Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/84

* FISTACIA. 62 native of Cochin-Cliina, is used by the people of that country to impart a perfume to ointments. PISTIL (from Lat. pistclliim, pisiillus, pestle). The central organ of an ordinary Uowcr, containing the ovules, and developing into the seed-case. See Flowkr. PISTOIA, p#stc>'ya, or PISTOJA. A city in the Province of Florence, Italy, situated at the foot of the Apennines. '20 miles nortliwest of Florence by rail (Maj): Italy. E 4). It is well built, and" it is surrounded by lofty and well- preserved walls. The city played a prominent part in the early history of architecture and sculpture, and niauy of its churches bear marks of the intluence of the Pisani. The cathedral, built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, contains a remarkable silver altar and a monu- ment to Cardinal Foiteguena. considered as the lirst work in marble by Vcrrocchio. Sant' .-Vn- drea, one of th<> oldest churches of Pistoia. is noted for its pulpit, tlie work of Giovanni Pisano, and San Francesco al Prato is remarkable for its frescoes of biblical scenes. The ancient palaces of Pistoia are especiallv interesting. The Ospe- dale del Ceppo is iM'autifully decorated with terra- cotta reliefs (dating from (he sixteenth century) and medallions reiirescnting biblical scenes. The Palazzo del Coiinine and the Palazzo Pretoria are both in the Italian-Gothic style of the four- teenth century. There are an imposing bishop's ))alace, a seminary, an academy of sciences, and two libraries. The principal manufactures are iron and stind wares, especially fire-arms, silks, linens, woolens, paper, and glass. Pistols are said to have been first made here, whence the name. Population (comnume) in 1881, .51.552; in 1901, C2,(i06. Pistoia is the Roman Pistoria where Cati- line was defeated in n.c 1)2. It was the scene of much factional strife between the Ghibellines and the (iuelphs. In the fourteenth century it became subject to Florence. PISTOL (OF. pislolc, from It. pistoia. pistol, dagger, from Pistoia, from Lat. Pistoria. a town in Italy, near Florence). This member of the small-arms group was develo])ed soon after the invention of the wheel-lock, in the desire to sup- ply horse soldiers with a firearm. The result was a weapon called the pistol, which was first manufactured at Pistoria, in Etruria, about 1540. by Camillo Vcttelli. At their first ap- pearance they were distinguished by very short barrels. an<l heavy, clumsy butts, which, sur- mounted by enormous caps, were very nearlv at right angles with the barrel. It was not long, however, before the butts were lengthened out al- most in a line with the barrels. The great ma- jority of the pistols used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were fitted with wheel- locks, for which they were best adapted. Daggs was the name of a peculiar and heavy pistol in common use toward the middle of the seventeenth century. German manufactured pistols of the wheel-lock type had also been adopted by many of the important cavalry corps of continental Europe, foremost among whom were the Hitters of Prussia. (See Cav.lry. ) It is to dueling, however, that the pistol is indebted for nearly all the improvements since made in its effectiveness; for while occasional slight alterations have been made in the general pattern, tlie exterior appearance and method of handling the dueling PISTOL. pistol of the nineteenth century was practically identical with that of the eighteenth. For mili- tary and sporting purposes, the pistol has expe- rienced many strange shapes and designs during its evolution into the modern revolver. The ear- liest type .seems to have been an arquebus with four chambers, a specimen of which is in the Tower of London Armory, and which is said to have been the personal property of Henry VIII. It belongs to the early part of the sixteenth cen- tury an inch. There is a separate flash pan for every chamber, which is covered with a gliding lid and moved in rotation underneath the serpentine. The barrel, which is secured to the spindle, is strengthened by a rod fastened to its top, and the other extremity fixed to the butt of the gun. The lock consisted of a serpentine, passing through the stock and secured by a pivot;. The serpentine extended below and behiiul the pivot, and thus formed a trigger, which on being pressed allowed the serpentine to fall into the Hash pan, the weight of the trigger acting as a balance, and restoring it to its original position. In every instance the chamber had to be moved round by hand. Devices for the combination of firearms with some other form of weapon have been frequent from the days of the first discovery of firearms up to the beginning of the twentieth century. The combination most frequently used has been the pistol and battle-axe, examples of which in the fifteenth century are not uncommon. The Dresden JIuseum is especially rich in examples of these and similar weapons. Combinations of pistols and daggers were also frequently met with between the fifteenth and eighteentli cen- turies; since then and up to the present day, in- ventions are constantly being recorded which have the same jirinciple for their base. In 1896 a patent for a combined dagger and pistol was issued from the English Patent Office, and about the same time a pistol-lance was being advocated in both Russia and Germany, as an esseutially effective cavalry weapon, f'he invention of the revolver, which is discussed under its own head, caused the pistol to be used principally for duel- ing and target shooting, and excellent weapons were made for these purposes. The revolver with its six or seven shots served as an important, valuable military weapon on account of its ef- fectiveness at close range, but at the beginning of the twentieth century the indications were that the automatic pistol would replace the re- volver for war purposes. Many of the British officers in the Boer War of 1899-1002 were equipped with automatic pistols, while in coun- tries like Germany, where the officers' equipment is supplied by the Government, a self-loading pistol is rapidly taking the place of the revolver. The four best known types are the Miiuscr, the Bmyhardt-Lxiger, the Colt, and the Mannlicher. Probably the best European example is the Bur- chardt-Luger, operated by the utilization of the gas arising from its discharge, which is made to operate the mechanism, open the breech, extract and expel the cartridge, reloading and reclosing the breech for a new discharge. The firer merely replenishes the mechanism when necessary, and pulls the trigger. It is capable of firing 103 shots per minute, or 48 in 28 seconds. It is of 7.C5 millimeters (0.301 inch) in calibre, and