[A Flask-charger.] His patent of 1661 gives the following altered reading to his improvements applying to guns, thus:—“To make certain guns or pistols, which in the tenth part of one minute or an hour, may, with a flask contrived to that purpose, be recharged, the fourth part of one turn of the barrel, which remains still fixed, fastening it as forcibly and effectually as a dozen threads of any screw, which in the ordinary and usual way require as many turns.”—See [Appendix B.]
61.
A third way, and[8] particular[9] for Musquets, without taking them from their Rests to charge or prime, to a like execution, and as fast as the Flask, the musquet containing but one Charge at a time.
Footnotes
[8]and—omitted.
[9]particularly. P.
[A way for Musquets.] The heavy firearms of the seventeenth century afforded the Marquis fine scope for the exercise of his versatile ingenuity. Muskets were originally matchlocks; long, heavy, and requiring a tall forked rest to steady them in firing. Eventually their bore was reduced for bullets of eighteen to the pound. It is curious to observe the difference between the drill practice of those times compared with the present. In “The compleat Gentleman,” by Henry Peacham, M.A., published in 1627, among his other “Military Observations,” he gives the following: “The postures of the Musquet. 1. March with your Musquet and Rest shouldred; 2. Prepare your Rest; 3. Slipp your Musket; 4. Pease your Musket; 5. Joyne your Rest and Musquet; 6. Take out your Match; 7. Blow your Match; 8. Cock your Match; 9. Try your Match; 10. Guard your Pann; 11. Blow your Match; 12. Open your Pann; 13. Present; 14. Give Fire,” &c.
Then, “25. Open your Charge; 26. Charge your Musket; 27. Draw out your Scouring Sticke; 28. Shorten your Scouring Sticke; 29. Ram your Powder; 30. Withdraw your Scouring Sticke;” &c.
Thomas Smith, in his “Additions to the Book of Gunnery, both pleasant and profitable,” published in quarto, 1643, black letter, mentions “certain short muskets of an inch, or very near an inch bore, out of which you may shoot either chained bullets, or half a score pistol bullets, or half a dozen harquebus bullets at one shot, or you may shoot out of the same fire arrows made with strong shafts, feathered with horn, or with common feathers, glued and bound on with thread. When you are to shoot a fire arrow out of any of these pieces, you must not give the piece her full loading of powder.” He further notices that “The string made fast to the end of the fire-work is to keep the arrow straight in his passage.”
