OT: What's "bbl" on a gun?

R

ruel

Joined
Nov 22, 1999
Messages
532
I've run across this expression several times now while browsing over flintlock guns on the Net. What is it? I have a feeling it's something really obvious, but then I have a bad habit of overlooking the obvious... :(

For example, this gun of mine supposedly has a "bbl":

russianmiquelet.jpg
 
I believe it's the barrel.
The term is also used in auto parts, for carbs. A double-barral carb is listed as 2bbl, or 4bbl for a four barrel.

I have no idea why.
 
Interesting gun, Ruel. Do you know it's history? Is it missing the trigger guard, or is it supposed to be that way?
 
The gun looks like it may have started out as a match lock . Very interesting, the action seems much older then the stock, and the modern screws shown in the third picture are probably a later modification.

n2s
 
* Good, thanks; I suspected it might have meant "barrel," though I still can't reconcile the double-B. How did that happen? :confused:

* Aardvark,

The gun is apparently from the Caucasus, 19thc. style, though it lacks the big ball pommel that pistols from that area are famous for. Caucasian guns as a rule also lack trigger guards.

The stock does seem to be a replacement, as the barrel ("bbl!") decoration doesn't exactly line up with it (see bottom photo). The grain of the burl wood looks gorgeous in person. I'm told the shape of the stock is based on English and French patterns. The barrel is pattern welded damascus and has gold inlaid decoration incuding an inscription in Arabic script, which I'm still trying to have translated. Most likely Turkish or Persian.

I guess this would've been used during the Murid Wars (mid 19thc.), when several of the Muslim groups of the Caucasus banded together to resist several Russian invasions over a 30-year period. It's the basis for the ongoing war in Chechnya today. During my trip to Russia last month I developed a sudden interest in the Caucasus and its weapons. My next grab, hopefully, will be this pair of Caucasus pistols here:

EB001.jpg


* The capucine is obviously newer, but -- N2S -- how can you tell about the screws? Someone else made the same observation, but I for the life of me can't see the age difference.
 
I found this in

"How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement"
© Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

at http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictB.html

B

...

barrel (bbl or brl or bl) [1]

a commercial unit of volume used to measure liquids such as beer and wine. The official U. S. definition of the barrel is 31.5 gallons, which is about 4.211 cubic feet or 119.24 liters. This unit is the same as the traditional British wine barrel. In Britain the barrel is now defined to be 36 imperial gallons, which is substantially larger: about 5.780 cubic feet or 163.66 liters. This unit is slightly smaller than the traditional British beer and ale barrel, which held 5.875 cubic feet or 166.36 liters. There are other official barrels, defined in certain U.S. states; most of them fall in the general range of 30-40 gallons. A barrel of beer in the U.S., for example, is usually 31 U.S. gallons (117.35 liters). The origin of the standard symbol bbl is not clear. The "b" may have been doubled originally to indicate the plural (1 bl, 2 bbl), or possibly it was doubled to eliminate any confusion with bl as a symbol for the bale (see above). :confused:
 
Thanks; those are good possibilities. One has to wonder, though, since those barrels are units of measure while a gun barrel obviously isn't. The double-b might've just got transferred inadvertently, for no better reason than to annoy us! "Brl" would've been so much better...

I like Caucasian pistols alot. As far as flintlocks go, they're pretty much the coolest style in my book. :cool: Here's how good they can look, when taken to the extreme (from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg):

ic081a.gif
 
I went to that site for the dictionary, Kismet, which brings up another question. Why is the abbreviation for pound LB when neither letter is in the word? Better yet, why is the word abbreviate so damn long?! argghhh!!!! :confused: :mad:
 
ABBREVIATION LB FOR POUND
“Why are pounds, when used as a weight, abbreviated lbs?”

The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound.
World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2003.
 
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