Hello folks,
A treat for you today. I've invited an expert in antique firearms to talk about a subject near-and-dear to my heart -- pistol packing spies.
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| Random armed person of the Eighteenth Century |
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The problem with carrying dueling pistols and military ordinance in 1789 or in 1811 is that the general run of turn-of-the-Eighteenth-Century weaponry was big.
And heavy.
Not the sort of thing you could comfortably cart around in a purpose-sewn pocket in your jacket or cloak.
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| Not this small |
Recognizing this sad fact, gunsmiths of the time made smaller weapons, intended for sneakier people.
It is those guns that I want to look at today. So let me introduce my guest, 'Arizona'.
Jo: Welcome, Arizona. We're glad to have you and your expertise with us. Tell me about sneaky little guns in the era of the French Revolution and Regency. These would have been ladies' guns?
Arizona: Yes, they were. Ladies had some firearms built specifically for them in the 1700's to early 1800's. They were called "Muff Pistols". These were small handguns which were easily hidden in a lady's muff, or handwarmer. They were also small enough to hide within the voluminous clothing women wore in those days.
Jo: Did men carry them?
Arizona: Though they were called ladies', or muff, pistols, many men carried them as they were considered to be what our small .380's and such are today.
Jo: I notice men called them 'pocket pistols' when they carried them. *g* They weren't like modern guns, right?
Arizona: These were flintlock pistols. Percussion caps were designed in 1805, so it would be unlikely an actual percussion firearm would have been immediately available.
You will note, as you consider the various designs below, that firearms don't seem to have changed much since the early 1700's through the early 1800's. That is true, though the "lines" of the firearms became more elegant and less "blocky".
A little aside here, what we, today, would consider too large for one's pocket was indeed a "pocket pistol" during the period we are talking about. Men wore greatcoats which had rather large pockets. Thus, a pistol we would consider far too large for a pocket today would indeed fit into a man's greatcoat pocket.
Jo: Can you show us some examples of these small Regency-era pistols?
Arizona: Here's a VERY good description of muff pistols, and the pocket type in particular.
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| Lady's muff pistol |
From the 18th century small concealable pistols for self protection, were manufactured in Europe in large numbers. The picture shows a flintlock example manufactured in 1820 from Birmingham England.
While there were several notable firearms manufacturers, there were far more "cottage industry" gunsmiths who would make pretty much anything you requested. Almost every medium to large city had several such gunsmiths. The only comparable situation today is Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, where everything from matchlock firearms to AK-47's are made in home workshops. Ammunition is made in the same way.
Measuring just over 4 inches (11.8cm) these lightweight guns were intended mainly for women. As they could easily be concealed in a Ladies hand warmer, they gained the name of Muff pistols.
Like many of this type of weapon it is fitted with a sliding safety catch to prevent accidental discharge.
Jo: Ok. How does my heroine load her pistol?
Arizona: The shooter loads the firearm with black powder followed by a round lead ball.
This is usually done from the muzzle end, though, with some muff pistols, you unscrewed the barrel, seated the powder and ball, then screwed the barrel back on.
The ball was normally wrapped with a cloth patch, (though a piece of paper could be used in a pinch).
Once the powder was measured and poured down the barrel and the patched ball placed on the crown of the muzzle, a ramrod was used to force the ball down to the chamber where it was tamped against the powder, creating the charge.
On larger pistols the ramrod was in it's familiar place under the barrel, for those who have seen "Kentucky Rifles" and other muzzle loaders. In the case of smaller pistols, such as muff pistols, they generally came in a case, with a small powder flask, some balls, and a ramrod, which was generally kept in the case.
Remember, these were not thought to be used in a battle. Rather, they were a last ditch self protection instrument, to be used when all else had failed. You generally wouldn't have time to reload them, thus there was no need to keep the ramrod with the pistol.
Jo: This took a while, this business of loading a pistol?
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| A three-barrel flintlock pistol |
Arizona: Muzzle loading firearms were extremely slow to reload. Even experts were reported to need 15 seconds to reload a smooth-bore musket, with a much longer reload time for any rifled firearm.
So some flintlock pistols were produced with anywhere from two, three, or four to as many as 24 barrels. (The larger capacity firearms were of later manufacturer.)
This photo and some of the information are from the Flintlock wiki,
here.
Jo: Wow. Not something to carry around with you like a handkerchief, those bigger guns.
Arizona: No, they were generally pretty heavy and rather large and bulky.
Most of the flintlock pepperboxes and multi-barrel pistols were of six or fewer barrels. This was more due to the method of ignition (powder in the pan, which could be easily ignited by sparks from another barrel) than inability to design and build such a handgun. These designs tended to be costly to make and were often unreliable and dangerous.
While weapons like double barreled shotguns were reasonably safe, weapons like the
pepperbox revolver would sometimes fire all barrels simultaneously, or would sometimes just explode in the user's hand.
It was therefore often less expensive, safer, and more reliable to carry several single-shot weapons instead.
Jo: Right. Carry a couple guns. This sounds like such excellent advice I will have to have Doyle give it to somebody one of these days.
You have some audio-visuals for us?
Arizona: The first You-Tube video shows how the flintlock works.
Here.
This video shows the loading and firing sequence of a flintlock pistol.
Here.
And this one is an excellent example of loading and firing a flintlock musket through the use of paper cartridges.
Here.
Here to the side is the firing sequence for a flintlock.
Jo: Let me add some more excitement --
See and hear the action of a frizzen, here.
See and hear the action of the hammer here.
See and hear the gun fire here.
And some more interesting firing of period weapons
here.
Now, Arizona, you have some pictures of the actual period pistols.
Arizona: Here is a link to a small(er) double barreled French Flintlock Coat Pistol, ca 1750. Another link to a French "Greatcoat Pistol"
here. And another small pistol.
Here. This one shows some of the markings a royal arms dealer would have placed on their wares.
Here.
Jo: That's beautiful workmanship on those. And we see how the double barrels work.
I know there are number of folks who want details on the anatomy of a flintlock and the exact firing sequence. I've put this below the cut . . .
Delve down below the cut and you will learn the origin of phrases like, 'flash in the pan,' and, 'to go off half-cocked'. When we talk about 'lock, stock, and barrel', the 'lock' is the flintlock.
Cool, huh?
You will also become acquainted with the word 'frizzen' - which is not the past perfect of an unfortunate day at the hairdressers.
