charcoal and sulphur are likewise passed through similar reels of 32 and 60-mesh wire respectively, and that which remains without passing through, is ground again under the runners.
1685 visits
