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Wheellock. A wheellock pistol or puffer, Augsburg, c. 1580. A wheellock, wheel-lock, or wheel lock is a friction-wheel mechanism which creates a spark that causes a firearm to fire. It was the next major development in firearms technology after the matchlock and the first self-igniting firearm. Its name is from its rotating steel wheel to ...
Snaphance. A snaphance or snaphaunce is a type of firearm lock in which a flint struck against a striker plate above a steel pan ignites the priming powder which fires the gun. [1] It is the mechanical progression of the wheellock firing mechanism, and along with the miquelet lock and doglock are predecessors of the flintlock mechanism.
The Kalthoff repeater was a type of repeating firearm that was designed by members of the Kalthoff family around 1630, [1] and became the first repeating firearm to be brought into military service. [2] At least nineteen gunsmiths are known to have made weapons following the Kalthoff design. [2] Some early Kalthoff guns were wheellocks, [3][4 ...
The flintlock mechanism is a type of lock used on muskets, rifles, and pistols from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. It is commonly referred to as a " flintlock " (without the word mechanism). The term is also used for the weapons themselves as a whole, and not just the lock mechanism. The flintlock mechanism, also known as the true ...
Flintlock. Flintlock of an 18th-century hunting rifle, with flint missing. Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint -striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also known as the true flintlock ...
The term flintlock was, and still is, often applied to any form of friction (flint) lock other than the wheellock with the various forms sub-categorized as snaphaunce, miquelet, English Doglock, Baltic Lock, and French or "true" flintlock ("true" being the final, widely used form). Strictly speaking, all are flintlocks.
The origin of this proto-flintlock is unclear. The earliest source which could be speaking of a snaplock is an account from 1515 where a young man in Konstanz, Germany accidentally shot a girl with a pistol, thinking it could not go off due to the lack of a lit match. The pistol in question could be a snaplock but probably was a wheellock.
Contents. Matchlock. A matchlock or firelock[ 1 ] is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of flammable cord or twine that is in contact with the gunpowder through a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with their finger. This firing mechanism was an improvement over the ...