An old ancestor of Kalashnikov? Kalthoff repeater
Peter Kalthoff's straight lever shotgun. By Jan Flock, Utrecht, around 1670. Total length: 1 mm. Barrel length: 505 mm. Weight: 1 g. Originally this weapon belonged to Charles XI. Royal Arsenal, Stockholm
And you'll go crazy
what your eyes will see.
Deuteronomy 26: 34
what your eyes will see.
Deuteronomy 26: 34
People and weapons. As you know, the rate of fire of a modern Kalashnikov assault rifle reaches 40 rounds per minute with single shots, 100 shots is the combat rate of fire in bursts, and finally 600–650 is the technical rate. Of course, the owners of XNUMXth-century flintlock muskets never even dreamed of anything like this. But…
Nevertheless, there were also people among them who sought to increase the rate of fire of the weapons of that time at any cost. And this was done by one of the representatives of the Kalthoff family of gunsmiths from Solingen in Germany, who proposed a multi-charge flintlock gun around 1630.
Moreover, this “offer” was then embodied in metal and began to be produced not only by representatives of this family, but also by other masters. So, several copies of both rifles and pistols of this system have survived to this day.
Moreover, at least nineteen gunsmiths are known to have made weapons based on Kalthoff's design. Moreover, some early guns were still wheeled, but most of the rest already had a flintlock percussion lock. The magazine capacity varied from 5 to 30 rounds, which was certainly a great achievement for those years.
Instead of numerous manipulations, it was only necessary to move the trigger guard back and forth. It could be completed in 1–2 seconds, and the weapon was already ready to fire. The caliber of Kalthoff's rifles and pistols usually varied between 0,4–0,8 inches (10–20 mm), although very small-caliber samples with a caliber of 7,6 mm are also known.
After 1630, members of this family dispersed across countries to other regions of Europe, including Denmark, France, the Netherlands, England and even Russia. But the very first patent for the Kalthoff system was received from King Louis XIII in 1640 by a certain Guillaume Kalthoff. The patent stated that it was issued for muskets and pistols capable of firing 8-10 shots without replenishing the supply of gunpowder and bullets, while maintaining the weight, length and ease of handling inherent in standard firearms.
Kalthoff gun lock with curved lever. Royal Arsenal, Stockholm
A year later, in 1641, another Kalthoff, Peter, received a Dutch patent for a rifle with a rifled barrel that could fire 29 shots without reloading. This patent did not indicate which mechanism provided such an unprecedented rate of fire for those years, but it was mentioned that Peter could improve the design even more within a year.
In the same year, another Dutch patent was received by a certain Hendrik Bartmans. It described a pistol with two separate magazines for powder and bullets, a total capacity of 30 rounds, and a trigger guard that had to be turned to reload it. Then Bartmans, around 1642, manufactured a rifle according to his patent, that is, his development went quite far.
In 1645, Peter Kalthoff also made his repeater with a wheel lock. Moreover, the text Das Erste (the first) is engraved on it, which raises some questions that, alas, will most likely remain unanswered. In 1646, another sample followed, on the barrel in front of the breech there is an inscription that indicates the ammunition capacity of 30 rounds.
It is interesting that the weapons of representatives of this family, made by them in different countries, were somewhat different. Thus, the guns Peter made had a smooth, rounded trigger guard held in place by a trigger. But the weapons of Matthias Kalthoff from Denmark had a straight trigger guard, and a straight rod was used to hold the lever. He also produced pistols that date from 1650 to 1679.
In 1649, a pair of pistols from a gunsmith named Kalthoff was sent as a gift to King Frederick III. And today two such pistols are indeed kept in the National Museum of Denmark, but there is no confirmation that these are the same pistols and not some others.
Alexander Harding repeating rifle, c. 1670 Royal Arsenal, Stockholm
In Germany, magazine pistols similar in design were made by gunsmith Heinrich Habrecht around 1645 and 1650.
In Holland, gunsmith Alexander Harting worked on similar weapons.
Peter Kalthoff repeater gun lock by Jan Flock, Utrecht, circa 1670. This weapon originally belonged to Charles XI. Royal Arsenal, Stockholm
Caspar Kalthoff made a percussion flintlock gun in London between 1654 and 1665. In 1658, Caspar made a rifle with a capacity of seven shots.
Pistols of the Kalthoff system were also produced by Jan Flock from Utrecht and put up for sale in 1668. The price for one such pistol was no less than £260.
But Kaspar Kalthoff Jr., the son of Kaspar Kalthoff, made such repeating weapons in Russia, where he arrived between 1664 and 1665, and there in 1665 he made one such repeating gun.
The production of such weapons continued subsequently. So, in 1710, Charles Cousin in France produced a gun using the Kalthoff system with 15 shots.
There were two varieties of the Kalthoff system.
The first had a rectangular breech with two or three chambers, a powder magazine in the butt and a total capacity of up to 30 charges.
The second type had a vertical cylindrical bolt, the gunpowder was stored under lock and key, and the container for it allowed up to 10 shots to be fired. A magazine with round bullets could be located in a cylindrical cavity, both in the butt and under the barrel.
Many Kaltohoff pistols used an under-barrel magazine equipped with a coil spring located in the ramrod cavity. Moreover, its plug was designed in the form of a ramrod head. A magazine of this type for a gun was about 1 m long and could hold more than 60 bullets with a diameter of 14 mm. But when fully loaded, these bullets weighed about 1 kg, which greatly changed the center of gravity.
Square breech pistols had a flat spring that flexed to the right as the breech moved.
The gunpowder in the magazine could be reloaded through a locked hatch. On guns with a magazine in the butt, it was loaded through a hole covered with a retractable lid. Most guns contained enough gunpowder (up to 5 cc per shot) for both the main charge and the charge on the powder shelf.
Such a weapon was loaded like this: the barrel was raised up, the trigger guard was turned approximately 155° to the right and back, after which it was already possible to cock the hammer (or wind the wheel) and fire a shot.
And here it should be noted that Kalthoff’s guns, as they say, worked.
In 1648, Frederick III ordered his guards to be equipped with his guns. This order was carried out by Peter and Matthias Kalthoff (and possibly several other gunsmiths) and the guns were produced in 1657. The Guardsmen received about a hundred guns (some of the surviving guns are numbered by engraving on the butt, No. 108 and 110) and are believed to have been used at the Siege of Copenhagen (1658–1659) and in the Scanian War.
In 1659, during the siege of Copenhagen, they were armed with the bodyguards of Charles X, but by 1696 they were removed from service. The Royal Armories inventory of 1775 still listed 133 Kalthoff pistols, but by this time they were already considered antiques.
Pistols of the Kalthoff system. Royal Danish Arsenal Museum, Copenhagen
It should be noted that, despite the surprisingly high rate of fire for that time, this design at that time could not claim mass production. The mechanism required great skill and care to maintain, and took much longer to assemble than a conventional muzzle-loading musket or pistol.
All parts of the mechanism were interdependent. So if any gear broke or jammed, the entire weapon became unusable. And only a specialist gunsmith could fix it. Clogging with even slightly damp powder could cause the mechanism to simply jam.
Also, the use of black powder led to the formation of soot, which made it more difficult to control with the lever with each shot.
And the technology of that time did not allow organizing its mass production in large quantities. So only rich people and elite soldiers could buy such guns and pistols.
So it turned out that a system with separate loading (gunpowder and bullets separately), although quite workable and really allows for a high rate of fire, due to imperfect production technology does not allow making such weapons cheap and widespread.
Well, then no one wanted to spend money on improving it either, and it’s understandable why that was so. Society is not yet ripe for new views...
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