REPEATING CROSSBOW

[J T]

And, no, it's not a Chinese repeating crossbow.

JOAT Yes, it's my truck. No, I won''t help you move.

- Seen on a bumper sticker

[RonB]

Brings back memories. When I was young (a LONG time ago) my parents gave me a copy of "The Boy Mechanic" which was published by Popular Mechanics. The hardback book was vintage 1950's or early 60's but many of the projects obviously dated into the 30's and 40's. It included many projects and experiments that blanketed the spectrum from flight, sidewalk coaster cars, photography, sail boats/iceboats, electrical projects and some archery related projects such as shown on the link.

I also recall some projects that were well out of the "Boy" category. Not the least of which was a fully enclosed and streamlined engine/propellor driven iceboat that was capable of speeds over 70mph. I wonder how many mothers found their boys building one of these?

It was probably books like these that developed a need to tinker and make sawdust.

RonB

[DamnYankee]

I thought the "arrows" were called "bolts" when used in a crossbow. Plans call them "quarrels"? Never heard that term before.

Bryan

[Juergen Hannappel]

Well, maybe you should bolt when someone offers you a quarrel if he disagrees with you..

[Robert Bonomi]

When you get down to the nuts-and-bolts of it, a quarrel is a particular kind of an arrow -- one having a squared-off head.

A bolt is also a particular kind of an arrow -- one that is characterized by having a short and heavy shaft., as is typically used in a cross-bow.

[DamnYankee]

Interesting! Thanks for the education.

Bryan

[J T]

Tue, Aug 2, 2005, 7:56am (EDT-1) [e-mail] (RonB) proclaims: Brings back memories. When I was young (a LONG time ago) my parents gave me a copy of "The Boy Mechanic"

Damn, you must be OLD. LOL I'm 64 and haven't gotten to middle age yet.

I've got one or two copies of those floating around somewhere, along with at least one along the same lines published by someone else. I've got a handful of old boatbuilding boats from thast era, and earlier, too. Some very neat stuff in there (along with some very ugly stuff), and some very handy tips. Have one or two woodworking books in the 20s/30s, and a number printed in the 40s. I don't recall making anything from any of them, but do ge some iteresting ideas. Besides, I just like to thumb thru them occessionally.

Best place to find old books like that is old bookstores. Most of mine are from there, and few, if any, were over $10 each. Only occassionally have I found a decent deal for on on eBay, and by the time you add in shipping, you'e usually looking at around $15, minimum. But, every once in awhile you can get a deal.

JOAT Yes, it's my truck. No, I won''t help you move.

- Seen on a bumper sticker

[J T]

Tue, Aug 2, 2005, 5:11pm (EDT+6) [e-mail] (Juergen=A0Hannappel) tortured us with: Well, maybe you should bolt when someone offers you a quarrel if he disagrees with you..

Groan.

LOL

JOAT Yes, it's my truck. No, I won''t help you move.

- Seen on a bumper sticker

[John]

There used to be a kind of mason's chisel called a quarrel too - possibly for the same reason, or perhaps because of a similarity.

Lots of interesting terms come from bows and crossbows. A spanner was a device used to c*ck (or span) some of them - drawing the string back to the nut or release mechanism. Later a tool to c*ck early firearms. These days a general engineering tool used to tighten nuts of a different sort.

To have "shot your bolt" comes from crossbow use. They weren't quick to load, like the longbows. So if your bolt was shot, and some huge fellow with a long pointy thing was riding towards you, your day was about to be seriously spoiled.

A "c*ck-up" isn't half as rude as it sounds. The "c*ck feather" on an arrow or bolt needed to be away from the bow or stock - otherwise the arrow could go anywhere. Hence eventually a mistake of any kind.

Having "two strings to your bow" is fairly obvious. Less obvious is the old English saying "keep it under your hat". Bowmen commonly wore headgear of some kind - often of leather - and kept their strings dry under them.

And of course the traditional and still much-used British "two-fingers" gesture, used by longbowmen to show the enemy that they could still draw a bow (those two fingers often being cut off by the enemy if they were captured). The sexual connotations weren't unintentional.

John

[Robert Bonomi]

Yup. It's so-named _because_ that mason's chisel has a squared-off head.