Firepower Back to the 1500s: Pre-Collier Repeaters

[@christopherreed4723]

I have the sneaking suspicion that the two surviving examples of the Italian funnel-bore revolvers still exist because they were the only ones that nobody actually fired. Possibly because they'd just watched someone else firing one of the non-surviving examples and immediately after crossing themselves uttered the equivalent of "Oh, *Hell* no!" in Italian.

[@nullifye7816]

"Per la Madonna!!"

[@BartJBols]

It 'should' work though, like both technically and mechanically they should have been able to make it work without too much trouble. Its not a great solution, but its 'a' solution.

[@MarkLaLone]

Permission to say "oh cock" in Italian?

[@MrGrimsmith]

@@MarkLaLone Only if you have floppy grey hair and drive slowly :)

[@H4hT53]

@@MrGrimsmith Capitan Lento!

[@stuartsamuel1879]

"A lathe is really a much more remarkable tool than a lot of people give it credit for." Dying. :)

[@ATruckCampbell]

"But the founding fathers didn't think about autoloaders and machine guns!" Lol.

[@thesunflowerseedenthusiast2481]

Is this 4 shot insanely expensive rifle supposed to disprove that?

[@mikeblair2594]

Priming flasks/horns are a modern construct. Up until the full acceptance of the of the percussion system people would prime out of their horns. What is called a priming horn was really what was called a day horn. It carries enough powder to load and prime a person while out hunting for their family. The large powder horns were for long hunting trips and war. A person on a long hunting trip would fill his day horn out off the larger horn. As for flasks, if you notice most flasks are the same size as a "priming" horn or just a little bit larger, but not much larger. I shoot all of my flintlocks and percussion rifles and pistols out of a day horn and it fits in my shooting bag and there's enough powder in it for a whole day of target shooting. And since I'm using the same powder to load and prime, I'm priming with #2 powder with no perceptual difference in speed of firing. #4 was for cartridges and The thought of #4 as priming powder is from the 1930s when people were so far from the flintlock they had forgotten that their forefathers had loaded and primed from the same horn. That changing though. Most traditional shooters just prime from the horn these days. Its easier.

[@kirksealls1912]

In fairness to Colt, while none of the individual elements of his pistols were strictly speaking original (despite his claims), that doesn’t really take anything away from the huge step forward as practical weapons they were by putting all of those elements together into a single package for the first time, let alone the fact that he was able to do so while manufacturing them in a fashion that made them readily affordable. There’s a reason why the Texas Rangers were drawn to the Colt Paterson revolvers, in spite of all their flaws, showing that even before Colt was able to produce revolvers at a reasonable cost that they were a cut above everything else. In fact, the number of successful firearm designs that involve truly original design concepts has always been relatively small (certainly the Collier didn’t). I’ll go one further and say that’s true in nearly every industry, from the automobile industry to the software industry. Most designs are simply a unique amalgamation of a lot of preexisting concepts, and whoever puts the right elements together at the right price point wins

[@HistoricalWeapons]

Earliest is the chinese Nest of Bees of 1380 A.D. (gunpowder repeating arrow launcher) or 15th century Revolving hand cannon. I want to make some but I don’t know if it is legal in Canada

[@siberiaacoustic]

Dont forget the ming dynasty revolver triple hand cannon

[@legntt3488]

Earliest is nest of bees of 1380 by china (repepating arrow shooter propelled by gunpowder). Lighting a fuse can shot 30 rounds before reloading (which probably took hours to reload LOL) arrows spread like shotgun so pretty ineffective but cool

[@HistoricalWeapons]

@@legntt3488 indeed I think that’s the earliest on with evidence although wouldn’t that count as a machine gun because the trigger launches multiple rounds consecutively

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

We don't tend to regard multi-barrelled guns (nor single barrelled guns with multiple charges and/or locks) as 'repeaters', since there's nothing mechanical going on - you're just rotating the whole gun to the next position, priming, and firing. But conceptually they are certainly precursors to designs with rotating barrel clusters or cylinders with chambers.

[@legntt3488]

@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries what about the nest of bees?

[@rustknuckleirongut8107]

The Maihaugen museum in Norway has a revolver by German gunsmith Hans Stopler made in 1597 and it is in amazing condition. It is a gun wish more than any other gun Ian would have a close look at.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

It is one of the batch of German revolvers circa 1590-1600 that Ben mentioned but stands out in that it's a pistol - the others are long guns (we have one of those) in the Royal Armouries collection. The Maihaugen pistol also has a claim of sorts to being 'military', since it was owned by a soldier, albeit some decades after it was made and, most likely, not for war.

[@rustknuckleirongut8107]

@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries I have been to the museum that houses the pistol several times, but unluckily it has never been on display when I visited. All I have ever seen are the museum inventory photos and I feel that pistol deserves a proper look at and to have its story told to a wider audience. It is kind of mindboggling that it survived thru all the tumults of almost 400 years of Norwegian history from being a Danish colony, thru the forced union with Sweden and into the age of a free Norway when it ended up in the museum. So many changes societally and economically happened that could have ended it or seen it sold out of the country and it still persists in that exceptional condition.

[@randywatson8347]

I found it. That is a very beautifull revolver which looks very similar to modern counterpart.

[@nopc9728]

Georg Von Revolver

[@lakrids-pibe]

Ian talks about norse walrus ivory like a guy who just spend time in Iceland with a old norse specialist. Haha!

[@ostsan8598]

and Finland, as well.

[@brittakriep2938]

Ian knows Dr. Crawford, an expert of Nordic languages.

[@ShaunShearman]

Samuel Colt is to firearms as Henry Ford is to motorcars, they both were the founding fathers of industrial manufacture in their respective fields. The only difference between them being that Colt was definitely more of a 'Showman' than Ford was !

[@BigWheel.]

Colt developed more on his own as well. Ford was a thief and a sczhyster.

[@ShaunShearman]

@@BigWheel. Colt stole the idea for the pushing hand for rotating the cylinder from earlier English gunsmiths that he saw at the Royal Armoury in London prior to his own development, he realised that the idea had not been officially patented and stole the idea and opportunity by patenting it himself, that's the main reason he was obsessed by patent infringements later in life ! They say that 'he who lives by the sword, dies by it' and that was something that must have tortured him for years and years right up to his unnaturally early death.

[@BigWheel.]

@@ShaunShearman Henry ford feared being usurped by the dodge Brothers so much that he alienated/harassed them into starting their own car company. He also put out a series of "news" papers ranting about jews that hitler later cited as having liked and claimed it helped him articulate his own thoughts and... beliefs "better" he had a picture of ford in one of his homes. Also oldsmobile did the assembly line first and existed before ford. I really dislike ford.

[@Kerithanos]

@@BigWheel. Henry Ford was right. If we had elected him President instead of the warmongering communist Roosevelt, this country wouldn't be the disgusting shithole it is today.

[@trikelife4960]

I love these types of videos. It's not so much a deep dive into history but rather an exploration of the high points on a subject. It would be a 4 day long video to deep dive into each of the firearms mentioned here today, so much to learn about them.

[@jameskilpatrick7790]

Edit to separate a paragraph. :) There is a persistent commingling of the term "damascus" with pattern-welded steel. They are two very different things, and the original "Damascus" steel, (often nowadays called "wootz)" is not even remotely connected with the pattern-welded steels found in the better viking, swords, (among other uses, including the later so-called "Damascus" barrels). The original Damascus steel was a very particular steel product. Homogeneous, it had a visible, (when etched), dendritic pattern. Pattern welded steels were originally developed as a technique used by blacksmiths to overcome inferior quality control in the steel making industry. It is a way to combine various steels in the forge welding process, incorporating the various qualities to produce a heterogeneous product that met the needs of the final forging. Along the way, the process was adapted to produce highly decorative surface finishes after etching. Medieval Japanese steel, for instance, was absolute garbage. The swordsmiths therefore had to sort out particular bits of metal, judge the qualities, and then weld them together, folding and welding to sometimes hundreds or thousnads of layers, in order to produce steel that would make a serviceable sword. They got very good at this..

[@mpetersen6]

Plus wootz was sourced from India. It gets termed Danascus because that was were people were trading for the ingots.

[@Regolith86]

Some of the viking swords, particularly the Ulfbert swords, were actually made of wootz or a crucible steel similar to wootz. They had some very long trade routes stretching down into the middle east, where a lot of the Indian/Central Asian wootz steel ended up.

[@mpetersen6]

@@Regolith86 Remember the Nova (iirc) episode where the smith in Door County made one.

[@richardsolberg4047]

@@mpetersen6 At that time period India produced the best steel ..in decent quantities .

[@hiddencow3272]

this was a super entertaining and instructive video, I hope that you two make more videos together.

[@HerrPolden]

Wheellocks do not lend themselves well to repeaters; Multishot wheellocks usually featured multiple mechanisms and barrels side by side, over under, and even mirrored… It is my impression that once the proto-flintlocks came around in the late 1500s, there was a burst of experimentation with revolvers and other multi shot weapons. It is one of my favorite examples of a technological principle that has been grasped and tried long before manufacturing technology was actually able to make them viable.

[@luisnunes3863]

And just to further complicate matters, Portugal had arsenals in India producing firearms since the late 1500s at least...

[@sleepy_Dragon]

In essence these early revolving guns are mostly to show how cool you are as a gun smith. (Or how rich you are as an owner.)

[@watchm4ker]

Seems like. Wheellocks held a similar place, because of the clockwork required for the firing mechanism.

[@christopherreed4723]

@@watchm4ker Not really. There were fancy wheellocks, but there were also dead plain wheellocks made for general issue, both pistols and muskets. However, their use *was* generally restricted to cavalry - usually made up of better-off individuals - and elite troops, like bodyguards. Iirc the Danish crown equipped the Royal guards with wheellock muskets. Ultimately there isn't much in the way of tiny gears and springs inside most wheellocks. The friction wheel was driven by a short chain, which was tensioned by a leaf spring. Wind the lock, the chain wraps around the axle of the wheel. The sear held the wheel in place, and a push-rod to the trigger opened the sliding pan cover. The "dog" that held the lump of pyrite was moved by hand. Push it forward off the wheel and the weapon is safe. Push it backward onto the wheel and it'll fire. The overall mechanism *is* more complex than 99.8% of matchlocks - which really doesn't require much - but nowhere near the popular image of pocket watch internals. The main way in which the snaphance improved over the wheellock was by eliminating the wheel and chain contraption and switching to a spring-loaded "cock" that held flint (much cleaner) and a separate frizzen. The separate, sliding pan-cover was kept, and the lock required two leaf springs. Further development brought the frizzen and pan cover into a single part, tensioned the frizzen detent from the same spring the powered the cock, and - Hey! Presto! - you have a flintlock.

[@joemungus6063]

@@Another-Address guns are cheap lol

[@richardsolberg4047]

True of most cutting edge tech. from the first metal knife to the latest gee wiz electronics ..

[@morganfreeman8618]

Love historic stories. Thumbs up!

[@sysop007]

In my younger years scouring my dads massive book and magazine collection for pictures of weird and wacky firearms I don’t recollect ever seeing anything about these types of early repeating firearms. Fascinating stuff thanks Ian! 👏🏼

[@pierref.1294]

About the question of who buys thoose guns, one example i came accross in a study was a copper mining company in eastern France mountains (The Vosges). They bought wheellock repeating firearms, at least it says in the archives of the 17th century. It was when they realised they were mining the same copper vein as the guys on the other side of the mountain (traditional Roman Empire vs French Kingdom frontier fights).The catch is that still today we don't know if they were to be used inside the mines, or on the mountains outside which were windy, cold, rocky and rainy forests. Also, they were to be used by trained miners and not by specialised guards, to our knowledge. My 2 cts on the topic, for once that i know something Ian doesn't ! Cheers from eastern France !

[@314299]

Super interesting discussion, thanks!

[@secretbaguette]

Ian, you always manage to come through. I'm writing a fantasy novel, with napoleonic era technologies. I need a feasible repeating firearm design for the time? Here we are, three videos about 1700s revolvers, and three months later an entire video giving an overview on the subject and it's technical challenges.

[@cazarilolsen4630]

Great interview and info.

[@PalmettoNDN]

Two flasks is only typical with the smaller caliber rifles that had tiny vents, which are today improperly called "touch holes". I have never needed to carry two horns. But then all of my firelocks are smoothbores and the rifles I've had were percussion because I don't want to screw with two horns.

[@jakublulek3261]

I would guess that Vikings stole/bought/were given Damascus steel in Byzantium because many of them were serving Byzantine emperors as bodyguards (like, most famously, Harold Hardrada) or just mercenaries, and Byzantium had trading relationships with Middle East, India and even China. Also what is interesting is that Muslims were early adopters of gunpowder weapons, mainly cannons, but theyr gun makers were almost all Europeans or even Chinese, not Muslims.

[@theblackhand6485]

@Forgotten Weapons: it would be great if you dig into Metal Storm. That's an Australian invention that disappeared in a drawer and thus is 'forgotten' weapon.

[@johndododoe1411]

Modern take on the gun on the table in this video.

[@Smallathe]

A very fascinating discussion. Could you recommend a good book on the Chinese black powder firearms, (possibly with elaborate drawings)?

[@DB-yj3qc]

Great video very good to point out how far back multi shot firearms history is.

[@petermoeller5901]

Very interesting video about early repeaters. Well done.

[@DoctyrEvil]

We know that the early usage of cannon was pioneered by, amongst others, Turkish forces, who used cannon to great effect in their campaigns against the Byzantines, culminating in the siege of Constantinople. In some sense Europe learned of the of the importance of gunpowder from the business end of foreign guns.

[@duanesamuelson2256]

Something I always found interesting is that early cannon balls were made out of marble (the big ones). There are also records of cannons being made out of wood (presumably very short range).

[@thralldumehammer]

Was anybody else disappointed that didn't actually show how the rifle in front of them worked?

[@jonasholzem2909]

Yes!

[@princecharon]

@@jonasholzem2909 I am.

[@griz561]

considering the age, the sliding bit is probably extremely stuck

[@williamromine5715]

I'm not sure why they had the gun shown if they were not going to explain it's workings. Very disappointed. Another thing, the guest is very knowledgeable, but as with some experts, he has difficulty talking about the subject matter of his expertise. Ian had to keep him on track. Ian's knowledge is amazing, and his ability to explain what he knows to a general audience is beyond equal in his field.

[@GunnerAsch1]

@@williamromine5715 The gentleman is an engineering teacher, who sorta got off on repeating firearms at the Chicago School of Art (I think that was the school) so he is not a "firearms expert".. except from what he has learned about this subject. I give him great! credit for doing the research and the studies and following up on this subject, and for writing the book. He is a typical teacher who isnt laser focused and tends to go off in different directions without someone keeping him on the path. That gives him a good deal of "Cool!" in my view.

[@cheesenoodles8316]

Smush, if this technical term is used....I generally like the video. Note, 16:25 before the rifle on the table is referenced. It was a great 16:25.... whole video is great. I like the Professor.

[@HouseholdDog]

I learned recently why ivory was so valued. It has the most consistent structure of pretty well any natural material. It's why they made snooker balls out of it, because one ivory ball would weigh and bounce the same as another.

[@SquintyGears]

Until plastic was figured out, ages later

[@HouseholdDog]

@@SquintyGears Exactly. It was actually a podcast or doco about plastic where I heard it.

[@bravo_cj]

@@SquintyGears I would pay hundreds of dollars for deleting this comment and letting me comment this lol

[@WJS774]

Was something that Colt _did_ do first applying the percussion cap to a repeater? That solves the problem with priming.

[@randywatson8347]

I really love this. It's very hightech at the end of the middle ages.

[@lasskinn474]

lathe is remarkable, but the much much much much later invention micrometer complemented it to kickstart industrial revolution. it's kinda hard to make accurately parts if you lack measuring tools.

[@CurtHowland]

This is why the "industrial revolution" is so far a one-time event in 10,000 years of known history. So many things had to come together.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

that and just using a lathe to make a better lathe then using the better lathe to make a better lathe to make a better lathe to make a better lathe till you get a CNC machine

[@AsbestosMuffins]

@Curt Howland My thoughts on it have always been even though the romans proto-industrialized, there wasn't something that made industrialization particularly attractive until you get cannons and guns, then whoever has the most of those started winning wars taking money and resources driving more fighting

[@baconghoti]

@@AsbestosMuffins and add a man obsessed with making a really really flat surface.

[@TheTimeFarm]

It’s surprising how repeatably you can make something if you put the time into making good jigs and reference pieces. You couldn’t ask a machinist in the 1600s to make you a pin with a half inch diameter but you could give him one pin and tell him to make 1000 just like it and he could do it with fairly high precision. Advancement in the cutting tools probably had the biggest effect on production capacity. Because if you want the aforementioned pins made from brass it’s easy but iron or steel is going to be a lot harder to cut and take a lot more man hours to produce. But measurement tools helped standardize things and allowed a lot more collaboration so the company was no longer reliant on like 10 guys in a workshop somewhere with all the jigs who just make parts for like one specific model of gun.

[@plaintiveplainvanilla9729]

Really interesting bit of history. Thank you.

[@ES90344]

I'm sure Othais would love to get in on the Colt shenanigan's discussion.

[@mpetersen6]

The usual inventor of any typically seems to get screwed. And then you have the Dr Seldon types. Never invent or build anything. Just file a patent so you can strong arm royalties out of people with lawyers.

[@Jagdtyger2A]

You may or may not find this interesting, but I have been using the Chambers flintlock machine gun as an argument against the NFA's ban on fully automatic weapons and against historical bans on "large Capacity magazines

[@TyranT-Trooper]

I need to hear more about it? Seriously. I'm very interested. With Respect.

[@Jagdtyger2A]

@@TyranT-Trooper Forhotten Weapons has a great video on the Chambers flintlock machine gun here on YuoTube

[@TyranT-Trooper]

Will look into it

[@ATruckCampbell]

Not to mention other early repeaters. The typical "they didn't think of machine guns" argument gives me aneurysms. These repeaters are great arguments.

[@wreckinball11]

I'm staring at that rifle and screaming to show how it works and take it apart.

[@jean-pascalesparceil9008]

Hello all viewers. Ian, and anyone else interrested in such firearms, when coming to Paris, visit the Musée de l'Armée to see a wheellock arquebus-revolver made in Nuremberg 1612 for Johan-Ernst, Great Elector, Margraf of Brandenburg. It has eight chambers, very long ones (146 mm, 11m diameter), with an ignition hole located forward to shoot a load of several bullets using the principle called "roman candle". So it is a shoulder weapon able to shoot eight "bursts" of pistol caliber bullets.

[@anon_y_mousse]

Fascinating history. Blows all the anti-gun arguments out of the water considering they were developing this technology back in the 1500's.

[@happysalesguy]

One has nothing to do with the other. 19,000+ murders by firearms and 600 mass shootings in 2022 alone says you are wrong. 24,000+ suicides by firearms, too. Much easier with a gun.

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@happysalesguy That would be a general argument for why you think they shouldn't exist. I was speaking to the arguments about historical precedent regarding what types of firearms to allow. 600 is a lie of a figure because the term mass is highly subjective and they've constantly subjected it to abuse to claim more and more shootings as mass shootings. The majority of what they claim has nothing to do with guns anyway, as it's gang activity, which would happen just as much with only knives and other countries stats prove that. Suicides make up two thirds of the stats on firearm related deaths and nothing anyone says will convince me those wouldn't have happened without guns existing. Accidents aren't the fault of the gun either, nor are any murders. Does a gun make it easier to murder someone? Yeah. Does that mean we should strip the rights of everyone for an ultra minority of deaths? No. Aside from in general it being evil to take rights from people, such as the right to self defense by any means within their reach, there is always the fact that guns have saved just as many, if not more, lives than they've taken.

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@happysalesguy "600 mass shootings in 2022" when you define "mass shooting" as any time 4 or more people are hit, which just so happens to describe about 80% of gang related drive bys.

[@lewis7315]

I remember seeing a video about a repeating Royal Navy shotgun age of Nelson... Yes likely about an 8 or 10 gage... took a big man to shoot them...

[@marklandwehr7604]

I've seen a bunch of wheel lock multiple firing weapons beautiful ones too

[@magnusquercu9905]

I enjoyed this tremendously!!!!

[@BigMakBattleBlog]

The danish royal gaurd had a repeating musket a ways back, and those air guns were also repeater that the austrian adopted temoparily

[@duanesamuelson2256]

Even with the technology available air guns were more powerful as well as easier to build repeaters in the early black powder firearms day. It was the cost which caused them to fall by the wayside. I actually find it fascinating that there were exchangeable air cylinders which worked much the same as today for some air rifles.

[@BigMakBattleBlog]

@@duanesamuelson2256 i gathered the Austrians.did air guns with leather washers and valves. Didnt survive the field

[@duanesamuelson2256]

@@BigMakBattleBlog I don't think they were more problematic than early black powder weapons. Remember that moisture, rain, extremely slow lock times etc were all problems. However they were relatively cheap and didn't require years of training to be effective I do know that air powered weapons were ridiculously expensive in comparison.

[@StormDweller]

Love this. Super interesting.

[@TheEdmond30]

Classic Forgotten Weapons

[@axman5296]

3:08 - "A slew of them when I say a slew maybe five or six, er, that are made in Germany" "You know the Germans always make good stuff." - Vince Offer

[@mpetersen6]

Good stuff. I'm not sure that applies universally anymore today. Certain items they are still top notch. Machine tools for one.

[@dazzab4244]

Ian, do you have any information on the Ferguson Turret firearms?

[@captaintoyota3171]

Love this stuff. And yeah ppl 4get with a lathe and way of cutting grinding/drilling you can make allmost anything. No anything.

[@StepSherpa]

I work at a trade school and we like to say there is only 2 rules to what you can make, you have to come up with it and it has to be legal

[@frivolousmule6098]

What happened to the Icelandic guns video? Was it accidentally shared ahead of schedule or subscriber only content mistakenly posted to all?

[@ForgottenWeapons]

It was just accidentally posted ahead of schedule - it will be back next week.

[@gregcampwriter]

Reference to recent visits with Jackson Crawford here, I suspect.

[@rogercarroll8764]

What about the Kalthof repeating flintlock?

[@belushipumpkin]

Goes like "whoop whoop".

[@johnqpublic2718]

All the experts in the comments should write their own, better books. They sure act like it's inevitable.

[@bennyboy27or]

Saying "war were declared" doesn't make me think your not Lee Lemon any less

[@aesotope1592]

That was great!

[@stetonwalters574]

When are we getting a Kalthoff repeater review

[@ForgottenWeapons]

As soon as I can find one to film...

[@MurderBallad]

Awesome thanks

[@ромаЕ-р5ч]

the colt is really connected to some dark deals. "theories" r not wrong

[@dalemoss4684]

I'd love to know what the pistol in the thumbnail is..

[@yannichudziak9942]

Thank you :)

[@iivin4233]

Beyond lacking measuring tools they lacked standard measures. That and craftsmen could withhold trade secrets if they had figured something out. I'm generalizing about that last part of course. Machine Thinking made a series on the subject of precision. He mentions a bounty being posted that a craftsman would receive if they could solve X problem on the condition that they publish their method.

[@benrobertson7855]

Colt…dodgy deals…yes please.

[@danieltokar1000]

Small number of "Viking" , Norse swords were made of wootz , Damascus steel. Maybe a couple hundred out of a million.

[@Derecq]

Wootz steel was most probably made in northern India and exported west through Damascus however the merchants safeguarded the true source of the steel. Patten welded blades and gun barrels made in the West were called Damascus only because the whirly pattens resembled wootz steel.

[@thebusstop]

Yeah, definitely not normal. So uncommon that most of them bear only one name: the name "ULFBERHT."

[@wlewisiii]

A much larger number (thousands), which are conflated with Wootz, were made from small crucible steel. That could be made with the crappy iron ore which was often all that was available in northern Europe.

[@christhesmith]

Thanks. I didn't want to open the "pattern welding/damascus/wootz" can of worms!

[@christhesmith]

Thanks. I didn't want to open the "pattern welding/damascus/wootz" can of worms!

[@TheArgieH]

Haven't got through all the comments yet, does Lorenzonl get a mention?

[@BartJBols]

What is white or blue water? What does that mean?

[@elijahcollier4547]

Cool I share a name with the pre collier revolvers

[@tomaszskowronski1406]

Percival von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo the Third has entered the chat. (Hello Critters)

[@QZZT1]

A reload flintlock riffle like run Revolver from the 17 century in the 15 century ? we have not April the first you mean it is real straight from the 15 Century?

[@ScottKenny1978]

16th Century, 1590s.

[@pezozpezoz]

Most interesting

[@agenturawubekistanie]

Thats a very nice talk, thanks for sharing. Interesting comments here, too.

[@kylelee9474]

[@jameswhitaker1324]

A mistake I hear repeated all the time across multiple disciplines is that machinery enables precision. It doesn’t. It makes precision rapidly repeatable. If you’ve ever looked at the verge chain on an old, handmade pocket watch (or anything else on the same watch) you’ll understand what I mean.

[@tomdevol6035]

My uncle was a watchmaker in the 50's. My dad showed me a chain-driven watch my uncle made a repair link for. I was amazed because the chain itself was only about the same diameter as kite string.

[@bobdylan1968]

That's just factually wrong... You're looking at the absolute best examples of handcrafted items, next to mass production lol. Machinery provides more precision. Period. If those craftsman had access to that machinery, the watches would have been better. You're mistaken.

[@akaroth7542]

Aerospace machinist here: a precise blacksmith made precise parts for a precise early lathe. Early lathe makes even more precise parts for better lathe. Repeat ad infinitum. Making part dimensions to the millionths of an inch on alloys almost at the machinability of carbide steel wasn't possible without machines. Idk, there's too much to get into: but you're not quite there with your opinion.

[@manatoa1]

Normal people have no idea what skilled craftsmen can do with files, scraping, and lapping. The 2 thou accuracy the guy talks about is trivial when fitting one unique part to another. Interchangeability is the problem.

[@akaroth7542]

@@manatoa1 Problem is: people think they can measure something correctly, they often can't. Metrology is an art. The human eye and touch isn't reliable.

[@JKC40]

but i thought the founding fathers couldn't have forseen repeating firearms.... that's what they keep telling me

[@Goonygoon84]

I'm absolutely loving these discussion videos with Professor Nicholson. I eagerly await the book!

[@Arbiter099]

These are pushing me to buy the book. Great adverts

[@calvingreene90]

Drachinifel has a pretty good video on the freshwater navel war of the War of 1812. They crash built ships up to full on ships of the line on the Great Lakes during the war.

[@TheArgieH]

Why fight over navels? Surely they are far too useful for holding the salt when eating hard boiled eggs in bed?

[@akatripclaymore.9679]

I bet chain fire's were common with that "flintlock revolver" ( on the clickbait)?

[@morriganmhor5078]

If the Manchu emperors of China in the 17th century needed to buy rifles and field guns from the Portuguese and Dutch, where were all those Chinese gunpowder wonder weapons (except for primitive rockets)? The same for Mughals in India. And also, if the Muslims were such firearms scientists, why would Mehmed II need Hungarian Urban to cast him cannons against Constantinople?

[@sams3046]

There was an Ottoman firearms and gunpowder manufacturing industry independent of Europe. Orban was also one of many artillery engineers in Mehmed II’s army

[@morriganmhor5078]

@@sams3046 And do you know any other name? It is known, that up to the end of the 16th the Ottomans did have better gunnery than the European states (with the exception of ships) though it could have something with the wealth of their state.

[@GianmarioScotti]

I wish we had the chance to have a better look at that gun in the video.

[@burhanbudak6041]

The 3 gunpowder empires introduced firearms to medieval Europe. Gone was the way of Roman fighting, knights and crusades. The Mongols introduced gunpowder to Europe.

[@tavshedfjols]

He looks like the old man in Up

[@cedhome7945]

When these guys get to talking they can go off the subject and still have interesting stuff to say (love to be a fly on the wall when the camera is off) !

[@georgeturner8514]

lol, proper pub talk. what did you guys drink before hand? (great vid btw)

[@bigmike9947]

14:26 Othais? Is that you?

[@julianb5844]

Hearing a S’fricen accent there Prof and some colloquialisms.

[@stormthrush37]

So at least a couple of these guns are basically Metal Storm from 500 years ago, especially the Chambers one. Interesting to see how old ideas come back around.

[@codygranrud6212]

Definitely similar concepts executed with the technology available.

[@CurtHowland]

Onboard ship reloading time is kind of irrelevant, weeks and months of boredom separated with a few hours of life-and-death panic.

[@wisewarnanazara317]

Lol 😂 Wood splinters and chaos everywhere

[@rslover65]

Ship to ship combat was hardly boring, and reloading time mattered as much at sea as on land

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@rslover65 if you have a Chambers volley gun in the fighting tops, it's likely you will only need to fire that once because you have 2 minutes of sweeping the deck during close alongside and that's probably it before they surrender. You will spend half an hour or more getting into position to fire that Chambers gun and will spend that time firing the cannons.

[@danethanor]

I say balderdash and poppycock. We all know Merlin the great created blackpowder in the city of Atlantis before it was lost and then stolen off the wind by the Eastern magician Fangshi.

[@TheArgieH]

Was that before or after he levitated the Stonehenge bluestones from the Preselli mountains? Powder would have been handy for excavating the associated pits and holes.

[@lucisferre6361]

The Greenlander vikings also sold narwal horn. Even sold it as "unicorn" horn in Europe, to make thrones and such.

[@jeffallan3140]

I love it when anti-2A nutters argue that "the founding fathers never conceived of automatic or semi-automatic guns when crafting the 2nd amendment". I routinely point out that repeating rifles existed at that time, but were expensive and impractical, but the founding fathers were well aware that technology would advance. It gets them sooo mad.

[@IceWolfLoki]

Who was buying these? The same people that buy Supercars today.

[@ericvulgate]

Likely some of the very same families.

[@johngaltman]

So you mean the semi-automatic existed before the Constitution that was penned in America prior to 1776? Hummmm.... That might be a bit of a conundrum for our current potato in chief, and his push to remove those things from our society...

[@DEERCREEKGUNSHOP]

Awesome!

[@hunterburrell5430]

Lathe?

[@myblacklab7]

This channel has its good points, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see the guns themselves, and not just people talking about the guns. I know it's hard work to put together a video that includes pictures, etc., so no pressure, but it if you ever wanted to dedicate the time and effort to do that, I think it would vastly improve your channel. (Full-disclosure: I just skipped around the video to see if it showed examples/pics of guns aside from that one rifle on the table, and then wrote this comment - I'm not going to watch it).

[@astrotrek3534]

Are you new to the channel? Ian usually disassembles and analyses the guns he discusses, as well as occasionally even shooting them. This particular example is probably too old and fragile to be messing with, it always depends on the museums policy. I'd recommend watching some more videos before blowing it off

[@myblacklab7]

@@astrotrek3534 The title suggests that we'd see more than one gun, so this particular video seems clickbait-adjacent, if not just pure clickbait. Where are the "Pre-Collier Repeaters?" I just see one gun and two guys talking.

[@thebotrchap]

Fascinating thanks 🙏

[@Matt-xc6sp]

10:22 Elbownian Empire, 1701 - adopts revolving flintlocks

[@allangibson8494]

Now imagine the Napoleonic Army with breech loaded metallic cartridge rifles - Napoleon turned down that invention in 1810 because he thought it was too logistically complicated to carry cartridges in the field for soldiers.

[@zacharyread5303]

I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to this conversation. The collective creativity of firearms engineers led us to where we are today. So cool to see where it all started

[@JohnDoe-pv2iu]

Your discussion in reference to Colt is similar to Ford. Neither really invented the entire design of their products but both made their products practical for use AND practical for manufacturing. Almost makes you feel like there should a revolver kept in your car! Ya'll Take Care and be safe, John PS, First real and practical comment!

[@AdamantLightLP]

Ford invented the assembly line, really.

[@hiltonian_1260]

The history of 19th century invention in America is a history of lawsuits. The two most important things an inventor could have were a ruthless lawyer and the money to pay him. Actually inventing something first was secondary. Rollin White patented the bored through cylinder for rear-loading brass cartridges, even though there were already such revolvers in Europe. Smith and Wesson licensed it and made a million while White spent his license money in court defending his bogus patent.

[@AdamantLightLP]

Who cares? All that matters is making the idea actually widespread and a commercial success. Some random guy making a prototype and doing nothing with it shouldn't matter.