Class Book for the School of Musketry, Hythe / Prepared for the Use of Officers

by Ernest Christian Wilford

Flint lock.

The next step in the improvement of the musket was the introduction of the flint-lock, now so well known, that I need not enter into the details of its mechanism.

In France, 1630.

It was used in France as early as 1630, but was not employed in the army until 1670 or 80, when it took the name of “fusil.” In England, 1677.It was not employed in England until about 1677, and its advantages over the matchlock are thus described in a work addressed to King Charles II., in 1677, Earl Orrery’s opinion.by the Earl of Orrery:—“First it is exceedingly more ready, for with the fire-lock you have only to cock, and you are prepared to shoot, but with the matchlock, you have several motions, besides if you fire not the matchlock as soon as you have blown your match, (which often, particularly in hedgefights and sieges, you cannot do) you must a second time blow your match. The match is very dangerous, either when bandoliers are used, or when soldiers run hastily in fight to the budge barrel, to refill their bandoliers. I have often seen sad instances thereof. Marching in the nights to avoid an enemy or to surprise one, or to assault a fortress, the matches often discover you, whereby you suffer much, and he obtains much. In wet weather, the rain deads the powder and the match too, and the wind sometimes blows away the powder, ere the match can touch the pan; nay, in very high winds, I have seen the sparks blown from the match, fire the musket ere the soldier meant it, and either thereby lose his shot, or kill some one before him. Whereas in the firelock, the motion is so sudden, that what makes the cock fall on the hammer, strikes the fire and opens the pan at once. Lastly, the quantity of match does much add to the baggage, it naturally draws the moisture of the air, which makes it less fit, and if you march without close waggons, it is the more exposed, and without being dried again in ovens is but of half the use which otherwise it would be of, and which is full as bad as the skeans you give the corporals, and the sinks you give the private soldiers, being rendered useless if damp; nothing of all which can be said of the flint, but much of it to the contrary.”

Bows to be replaced by muskets, 1596.

In a proclamation of Queen Elizabeth dated 1596, it is stated, “You shall bring with you all such furniture and weapon for footmen as you stand charged withall by statute, or have formerly shewed at other musters heretofore, changinge your billes into pikes, and your bowes into muskettes accordinge to our sayde former letters.”

Muskets with two locks.

In France, as late as 1702, when the flint had wholly superseded the pyrites, and the structure differed very little from our present musket-locks, an additional cock was attached to the end of the lock-plate, and a sliding cover placed over a hole in the hammer-seat, for the purpose of lighting the powder by a match, if the flint failed. Match-lock preferred.The match was therefore from its simplicity, preferred from all others for a considerable period, and is still used by the Chinese, Tartars, Persians, and Turks, in some provinces either wholly, or partially. Match made of.The match itself was made of cotton or hemp, spun slack, and boiled in a strong solution of saltpetre, or in the lees of wine.

Iron ramrod 1740.

In the time of Frederick the Great, (1740 to 1786), the invention of the iron ramrod by the Prince of Dessau, trifling matter as it seems, doubled the value of the fire of infantry. Prior to this the rammer had been made of wood, and was called the scouring stick.