The serpentin is adjusted on a pivot through the stock, and forms a lever for the fingers beyond it. Then, holding a match, it is brought into contact with a slow match in a holder on the barrel and ignited; then by raising the lever, it is forced into the flashpan and touch-hole, where the priming is placed, and the gun discharged. This movement is in three varieties: the earliest moves towards the pan from the stock, while later it was fixed in the opposite direction; in the third it is propelled by a snap. First manipulated by the hand, then with a lever, and afterwards by a crank in connection with the trigger. The idea of the serpentin goes back to the fourteenth century, for the Froissart preserved in the town library at Breslau shows a drawing of a hand-bombard with an elementary form of triggered serpentin; and the same adjustment occurs in representations of these primitive weapons on a drawing preserved in the Hofbibliothek at Vienna. The mainspring was a further simplification of procedure in lending a more direct action to the serpentin, which fell with greater force, and obviated the necessity for blowing on the match.
The harquebus was of several kinds and sizes, some fired from a rest, others from the shoulder or breast. There was also the heavy semi-portable weapon already referred to, served by three or four men; used both for field and fortress work. The length of the hand harquebus ranged from two and a half feet and upwards; barrels are both muzzle and breech-loaders; bores are of various sizes, sometimes very wide and bell-mouthed. The great disadvantage of the matchlock was the trouble and uncertainty experienced in retaining fire, and in it being necessary always to have a lighted match, or means of striking a light. This was especially felt in the chase, and the wheel-lock, which is said to have been invented by Johann Kiefuss of Nuremberg, in 1517, provided a much needed improvement on the older method; there is, however, at least one earlier example of this lock with the date inscribed. It did not, however, displace the matchlock for war purposes, owing to the greater cheapness and simplicity of the latter, which continued in use up to the eighteenth century. There is an example of a regimental matchlock musket at the Rotunda, Woolwich, dating about 1700—barrel, 46 inches long; calibre, 0.540 inch; steel mounts. The main principle of the wheel-lock is to generate the spark which is to ignite the powder for firing the shot in a self-acting manner, in contradistinction to the principle of the matchlock, where the ignition was served by a match which required to be kept constantly burning.
The costliness of the wheel-lock, which was made in as many as ten separate pieces, greatly restricted its use as regards hand-guns, but it was applied generally to pistols, and pieces for the hunting field. Cavalry used weapons with this lock, as it was very inconvenient to manage the match-cord on horseback, especially as it required regulating with every shot fired. Ignition was accomplished by sparks which were caused by the friction of a steel wheel, notched long and crosswise, rubbing against a flint, or by the striking of the wheel against a cube of solid pyrites. The lock was wound up by a spanner, which hung at the soldier’s belt. The main details of this lock are as follow, viz.:—A serrated wheel, connected to the backplate by a chain and spring, forming with the backplate the bottom of the flashpan, and wound up by a spanner. With the wheel-barrel is connected one end of a strong spring, by a chain, which winds round the barrel when the wheel is turned, tightening the spring until the catch of a bar drops into a corresponding notch of the wheel, thus holding spring and wheel cocked. After winding up, the trigger is pressed, releasing the wheel, which revolves round with great energy, by means of the accumulated force lent it by the winding, and coming into contact with the pyrites in the cock produces the sparks that ignite the priming in the flashpan trough, and fires the piece. Various improvements in the mechanism of this lock took place from time to time.
There are examples of wheel-lock weapons in the Tower of London dating from about the middle of the sixteenth century; a breech-loading harquebus, with a lock of something like the same date, is in the Musée d’Artillerie at Paris. A harquebus revolver, with seven barrels, may be seen in the Hohenzollern collection at Sigmaringen, and there are countless examples existing among the museums of Europe, and notably at Dresden.
During the sixteenth century, and especially in the later half, the footman wore half-armour, and usually discharged his weapon from a prop.
In a matchlock the match is lit at both ends.
The air-gun was invented in Germany in 1560. In this weapon the bellows are wound up against a spring, which is released by pulling the trigger; the receiver is in the stock, and filled by a pump.
The principle of rifling barrels was certainly applied as early as 1510, and there are very early examples of revolvers. There is one in the Tower of London with a matchlock, dating from about the middle of the sixteenth century. A patent for rifling barrels was taken out in London in 1635. It is said that the invention of grooved arms is due to Gaspard Kollner of Vienna, in 1498; other writers attribute it to August Kollner of Nuremberg, early in the sixteenth century; but whether the grooves were straight or spiral, or when they became the latter, is not so obvious; at all events, the principle was not much adopted for military arms before the seventeenth century.
The caliver is a harquebus or light musket of a standard calibre, introduced into England during Elizabeth’s reign; it was four feet ten inches long, discharged without a rest, and the fire was much more rapid than that of its predecessors, and had the great advantage of uniformity of projectile. Edmund Yorke, writing in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, says: “Before the battle of Mounguntur, the princes of the religion caused several thousand harquebusses to be made, all of one ‘calibre,’ which was called ‘Harquebuse de calibre de Monsieur le Prince.’”[55]
Hand-grenades of the sixteenth century were made of very coarse glass, almost slag or pottery; they were nearly three and a half inches in diameter, holding from three to seven ounces of powder.