37° 



The Aviericau Ang;Icr. 



brought over against its edge by a 

 spring cock. From this a shower of 

 sparks was cast down upon the priming 

 in the pan. 



I find it stated in an article in that 

 clever disposed periodical, The Inter- 

 natiofial, that this form of lock is de- 

 scribed by Luigi Collado, in a treatise 

 on artillery, printed at Venice, in 1586, 

 and there said to be a recent German 

 invention. 



It is, however, sufficiently well ascer- 

 tained that the muskets of the Italian 

 Imperialists at the battle of Pavia, to 

 which the defeat of Francis I., with all 

 the splendid chivalry of France is en- 

 tirely to be ascribed, , were fitted with 

 this method of ignition ; and from this 

 battle, most important therefore as an 

 historical era, dates downfall of 

 chivalry, and the alteration of the 

 whole mode of warfare, infantry and 

 cavalry, in fact changing place, the 

 former becoming the largest and most 

 important service in all modern armies, 

 and the latter dwindling merely into an 

 auxilliary arm. This would, therefore, 

 seem rather to justify the attribution of 

 this improvement to Italy or Spain, 

 rather than to Germany, as Pavia was 

 fought in 1525, more than half a 

 century earlier than the time of the 

 Venitian waiter above quoted. 



The next invention was unquestion- 

 ably German, being the snaphaunce, or 

 regular flint-lock, precisely similar in 

 principle, though now far inferior in 

 many other requisites, to the splendid 

 machinery of the incomparable Man- 

 ton's almost perfect flint-lock. 



This invention was introduced into 

 England in the reign of Charles II. it is 

 stated, but I have unquestionably seen 

 horse-pistols, used during the wars of 

 the. Commonwealth, between Charles I. 

 and his Parliament, which were dis- 



charged by this mode of ignition. 



Still, however, as the long-bow 

 lingered in England and w^as the prin- 

 cipal and most effective weapon of the 

 militia rural trainbands even so late as 

 the reign of Elizabeth, so the match 

 lock continued to be the ordinary form 

 of the musket until the reign of William 

 III., about 1692, when the snaphaunce, 

 or modest form of flint-lock, came into 

 general w&e, and continued in vogue 

 until it was superseded forever in the 

 beginning of the present centurj', by 

 the, in my opinion, never to be im- 

 proved upon percussion principle. 



It is very remarkable that although, 

 as I have shown above, the gun has 

 been in use for nearly five centuries, 

 and has been consequently for the 

 whole of that time the subject of con- 

 stant speculation, invention and at- 

 tempted improvement on the part of 

 the best and ablest mechanicians, but 

 two real lasting improvements have 

 been made in this weapon, and both 

 those in the principle of ignition — the 

 substitution of the flint-lock for the 

 match-lock, which at once established 

 the superiority of the musket to the 

 long-bow and the arbulast, and the sub- 

 stitution of the percussion cap — which 

 I regard as the onh^ rational mode of 

 ignition at present, and the form which 

 will last so long as the use of percussion 

 powder endures, — for the flint-lock, 

 which might be called the grave of 

 gunmaking with almost as much pro- 

 priety as the introduction of flint and 

 steel was termed that of chivalry. 



For since the copper cap S5'stem, 

 with its simple and easily manufactured 

 lock, has taken place of the complicated, 

 exquisitely balanced, delicate machinery 

 of the fine, old-fashioned flint and steel, 

 not half the skill in the mechanician is 

 reqviired, and so vast is the increased 



