Since I was in Leeds, I went to the Royal Armouries
Museum.
I didn't have time to see all of it – I could easily spend a day
there – but I visited some old friends and wandered about a bit.
Hunting crossbow.
An unusually pretty Walther Model 9. (The labels always start with the
technical description, a little unexpected; and while a .25ACP is "of
6.35mm calibre", it was built for the .25ACP, not for generic 6.35mm.)
One of several "Apaches", knuckleduster-knife-pistols. One suspects
they were rather more popular for threatening than for actual use,
particularly the way you'd have to reverse your grip to use the
knuckleduster.
Most of the guns were mounted sideways, but here's one to show you
just how big a barrel can look. (Mind you, it was something over half
an inch.)
Another Apache in a different shape.
Sterling SMG in remarkably good nick.
And a third Apache. Wavy blades are cool!
You know, I start to think there might be a reason combination
weapons have never been very popular.
Ring-trigger derringer.
One admires the mechanical ingenuity to make flintlocks work in the
first place, but my goodness the reliability…
Kolibri pistol, believed to be the smallest ever made – firing 2mm
ammunition. Alas, they didn't have a scale next to it. Yeah, very
small, but desperately underpowered and inaccurate… you could probably
discourage someone if you shot them in the face.
Some fantasy weapons, from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and
Hour of the Gun.
The inspiration for the pulse rifle, and for the Star Wars blasters.
Holland and Holland hunting rifle. Very few uses in the real world,
rather more in role-playing games where often something much tougher
than human is being a threat.
Pneumatic rifle, reservoir in the (rather uncomfortable-looking) stock.
They had surprisingly few Drillings, and the reflective front glass
faced the window…
Gorgeously decorated crossbow-rifle.
Down the shaft. What is the term for this sort of art? Hoplography? Or
would that be the weapon as tool for creation of art?
An Anglo-Saxon sword from near Windsor.
Bergmann MP 18 – the weapon all those Nazis in Raiders of the Lost
Ark should have been using instead of MP40s. (They might have had
early MP35s.)
Webley-Fosbery!
That very distinctive feed system on a Maxim.
Trench periscope Mauser Gew98. (Not at all clear that this was ever
actually useful.)
Sword, Cavalry, Pattern, 1908.
Persian horned helmet, probably ceremonial.
What is it with these combination weapons? The grip would be horrid
for pistolling or for swording.
Supposedly, headgear for carrying Deadly Accurate Razor-Sharp Quoits.
Pangolin-scale armour from Rajasthan. (The only known example.)
I feel that the Glasgow Kiss is unlikely to be an effective cavalry
tactic.
What makes a polearm more dangerous? More blades! (Er, we want it to
be dangerous to the enemy, sir…)
Mother-of-pearl and lacquer on spear shafts presented to Queen
Victoria in the late 1800s.
Lorcin L-9, still high in the lists of handguns used in crimes even
some years after production ceased.
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