The snaphance was the immediate precursor of the flintlock, and was a German invention of the second half of the sixteenth century, fired through the medium of sulphurous pyrites. This lock forms the connecting link between the wheel-lock and flintlock, there being a hammer instead of a wheel; the pan is the same, but the cover was moved back by a spring, leaving the powder clear for the action of the sparks. A fine collection of these weapons may be seen in the Dresden Museum.
The method of extracting fire by means of flint and steel is an ancient one, being mentioned by both Virgil and Pliny. The credit of the invention of the familiar flintlock is claimed by France, anno 1640, but an actual specimen in the Tower armoury, dated 1614, effectually disposes of this pretension. The French claim that the improvements of the screw-plate, “à miqulet,” led to the mechanism of the flintlock; but it was long before the system displaced that of the old matchlock. The musketeer continued to carry his matchlock gun up to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and even later, while the flintlock continued in use until long after Waterloo; indeed, matchlock, wheel-lock, and flintlock weapons were all to the fore together for a part of the seventeenth century.
Wheel-lock pistols formed part of the equipment of the Reiters or Pistoliers of the second half of the sixteenth century. Hefner says pistols were common in Germany in 1512, before the invention of the wheel-lock. The pistol of the Reiters, who usually wore blackened demi-armour, are very easily recognisable by the round pommel.
The pistol was often combined with other weapons, both for battle and for the chase, and such combinations are often met with in the axe, mace, and even sword; while there are instances of pistols with two and even three locks. The introduction of these weapons produced great changes in warlike tactics. The etymology of the word is uncertain, some maintaining that the name arose from the weapon having been invented in Pistoja; others believe that the word originated from a coin of the time, the pistole, from the fact, if it be one, that the bore of the weapon had the same diameter as the coin.
Hand-guns of the later middle ages and the “renaissance” may be divided into plain weapons for the ordinary soldiers, and decorated guns for leaders and parade, besides hunting purposes. Brescia was a great centre for their manufacture. Numbers of these guns were fired without touching the shoulder, the recoil being provided for by placing the thumb firmly against the nose.
The musket (muchite, so named from the sparrow-hawk), which was longer and more powerful than the harquebus, though similar in construction and mechanism, appears in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, and St. Remy refers to it as being in use about the end of the seventeenth century. It was first fired from the breast, then from a long-forked rest, furnished with a spike at the end for sticking into the ground; but this fell into desuetude in the seventeenth century. It was found very difficult to keep the powder dry in the bandoliers,[56] which were cases of wood or tin, each containing a charge of powder, and strung round the neck; and powder flasks began to be used about 1540, the bullet-bag being carried on the soldier’s right hip.
Powder flasks appear very early in the sixteenth century, with the well-known arrangement for the measured charge; early examples are given in the arsenal books of Maximilian I. They were first very small, but gradually increased in size as the century wore on, mostly circular in form, but later they are often three-cornered, and frequently made of horn, wholly or in part. Cartridges superseded their use about the middle of the seventeenth century, and the bayonet is first mentioned about the same time.
Arrows or quarrels were often used as projectiles for the musket, but this happened mostly at sea.
The harquebusier of the seventeenth century carried a weapon two and a half feet long.
The carbine or caraben is a gun with a wide bore, first used in Queen Elizabeth’s reign.