Exotic weapons from the Renaissance and their practical applications
Recently I saw this three-barreled wheel dart thrower, which the Munich master Peter Peck made in the middle of the 16th century for Charles V. Under the post there were typical questions about practical application… Everything is clear with this particular item, but I am not writing for its sake.
What's there to discuss? Firstly, the gunpowder charge that this pistol can withstand will not accelerate such a heavy projectile. Secondly, it's easy to imagine, ahem, the ballistics of this dart without fletching. It will fly very weakly and God knows where. So it's good for shooting for fun at a target 5-10 steps away. Otherwise, the thing is even more useless than pocket crossbows of the same era (yes, they weren't invented in video games, but there's very little point).
In general, revolvers in the 16th-17th centuries are not that rare (and at a slightly later time I even saw a fancy revolver gun), but they had little practical sense until the invention of the primer – a thing that allowed the ignition of gunpowder right inside the conventional “chamber” (or the chamber of the drum, which performs its function). Roughly speaking, in the barrel.
And until we need a fuse hole one way or another, alas, all such things are not distinguished by the reliability decent for combat use. The primer will appear only in the first quarter of the 19th century, thanks to the achievements of chemistry at the end of the previous century. That's when the real breakthrough will happen.
So until then, a more or less adequate solution to “how to fire several shots before a long reload” will be a multi-barrel weapon – pistols of this type existed (and everyone has definitely seen guns, they are still popular today).
In general, when you see something very exotic from the Renaissance and around it, you shouldn't look for ideas for practical use: a huge number of curiosities were made then directly for collections. So that the guests of the noble don would be very surprised and entertained. This concerned not only firearms: I once saw, for example, a conchar with a blade that folded in three.
Why is it needed? Because no one else has one, that's why.
Author: Blas Ruiz
