a trigger-guard, was also fitted to the stock of the cranequin crossbow,
in place of the long unprotected lever which previously, and from time
immemorial had acted as a trigger. The old-fashioned long trigger required
considerable pressure, with a consequent unsteadiness of aim, to cause
it to discharge the crossbow.
Fig. 88. - The Back-Sight of a Sixteenth Century Sporting
Crossbow.
The crossbar of the back-sight could be moved up or
down, or to the left or right, and then fixed by small screws, when its
notch and the head of the bolt were in a correct line for aiming.
In a cranequin crossbow, the backsight was hinged to
the stock, so that it might fold down flat when the cranequin was being
used to bend the bow.
Besides the new style of trigger (suggested doubtless by that of the
arquebus), the crossbow was fitted with a second or safety trigger.1
This safety trigger prevented accidents, especially on horseback, as the
crossbow could not be shot off till the safety trigger was pulled back
to allow the front trigger to act, Chapter XXXVI.
Finally a back-sight was added to the stock of the crossbow to complete
the weapon, fig. 88. The upper edge of the head of the bolt (as it lay
on the surface of the stock) being viewed through the notch in the crossbar
of the back-sight, gave the sportsman his alignment when taking aim, fig.
88.
A curious feature in most of the improved sporting crossbows of the
sixteenth century bent by cranequins, is the absence of a groove along
the top of the stock in which to lay the bolt preparatory to its discharge.
In fig. 89, opposite page, we see how the bolt of this form of crossbow
was placed on the stock of the weapon.
The crossbow, it will be noticed, is flat on its upper surface at the
part where in the older weapons there was a groove for the bolt.
In this case, the bolt rested near its head on a small raised cross-piece
of ivory, which was fixed across the stock of the crossbow close to its
fore-
1 Nor was the hand-gunner above taking a hint
from the crossbowman. In the earlier hand-gun, the bullet rattled loosely
down the barrel ; hence the chief cause of its failure in regard to range
and accuracy was 'windage,' or the escape of the charge of powder, when
ignited, past the sides of the bullet. The hand-gunner then bethought him
of the crossbow bolt instead of a bullet, and found that he could shoot
with great force a heavy-headed featherless bolt which exactly fitted the
barrel of his hand-gun. For some years, bolts like crossbow bolts, called
musquet-arrows, but without, of course, feathers, were frequently fired
from hand-guns in warfare, both on land and sea.
Chroniclers tell us that these bolts, as discharged from
hand-guns, were propelled with such power that they pierced from side to
side the bulwarks of ships. |