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The Crossbow
carried cranequin crossbows in action, as, for example, the select bodyguard
of crossbowmen who guarded the person of Francis I. at Marignano in 1515.
Regarding the rate of movement of a cranequin, as compared with the
windlass which preceded it, a cranequin with the usual handle of 9 in.
in length, requires its handle knob to be turned round in a complete circle
thirty times to draw back the bow-string of a crossbow 5 1/2 in., which
was the common distance for the string to travel along the stock to the
catch of the lock. This entails the manipulator moving his hand a space
of 140 feet, and occupies him thirty-five seconds at a fair speed.
With a windlass, I find that the bow-string of the same crossbow can
be drawn to the catch of its lock in twelve seconds; also that bolts can
be discharged from a windlass crossbow at the rate of one a minute, whilst
with a cranequin crossbow, the rate of discharge is two bolts in three
minutes. Anyhow, nearly all the best sporting crossbows made after about
1480 and intended for killing deer, were fitted with ' cranequins ' as
winders for their bow-strings instead of with windlasses.
For sporting crossbows this winder was admirably adapted, and in their
case speed in action was of no great consequence. The cranequin crossbow
may be known by the increasing width of its short stock near the lock,
and by the transverse iron pin which projects an inch or so on each side
of the stock about seven inches behind the catch which holds the stretched
bow-string. Against this pin the cord loop of the cranequin was rested,
preparatory to using the latter to bend the bow, figs. 86, 87.
In crossbows bent by a goat's-foot lever, the transverse pin for the
fork of the lever to rest on was fixed through the stock just below the
catch of the lock, fig- 45. p. 89.
I can find no cranequin or even an illustration of one of a date previous
to 1480, though I know of several crossbows made about 1460 that have the
projecting metal pins through their stocks which indicate that cranequins
were applied to bend their bows.1
The earliest cranequins to be seen in Continental and other armouries,
date from about 1480. From this period the cranequin shows no change in
its mechanism for some 150 years, or till the time when the crossbow with
a heavy steel bow was no longer used for sporting purposes. The cranequin
was a clever contrivance and acted perfectly, as it was able to stretch
the
1 It is probable that the cranequin was invented
about the end of the first half of the fifteenth century. |
