Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-04-29

original inventor OF the revolving
type Of firearms. He invented in IS42
pistol which you see is q cap and
ball six-shot handgun, but look at thls
fiye-shot flintlock carbine made be
/, fore 1900. See how the cylinder re-
wolves and each cylinder has a
striker and flash pan, the one ham
ner doing duty for each cylinder as
10 is nevolyed by hand to bring the
cylinders in line with barrel before
discharge Was not Col Colt quite
foxy in applying this principal to a
hand gun and. by patent make him.
self wealthy and perpetuating his
name?
The local blacksmiths made most
of the rifles In America until the in
yention of the fixed ammunition. The
steel tubes and flintlocks were most
~ imported from England although
the most expensive barrels were made
in Spain The local smith cut the
barrels and rifled them to suit his
customers Oh, no, the rifling was
quite simple. Patience was all that
was required. A square one-fourth-
inch hole was cut in fixed upright
steel and the smooth bored barrel cut
to length that suited the customers
order was fixed rigid horizontally
next to IL. The smith next heated q
Quarter-ineh square steel rod and
twisted 1t so chat the turns CORE
sponded to the desire of his custom
er, then cooled the rod. It was only
necessary to fix little fiat saws on
end of rod, usually five at equidis-
lance. and by pushing the square rod
through the square hole in the up
right shove the. saws back and forth
In the barreL the twist of the rod
making the spirals inside the barrel
The spirals usually ran one turn in
10 feet. They are now in our mod
ern aut0matics one turn In To- inches.
Can't you almost see the old black
smith In his leathern apron, his long
beard falling to his waist, pushing
back and forth on this crude rifling
machine. sweaty and covered with
dirt from his forge, toiling day BIZ
day cutting the little spiral grooves
that would direct the leadeD pellet
TO its mark? Then, how carefully he
selected the hammer and flash pan,
drew. tempered and fixed the springs.
smOothed the double trigger and
notched the barrel for the flat rear
and knife blade front sight. Ard then
the cherry wood he had kept for years
in the rafters over his forge was
carefully brought down, filed, scraped
and fitted into a stock; the barrel
and lock carefully morticed into
place. silver guide thimbles for Sec
ond growth hickory ram rod placed
on under side of the long stock and
then just because he had pride in his
handicraft, he heated a. couple of
Spanish silver dollars, plunged them
while at cherry red in cold water. TO
soften them, beat them on his anvil
into sheets and fashioned the scroll
silver flint and patch box and inlaid
il In stock butt and inlaid all around
1t the half moon and stars cut from
the waste ends of the silver That's
the gun made by American, brain and
Drawn, carried by the American pion-
Ger soldier that won for Us Saratoga
and New Orleans and in the hands
of such men as Crockett, Bowie and
Travis, made glorious the name
Alamo
Those bronze swivel cannon are
called 1antakas No one knows
their age but they came. from Arabia
and are sold by traders to the Moros.
When Magellen reached the Philip
pines he found the natives had bronze
cannon which they called lantakas.
Strange as 1t may seem, the Arabs
were the first to use fire arms, al
though a Christian discovered g1.l.
powder. These guns are mounted on
the gunwales of the canoes or paraos
and fired with match.
zone dagger of interest was a
double blade that was so fixed that
in drawing it from the wound 1t
opened like pair of shears, nearly
cutting the victim in two. There
were a dozen or more curious, bronze
and inlaid beetle boxes, Aladdin brass
lamps, large, heavy brass trays, one
of them carved with verse from the
Koran One ancient bronze knife
was so fixed that If thrown one of its
four blades was always 'front.' An
Eastern Star was an iron ball COW
cred with spikes and fastened to an
iron handle by short chain. A tiger
knife had a long stout blade fitted to
la handle crosswise like a corkscrew
| handle.
There was fine. pair of percus-
sion lock duelling pistols of 1848 in
mahogany case with bullet mold and
loadiI.g equipment, the powder flash
of silver, the trigger guards and pistol
butts also of silver. Inlaid in gold
! on the. barrels was the word
"Natcheg." Such a case of pistols
would have cost new upwards of $500.
"A finely engraved Aliens pepper
box the Colts percussion cap six
shooter of 1916, cal 36, couple Of
double-barrelled pistols of curious an
cient pattern, pair of Arabian horse
pistols, flintlocks, carved brass-bound
teake wood handles, an ancient flint.
lock Cossack pistol.
"a pair of Afghanistan swords had
blades curved like a sythe blade, the
handles massive and of old ivory, vel
low with age. One of the handles was
covered with jewels, coral and red
stones, the blade inlaid in scroll
| gold and iufaid with silver in verse