This post is really just to add the co2 of one particular person's envious fury to our planet's burden. Angry AND depressed, now that's the way to be! Don't be a h8r.
Well, maybe a little.
But this is a genuinely A grade museum, a Louvre, Victoria & Albert, or Guggenheim in its own narrow specialty. One of two in Denmark, the other I'll post about in a few days.
So- Size matters....
That carronade on the end is a 96 pounder!
Breechloading grasshopper gun-iron carriage.
WTF again?
Another Gatling.Ho hum.
Proto tank, or dawn George Foreman grill? You decide...
Tankette!
Let's go upstairs, shall we?Montigny...
one of the various Nordenfeldts....
Gardners...
Gatlings in various sizes...
And in the display cases-
the oldest known gun...
Pocket crossbow...
Snaphaunce revolving rifle...
Matchlock and wheellock arquebuses- of which there are many, factory new and un-bubbaed...
Yes, it's a .577...
WTF???
That's a six shot broomhandle...
Yes, Jennings & Hunt rocket ball repeater...
Bang! (one of four, plus a cutaway)
System Girardoni abound....
Only one Villar Perosa, though! Or is it two?
High tech in its time- an original leather cannon!
As requested, a 4 bore...
As is this, I think...
Some in here...
What bore is inch and a half?
Even larger...
Oh, yes-
I did...
Here's their link.
6 comments:
Beautiful armaments in a wonderful setting. They truly become works of art.
What she said!
Re: oldest gun
Is that "oldest gun in the West"?
The Chinese have some museum pieces that they claim are much older. Some that even shot arrows.
Shootin' Buddy
"What bore is inch and a half?"
If you hadn't asked that, I never would have done the math in my head and realized why 37mm was such a common size for light cannon. ;)
Avery fair question. I admit I was going from my memory of an old book by (I think) Merril Lindsay, citing this as the oldest surviving, purpose built projectile discharging hand weapon.
I may well be wrong, or he might be now in light of more recent discoveries.
It always seemed odd to me that the Chinese didn't make guns until after the Europeans, too.
IIRC, most of the authenticated Chinese stuff was more of the crew-served "pot-de-fer" type.
The Chinese did invent a lot of things, but if one listens to them, they invented everything, even before the Soviets did. Airplanes? Chinese. Baseball? Chinese.
As a matter of fact, the consensus view of historians now leans toward the theory that gunpowder was invented separately and independently in both Europe and China.
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