From: tssmith@netcom.com (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Match, Wheel, Flint Locks
Date: 14 Dec 92 14:14:57 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <Bz6n7t.LJo@news.cso.uiuc.edu> irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:
#Does anyone know what the difference between these
#types of actions?
#
#Jus' curious...

There are two kinds of muzzle-loading hand-held weapons: those that
use primer (fine gunpowder) in a pan, next to a touch hole, and those
that put the primer in small copper percussion caps.

There were pistols, muskets, rifles, and shotguns made with
percussion caps, which were developed (in England, I think) around
the beginning of the 19th century, and were in common use until
obsoleted by breech-loading cartridge weapons in the 1860s--1870s.

The first kind, with a pan containing priming powder, needed some way
to ignite the primer.  The first solution was a match, which is a
small rope of quick-match (like punk) that smolders for a long time. 
You clamp the match in the cock.  When you pull the trigger, the cock
snaps the match down into the pan, ignites the primer, and away you
go (after maybe several seconds of lock time, in the worst case).

(Some definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:
"A slow-match now consists of a mass of loosely-twisted hempen cords
steeped in a solution of saltpetre and lime-water, and burns at the
rate of one yard in three hours.  The quick-match is a cotton wick,
impregnated with saltpetre, or coated with gum and mealed gunpowder.")

To improve lock time, and add reliability, two mechanisms were
developed to ignite the primer faster.  The wheellock works something
like a cigarette lighter.  You use a key to wind up a small steel
wheel, sprung with a clockwork spring.  When the trigger is pulled
the wheel is released, spins, and is pushed into contact with pyrites
(or flint), sparks are produced, and the powder in the pan is ignited
(you hope).  (Anyhow, this is what I deduce from seeing them in
museums--I've never fired one.)

A flintlock's lock has a small piece of flint, partially wrapped in
leather and wedged into a hammer (or cock), and contained there with
a clamp.  When the weapon is cocked, the cock is drawn back against a
spring, and a steel striker is raised.  When the trigger is pulled,
the cock falls, strikes the steel, and the resulting sparks fall into
the pan, igniting the primer (you hope).

(Question for flintlock experts:  what do you call the steel thingie
that the flint strikes?  I thought it was called a "frizzen", but you
don't find this word in any English dictionary.)

Matchlock weapons were first developed in the Middle Ages in Europe,
and possibly in China at that time or earlier.  They were used in
European armies through the early 18th century.  The military
"blunderbuss", a long, heavy matchlock smoothbore, usually having a
flared barrel, and almost always supported near the end of the barrel
with a stick, was a common weapon in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Smaller, shorter matchlocks were also used as hunting tools in the
16th and 17th centuries.  You can see them in various early Dutch
paintings (e.g.  Brueghel).

I've never heard of a matchlock pistol, or rifled weapon. Someone may
have made these, but most matchlocks were smoothbore long weapons. 
They often had flared barrels, to make it easier to load the powder
and irregularly shaped projectiles.

I believe that wheellocks were much more common in central Europe,
while England and France mostly developed flintlocks, but a real
firearms historian might have better insight on this.

Artillery used all kinds of ignition methods, but right up until the
end of the muzzle-loading piece (say, the American Civil War), most
pieces used a matchlock-like firing mechanism.  From the demos I've
seen, it worked like this:  the powder charge is loaded in one or
more small sacks (after sponging out, of course), and the shot
(round, shell, cannister, whatever) is loaded on top of the charge. 
The gunner then pushes a small pointed tube (a quill) that contains
powder through the touch hole and into a powder sack.  When ready to
fire, the gunner touches the quill with his match (probably a
slow-match), and away you go.

--Tim (tssmith@netcom.com)