The Kalthoff Repeater

In the early days of firearms, when most of them were muzzleloaders, reloading a firearm after it was shot took some time to accomplish. Today, we will study a firearm that attempted to solve this issue, the Kalthoff Repeater.

First, we should go into the origin of the name: This repeater was actually invented by an unknown inventor in the 17th century, but many of them were later manufactured by the Kalthoff family of gunsmiths and hence, they are now commonly referred to as Kalthoff repeaters.

The first known member of this gunsmithing family was Herman Kolthoff (1540-1610), who came from the town of Kultenhof in the Westphalia region of Germany (back in Herman Kolthoff's times, this area was part of the Danish duchy of Schleswig). He was a well known and rich person, famous for his iron manufacturing factories. He had several sons, who served as gunsmiths for various royal families across Europe: Peter Kalthoff (1600-1672), who served Fredrick III of Denmark as Head of Armory; Matthias Kalthoff, another Danish gunmaker; Caspar Kalthoff the Elder (1606-1664), who served under Charles I in England; Henric Kalthoff (1610-1661) who founded several ironworking foundries in Sweden and Norway etc. Some of their other descendants were also gunsmiths, e.g. Caspar Kalthoff the Younger, son of Caspar Kalthoff the Elder, who served as gunsmith for both Charles II of England and Tsar Alexis I of Russia.

The Kalthoff repeater is a smoothbore musket with two magazines. The first magazine is located in the forearm section of the musket and contains round bullet balls. A second magazine is located within the stock of the firearm and stores gunpowder.

A Kalthoff repeater. Click on image to enlarge.

Much like the lever-action rifle which was invented two centuries later, the trigger guard is actually a lever that helps operate this weapon. Upon pushing and pulling the trigger guard, the mechanism puts a charge of gunpowder and a ball into the breech of the weapon and then cocks the weapon. A small carrier device carries the powder from the magazine to the breech, to prevent the danger of the flame reaching the powder magazine. The user only has to manipulate the trigger guard lever, add some priming powder to the firing pan and the weapon is ready to fire. In some models, there is no need for the user to add priming powder to the pan manually, as there is a third magazine to feed the priming powder automatically.

Firing mechanism on some early models were wheel-locks and later models were flintlocks. Early models held six or seven shots, later there were some twelve shot models made and even one that claims to hold thirty shots. Typical reload time was one or two seconds, which gave this weapon a huge advantage over any other weapon in the 17th century. In fact, it wasn't until the middle of the 19th century that any other weapon came close to matching the rate of fire of a Kalthoff repeater.

However, this type of weapon was mostly used by rich people only. The mechanism was complicated and needed a specialized gunsmith to assemble and repair it. Also, wet powder and powder fouling could jam the mechanism easily. Therefore, this made it unsuitable for general military use and only rich people and elite military units used it. One example of military use was about 100 of these guns used by the Danish Royal Foot Guards in the Scanian war.

Some fine examples of this type of weapon exist in museums today:

Seven shot Kalthoff repeater

The above fine hunting gun is a seven-shot model that was made in London in 1658 and is now in the Moscow Kremlin museum. Inscriptions on it say that it was made by Caspar Kalthoff the Elder and Harman Barne (otherwise known as Haerman Barnevelt). This weapon was presented to Tsar Fyodor Alexeevich of Russia in 1664, by the British ambassador Prince Charles Howard. A similar gun with the inscription, C. Kalthoff, from around 1660, is in the Royal collection in Windsor Castle.

The gun has a seven bullet magazine in the fore-end and a powder magazine in the lock part of the wooden stock. In the safety catch is a transporter that holds a little more gunpowder than is necessary for firing. To reload, the user points the gun upwards and then moves the trigger guard 180 degrees forward and back. This has the effect of moving the sliding blocks to load a bullet and gunpowder into the breech and cocks the weapon. The remaining gun powder that is left in the transporter is then tipped out on to the priming pan and the gun is ready to fire.

The gun is made of steel, copper alloy and high quality walnut wood. A hunting scene featuring dogs and a deer are engraved on the lock plate, a dragon is engraved on the cocking piece and there are other decorative engravings, carvings and gold inlays on the weapon as well.

The Kalthoff family were not the only people that made this type of firearm though:

Five shot repeater

The above example can also be found in the Moscow Kremlin museum. It is a five-shot repeater and was made in London around 1660, by the above mentioned Harman Barne (Haerman Barnevelt). Harman Barne was a Dutch gunmaker, who moved to London and became a Gunmaker to King Charles I and Charles II, as well as Prince Rupert of England. This fine weapon is also made of steel and walnut wood with fine engravings, carvings and gold inlays. Unlike the previous example, this weapon has a rifled barrel with 8 grooves in it.

Combined Firearms: Other Weapons

In the last few posts, we have seen firearms combined with axes, with swords and knives and with daggers. In this post, we will look at some examples of firearms combined with other weapons.

The first ones we will look at are available for display in the Historisches Museum in Dresden, Germany.

What we have here are a pair of German-made spear heads dating from around 1560. Each spear-head has two pistols, one on each side of the head. The pistols are powered by wheel-lock mechanisms, which the Germans were very good at producing, due to their expertise with clocks and clockwork mechanisms. Note that the first spear head is also very heavily decorated indicating that it was built for a rich customer. The first spear head also has a note that says it was built by one Peter Peck of Munich.

The next set of weapons may be seen in the armory display at the Tower of London, England.

Image taken from W.W. Greener's The Gun and its Development, Second Edition. Click on image to enlarge.

The above image shows a round shield with a built in matchlock firearm. These shields date from the 16th century and were ordered by King Henry VIII for use by his bodyguards. About twenty specimens still remain in the present day. The pistol uses a breech-loading mechanism. Also note the grill on the shield. This allows the user to hide behind the shield, but still aim the firearm at the enemy.

The image above is also due to King Henry VIII of England. It is currently on display in the Tower of London as well. This is a combination of a spiked mace with three hidden matchlock pistols in it and is called Henry VIII's Walking Stick. He was known to wield this weapon personally and often took it with him when he would wander about town at night, to check to see if his constables were doing their duty. Unfortunately for him, one of his constables at the parish of St. Magnus (near the London bridge) did his duty very well. He confronted the disguised King at the bridge-foot and demanded to know what this suspicious character was doing with a mace so late in the night. When the King tried to escape, the constable called a watchman to assist him and together, they arrested the King and tossed him into a unlit, cold, tiny prison cell for the night (Such prisons for vagrants, debtors and beggars were called Poultry Compters). In the morning, when his identity became known, the King personally summoned the constable and the watchman who'd arrested him. The two came in trembling, fully expecting to be tortured and beheaded. Instead, they were commended for their honesty and integrity and rewarded with large gifts. The King also immediately passed a law that granted an annual stipend of 23 pounds as well as a large quantity of bread and coal annually for ever to the prison where he spent the night, for the benefit of his fellow prisoners and any other future prisoners! In an article in The London Magazine Vol. III from 1833, it was mentioned that the parish was still receiving its annual grants.

The above image shows a whip which conceals a flintlock pistol within it. The barrel is about 12 inches long and the firing mechanism is concealed by the tassels on the whip. This particular specimen was once the property of a notorious Neapolitan bandit. However, it must be noted that such whip-pistols were not exclusively used by bandits alone. In the 17th and 18th centuries, similar weapons were presented to drivers of French mail coaches travelling south of the town of Lyons.

The Wheel-lock

In some of the previous posts, we've discussed matchlocks in detail. One of the major problems of a matchlock is keeping the slow match lit during damp conditions. Another problem is that it is easy to determine the position of a matchlock man in the dark, since the flame from the slow match gives away his position. This second issue is not a problem for large groups of men, but is a problem for individuals who wish to stay concealed.

It is not surprising then that after the wheel-lock was invented, it was quickly adopted not only by sportsmen and hunters, but also by highwaymen and burglars. The technology behind the wheel lock is similar to cigarette lighters and the clockwork wind-up cars that were common during the 1950s to the 1970s. The wheel-lock was first invented in the Nuremberg area of Germany in 1517.


It consists of a steel wheel A which has a serrated edge and a serpentine arm B. On the end of the serpentine arm is a jaw mechanism. As you can see above, there is an item (marked in dark gray) held between the two jaws and the screw around the jaws is tightened so that the item is held in place. This dark gray item is a small piece of iron pyrite. The serpentine arm itself can be placed in two positions. In the first position, the serpentine is moved so that the iron pyrite piece is not touching the wheel and it is in the "safe" position". When it is ready to use use, the serpentine arm is moved so that the iron pyrite piece touches the wheel A and the arm is held in place under spring pressure. The wheel itself is attached to a round mainspring (like the kind used in old wind-up clocks and watches), which is wound tightly using a key. When the trigger is pulled, the wheel is released and spins round and sparks fly from the iron pyrite piece (similar to a modern cigarette lighter). Some sparks will fly on to the pan that is just under the pyrite piece and light the priming gunpowder in there. There is a tiny hole in the pan that leads to the main charge of gunpowder in the weapon's barrel. If all goes well, the gunpowder in the pan burns and the flame travels through the hole in the pan and ignites the main gunpowder charge in the barrel, thereby discharging the weapon. If all does not go well, only the gunpowder in the pan burns and therefore you get the classic "flash-in-the-pan" i.e. a spectacular start, but no results.

To make sure that the priming powder does not get wet in the rain, the trigger mechanism is also sometimes attached to the pan cover. In some models, pulling the trigger does two things simultaneously:

1. Release the wheel so that the unwinding mainspring will rotate it.
2. Slide open the pan cover so that the gunpowder (priming powder) is exposed.

This mechanism has quite a few advantages over the old matchlock:

1. It isn't affected by the weather.
2. With a matchlock, the user to keep paying attention to the match to make sure it is lit. This is not needed with a wheel-lock
   
3. There is less danger of igniting a neighbour's powder supply by accident.
   
4. One can leave a loaded wheel-lock pistol wound up and ready to use at a moment's notice.

On the other hand, constructing a wheel-lock requires knowledge in metallurgical techniques such as the ability to make a spring that can be wound up and clock-making technologies in general. So it is no surprise to discover that Nuremberg was also a big clock-making center around the time the wheel-lock was invented (some people even credit a Nuremberg watch maker by the name of Peter Henlein with inventing the first mechanically driven pocket watch).

In the 1500s, clock-making technology was strictly guarded by certain guilds and thus, wheel-locks mechanisms were more expensive to manufacture than matchlocks. There was also the problem of somewhat unreliable springs in early models, but this problem was quickly solved. Maintenance of the parts also required a skilled gun-maker who was familiar with clockwork mechanisms as well.

Due to the cost of manufacturing, wheel-locks were not as widespread as matchlocks. However it was more convenient to use on horseback and also by rich hunters. Soldiers who were in charge of guarding the gunpowder also preferred wheel-locks, since it didn't have a lit fire source unlike the matchlock. Thus there wasn't a danger of lighting the gunpowder supply by accident.

Robbers and highwaymen also quickly adopted it because it allowed one to carry a concealed weapon. It was also popular with assassins for the same reason and thus it was banned by several European city-states and throughout the Holy Roman Empire. By 1532, the Nuremberg city council complained that although law-abiding citizens were not allowed to own wheel-lock handguns, highwaymen and robbers all carried them, so that the law was unenforceable.