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Ideally suited for both attack and self-defense, handguns have gotten smaller and deadlier. But the earliest pistols had a tendency to misfire. This was cured by the cap-lock, which proved a massive success in the American Civil War, with hundreds of thousands of cap-lock revolvers used on each side. Self-contained metal-case cartridges were to bring a fundamental change to handgun design: not only by allowing the introduction of revolvers that ejected automatically or were easily reloaded, but also by paving the way for the automatic pistol. World War I provided the handgun with a proving ground. At the end of the hostilities, with so much surplus weaponry, work on the handgun could have ceased; instead, a new developmental phase was begun by the nations that had emerged from the crumbling Imperial empires. During World War II, the efficiency of well-established designs was confirmed and new designs, such as the Walther P. 38, showed their potential. The emergence of the submachine-gun in 1945 reduced the status of the handgun—but only temporarily. The need for efficient self-defense shows no signs of lessening; and the rise in shooting for sport, particularly with the revolver, has sharpened the quest for efficiency.
The never ending search for advanced production techniques shows that the handgun has as much a future in the twenty-first century as it had in the heyday of the Wild West, or in the trenches of Passchendaele.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783469741 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Books Limited |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 304 |
| File size: | 37 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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CHAPTER 1
Prologue: From a Burning Brand to the Cap-Lock
The origins of handguns stretch back to the earliest days of gunpowder, but not until technology improved did they become viable weapons. The first guns were exceptionally clumsy, even after a 'tiller' – the forerunner of a stock – had been added to what had previously been an unsupported barrel, at first made by hammer-welding short strips of iron onto a mandrel that could subsequently be drilled out to provide a 'bore'. Later barrels were cast in a single piece, allowing them to be stronger and less likely to burst by unwinding along an inadequately welded seam.
Many small guns have been retrieved from the ruins of castles and fortifications, dating as early as the fourteenth century, but most of these were simply diminutions of the tiller-gun. They usually have sockets in the breech-end of the tube, and the smallness of their bore begs a question: were they weapons, or merely toys? It is hard to believe that they would have had much offensive threat, as the bores were very small and the capacity for the poor-quality gunpowder of the day was extremely limited. It seems more likely that they were the playthings of the nobility, or perhaps the sons of the nobility. There is no evidence that they were made in quantity. Indeed, guns of all types were in short supply prior to 1400.
The idea of a one-hand gun remained in limbo until the invention of the wheel-lock, attributed to a variety of men – including Leonardo da Vinci – but almost certainly a product of the south German clock-making industry in the early 1500s. The clockmakers were amongst the most skilled of the earliest mechanical engineers, used to working accurately in small scale.
To function efficiently, clocks needed to combine skill in design and great precision in the cutting of gears. It was a small step from a clock to the 'clockwork' mechanism of the wheel-lock, in which a small chain (often of only three or five links) connected a spring with a rotating wheel. To work the lock, a small key was used to 'span' the mechanism by winding the chain against the pressure of the spring onto a spindle fixed in the wheel. The other major part of the action was a piece of iron pyrites held in the jaws of a 'cock' that could be rotated until held against the serrated rim of the wheel by a small spring.
Pressure on the trigger or 'tricker' released the captive wheel, which was spun by the action of the spring pulling on the chain. A shower of sparks created from the contact of the pyrites and the serrated edge of the wheel cascaded into a pan of fine-grain priming powder and, after an infinitesimal delay, the main charge of gunpowder in the chamber also ignited.
The advent of the wheel-lock had two important effects. It not only freed the firearm from the first, but essentially primitive method of ignition, the lighted match or tow, but also removed the need for two-hand use by providing a self-contained mechanism that worked automatically once released. In addition, by involving the highly-skilled clockmakers, it ensured that the status of gunmakers was rapidly elevated to a level that was jealously guarded for generation after generation. The recognition of gunmakers' guilds and the steadily increasing output allowed the small firearm to find military use, and the increase in use created an environment in which innovations – not always universally praised – could be promoted.
The wheel-lock was an efficient mechanism, but it also had several weaknesses. Production was limited by the need for skilled craftsmen and costs were therefore correspondingly high, even though considerable numbers of plain-looking guns were made for military service; the pyrites was comparatively weak, often disintegrating after a few shots had been fired; and the employment of a separate key or 'spanner' to wind the spindle was undesirable in combat. Something better was needed; something that could be used time and time again with a minimum of motion and a certainty of repetition.
The answer was the 'flinted lock', which was made in several forms. There has been much debate about the origins of these locks, and the differences between them. The most popular forms are the Spanish miquelet, the Dutch/German snaphance, and the French lock. Though the principal difference between the snaphance and the French lock is often said to be the combination of the steel and pan cover in one component, it seems that the first French locks, introduced early in the seventeenth century (allegedly by the French gunmaker Marin le Bougeoys, Arquebusier du Roi), also had separate pan covers. The true difference will be found in the design of the sear, which works vertically to engage notches or 'bents' in the tumbler attached to the cock spindle. In the snaphance, the sear works laterally; in addition, notably in the miquelet, the nose of the sear projects through the lock plate to release the tail of the cock when the trigger is pressed.
The French lock gradually attained a position of supremacy by the end of the seventeenth century, which lasted until the advent of the percussion cap more than a hundred years later. The principle of the lock was simple: a specially shaped or 'knapped' flint, held in the jaws of a pivoting cock, was brought into contact with a rapidly-moving roughened surface so that a shower of sparks was diverted into a panful of priming powder. A true French-style flintlock, therefore, had the steel and the pan cover formed as a single part, and a sear that moved vertically to intercept a tumbler fixed to the axis-pin of the cock after it had passed through the lock plate. The dog lock, favoured in England, was simply a flintlock with a large safety catch or 'dog' on the outside tail of the lock plate to intercept the tail of the cock.
The flintlock offered no real economy of size compared with the preceding wheel-lock, but had the merits of simplicity and durability. Flint is much harder than pyrites, and gave more consistent ignition; and, excepting the relationship between the striking point of the flint and the steel, the parts of the flintlock were comparatively easy to make and easy to regulate. The ease with which the new lock could be made boosted production to a point where armies could issue firearms universally, at the expense of the bow and the pike. The guns were simple and sturdy, though often initially large, long-barrelled and cumbersome; as the years passed, however, even the regulation military weapons became more compact and better to handle.
Flintlock pistols offered to the more discerning commercial purchaser came in far greater variety. The largest, the holster pistols intended to be carried on a saddle, were often very large indeed; travelling or carriage pistols, often cased and sometimes in pairs, were smaller and handier; and there were pistols, often based on a box-type lock, which were small enough to be concealed in a gentleman's pocket or a lady's muffler.
Among the more specialist products were 'waterproof' flintlocks, not to be confused with the later waterproof-pan type; guns with more than one barrel, or which were capable of firing more than one shot through the same barrel (each type is considered in greater detail in the next chapter); and a few guns that could be loaded from the breech. The best-known of the breech-loading designs are the so-called 'turn off' pistols of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with barrels which could be unscrewed from the standing breech with the assistance of a small spanner. Loading from the breech allowed a tight-fitting ball to be used, and the occasional provision of rifling improved accuracy. The best pistols of this type shot very well indeed, and there are records of marksmen hitting targets only a few feet wide at distances of fifty yards or more – which was good shooting by the standards of a muzzle-loaded smooth-bore.
The finest gun of this period was the duelling pistol, intended specifically for short-range accuracy. To minimise the effects of snatching a shot the pistols were often provided with a heavy barrel, often 'swamped' or swelling towards the muzzle; some guns had special hair triggers, others had refinements in their locks that included rollers between the steel and its spring, platinum-lined touch-holes (resistant to corrosion), and saw-handle grips. Though the guns were customarily plain finished, they could have the finest damascus barrels and woodwork of the best quality. Pairs were often provided – one for each protagonist! – in cases fitted for accessories including powder flasks and ammunition.
The pre-eminence of the flintlock endured for more than 200 years, until the realisation that the explosive properties of a group of chemical compounds known as the fulminates could be harnessed to provide a self-contained ignition system. Credited to a Scottish clergyman, Alexander Forsyth (though the potential use of fulminates as an igniter had been predicted by the Frenchman Claude-Louis Berthollet as early as 1786), the original percussion-ignition lock was patented in England in 1807. Known as the 'scent bottle', it relied on a rotating reservoir to deposit a small amount of fulminate powder alongside a touch-hole, where it could be struck and ignited by a hammer-driven pin. The fulminate lock was difficult to make, and prone to suffer the effects of corrosion. It was soon improved, however, and the effect it had on the sporting-gun market persuaded many enterprising gunmakers to produce alternatives: pill-locks, tube-locks, and a variety of other proprietary designs. These were soon all swept away by the cap, a pellet of mercuric fulminate contained within a small envelope – initially of board, later of tin and then copper, shellacked to be waterproof.
The genesis of the cap has always been in some doubt, though the consensus is to give the honour to John Shaw even though his claims are vigorously contested in France in particular. The percussion cap was the greatest step forward in firearms technology since the introduction of the flintlock. Though the mechanics of the cap lock differed from the flintlock only in the substitution of a nipple for the pan and steel, the means of ignition was far more efficient. Tests undertaken by the French Army in the 1830s suggested that the certainty of ignition improved by a factor of six once the cap had replaced the flint.
The cap-lock pistols were also near-duplicates of their immediate flintlock predecessors, sharing the same lines and construction. The changes were confined to the lock. Large, plain military pistols were accompanied by duellers, coach pistols, pocket pistols and all the other varieties of the flintlock handgun. Their heyday was comparatively short, however, owing to the advent first of the multi-shot pepperboxes and revolvers, and secondly the self-contained cartridge that the fulminate had made possible.
The cap-lock revolvers offered by Samuel Colt and his rivals in the middle of the nineteenth century (described in the next chapter) clearly held great advantages over any single-shot pistol. However, not only were revolvers expensive, but production was initially too small to dominate the market. The single-barrel pistol was so much easier to make that it coexisted with more sophisticated rivals until the American Civil War (1861 – 5).
The cap-locks made in Philadelphia from the 1840s onward by Henry Deringer were the most notorious of the earliest designs. Deringer's holster pistols had attained a certain amount of success in the Texarkana in the 1840s, but the guns with which his name is now associated could be hidden in a pocket or a hand. They were generally .41-calibre back-action cap-locks with rifled barrels as short as 2 inches, reducing overall length to just 41/4in. Genuine Philadelphia-made pistols were marked DERINGER over PHILADEL. or PHIL. on the lock. The barrel key was customarily retained by a pineapple-finial plate, barrels displayed a false damascus twist, and the locks were invariably case-hardened. The metalwork was usually blued, though nickel- and silverplated trigger guards and barrel-key plates could be supplied to order.
The lasting success of the Deringer was due to the Gold Rush of 1849, which turned California from its Hispanic slumber to a rampaging boom economy. Limitations on Deringer's production capacity, which was too small to satisfy all but a fraction of the demand, persuaded many gunsmiths to copy the Philadelphia-made pocket pistol. Among the best-known copyists were Slotter & Company and A. J. Plate of San Francisco, and some guns were even given spurious authenticity by Philadelphia tailor Jacob Deringer, who granted appropriate 'licences' to several gunsmiths. The .38-calibre derringers made by Jesse Butterfield of Philadelphia usually had a patented priming tube mounted vertically ahead of the hammer, where it could feed a pellet over the nipple each time the mechanism was cocked. Ingenuity of this type, however, was the exception to the simple-copy rule. After the death of Henry Deringer in 1867, his executors pursued many infringers through the Federal courts, but enforcement of the decisions was often impossible in areas which had not even been admitted to the Union. Transgressors simply continued to make their derringers until cartridge pistols appeared in quantity.
The derringer was the ideal covert weapon, acting as a back-up for larger guns. The .41-calibre ball was effective at close range – if a large enough gunpowder charge was used – and the tiny pistol could be tucked in the top of a boot or a garter.
Excepting the Deringer, its facsimiles and a few underhammer 'boot guns', single-barrel cap-lock pocket pistols were uncommon in North America. The smallest of the several Lindsay Young America guns was broadly comparable, though its barrel contained two superimposed charges. These were fired separately by two individual hammers; however, unless the charges were separated by properly greased wads, ignition of the first (front) charge was apt to fire the second (rear) charge at the same time.
CHAPTER 2The First Multi-Shot Guns
The idea of guns that could fire more than a single shot was old, almost as old as the gun itself. The earliest efforts had simply clustered several barrels around a central spine, igniting each in turn with a lighted brand or 'slow match', but the second half of the nineteenth century was an inventor's paradise.
The search for an efficient self-contained cartridge was an important catalyst; so, too, was burgeoning technological advance. However, the improvements were patchy and often uncertain. Improvements in the manufacture of steels or moves towards standardised measurements were sometimes easy to see, but could take many years to step from promising ideas to profitable reality. One result was that virtually anything could be promoted, from sophisticated idea to gimcrack scheme, and a widespread ignorance of mechanical principles allowed even the science and engineering magazines of the nineteenth century to feature ideas that had no real merit.
The chaos that ensued largely bypassed the armies of the day, often simply because the innately conservative commanders and ordnance bureaux answered submissions by rejecting anything that showed ingenuity – simultaneously protecting their armies from the worst effects of the design boom, but also acting as a dead hand on progress.
A few multi-barrelled matchlocks had been made in the early years of firearms history, but the first multi-shot guns to be successful were two-barrel wheel-locks. These came in several forms. The most idiosyncratic had two barrels above each other ('super[im]posed'), two locks and two triggers, giving the appearance of two guns that had been joined together at the barrel. A straight-line butt, which enabled either barrel to be uppermost, completed the odd-looking package. Other pistols were more conventional, with two barrels, two locks – one usually placed behind and above the other – and a conventional stock with a downward-curving butt. A large pommel, often in the form of a hefty ball or a mace, enabled the gun to double as a clubbing weapon after the shots had been fired. The triggers were generally separate, within a single enveloping iron-strap guard, but some of the finest guns were made with triggers that fired the barrels sequentially and others incorporated setting levers to give a very precise letoff. Safety catches were also surprisingly common.
Typical of the wheel-locks that combined side-by-side double barrels with plain military-style finish was a gun made in the Netherlands or more probably in Germany in the middle of the seventeenth century by the gunmaker using the mark of 'IS' beneath a molet. Sold by the London auction house Christie's in the spring of 2006, the pistol is 24.1 inches long and has two plain mirror-image locks, with sparing decoration on the cock and the small claw-like bracket retaining the external wheel. The left-hand lock has a safety catch, the pans have sliding covers, and the plain wooden stock ends in an ovoid or 'lemon' pommel. The trigger guard is a plain iron strap, and the single ramrod pipe is also iron.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Handgun Story"
by .
Copyright © 2008 John Walter.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Dedication,
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Preface and Acknowledgements,
1 - Prologue: From a Burning Brand to the Cap-Lock,
2 - The First Multi-Shot Guns,
3 - The Metallic Cartridge,
4 - The Pre-1900 Automatic Pistols,
5 - The Perfected Automatic Pistol, 1900 – 14,
6 - The First World War,
7 - Between the Wars,
8 - The Second World War,
9 - The Modern Era,
Bibliography,
Index,