Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/105

 MUSKET 1346 by the English at the battle of Crecy, but it is not definite. They were certainly used before the beginning of the 16th century. When gunpowder was first applied to warlike purposes, the cannon were hooped, and ex- ternally were not unlike boxes. In Germany they were therefore called Buchse, and an ar- tillerist was a Buchsenmeister. When guns were transported on wheels they were called Kanonenbuchse. The portable arm which fol- lowed the bombardelle was called in German Hakenbiichse, because it had attached to the for- ward part of the stock a hook {Hakeii} which received the shock of the recoil. This name was corrupted in other languages to arquebus, arquebuse, archibuso, &c. The arm was also FIG. 2. Arquebus. used with a forked stick upon which to rest the forward end in the act of firing, and was, if not the earliest, certainly one of the earliest portable firearms. About the same time the hammer and pan for priming were applied to the arm, and they or their equivalents have been used on portable firearms ever since. When the hammer was first used, it was merely a piece of iron bent in the shape of the letter S, and called the serpent, one end of which carried the live coal or match, and the other acted as a trigger. It was fastened to the piece at its centre, about which it could move ; when the piece was to be fired the trigger end was pulled, and the match end was brought down on the priming. Springs were soon at- tached to it, causing it to go back to its original position after it had done its work ; and this arrangement was the first gunlock. Muskets with the serpent attachment were captured from the Chinese at the Peiho forts in 1860, -. 8. Arquebus and Serpent. and were in use in Japan until within a few years. During the 15th and 16th centuries the use of the arquebus became general in the con- tinental nations of Europe ; but the English still retained the crossbow, believing that it was more rapid and accurate in its action, and that its range was greater. In 1517 the wheel gunlock was invented at Nuremberg, and at this time the portable arm took the name of musket. This lock consisted of a heavy iron plate to which the parts were fastened. The parts were a steel wheel about an inch and a half in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick, the circumference of which was channelled. To the arbor of the wheel was attached one end of a short iron chain, the other end of which was fastened to a heavy spring. By means of a key, about three fourths of a turn could be given to the wheel, compressing the spring. When the wheel was turned sufficiently, a dog engaged in a corresponding hole in the wheel, fastening it. This dog could be lifted out of its hole by the action of a lever corresponding to the trigger in the modern lock, and when the dog was so lifted the wheel moved round with some rapidity. Above the wheel was fastened the pan, a piece of iron, pan-shaped, in the bottom of which was cut a hole through which a small part of the circumference of the wheel projected, filling the hole. The cock or hammer was a piece of iron or steel so ar- ranged that one of its ends held a flint or piece of iron pyrites between jaws, and the other end was fastened to the lock plate, the hammer being free to move around the fastening. A spring acted upon the fastened end, so that when the flint end of the hammer rested upon that part of the wheel projecting through the pan, the spring pressed it hard on the wheel. To discharge the piece with this lock, suppo-: FIG. 4 "Wheel Lock with Serpent attached, front view. FIG. 4 a. Wheel Lock with Serpent attached, rear view. sing the priming to be in the pan, the wheel was turned until it engaged the dog ; the cock was then turned so that the flint pressed on the wheel; then by pushing the trigger or lever, the wheel turned quickly, and sparks were thrown off, igniting the priming. This was an exceedingly ingenious piece of mecha- nism, and all flint locks made since its date are modifications of it. Many locks of the present day contain the same ideas in an improved form. The flint was held in the cock or ham- mer by jaws moved by a screw. In some specimens of this lock these jaws are engraved to represent the head of a bird of prey holding the flint in its beak. It is not unlikely that the name musket originated with this device. So in Germany the hammer is called Hahn, cock. In England and the United States cock was the name of the hammer so long as flint locks were used. In France the hammer was called chien, dog. As the flint in the wheel lock often missed fire, in some cases the ser- pent was also attached to one end of the lock plate. In this the match was tept lighted,