These were the Major Types
of Mechanical Ignition Systems:
Matchlocks The
matchlock, as it progressed into a mechanical stage. was simply a mechanical
trigger-operated lever that plunged a lit
match cord
into a pan of gunpowder. They were relatively inexpensive to manufacture
and continued in use until about 1700.
Wheellocks These
mechanical locks which employed a spinning
iron wheel and an iron
pyrite to create sparks to ignite the pan
powder were driven by a watch spring and were expensive to make and very
fragile, thus they were a weapon of the rich and not of the common soldier
or common man.
Flintlocks These
mechanical locks progressed from the most primitive types, the Snaphaunce
and
the Miquelet
into
the modern flintlock in the late 1600's and were immediately adopted because
the gun could be carried loaded, primed and ready to deliver a shot at
a moment's notice, unlike the matchlock, which had to have its matchcord
lit before being useful. They were much easier to make and sturdier than
were wheellocks, and quickly replaced them, even on expensive firearms.
Caplocks Shortly
before the American Civil War, 1861-1865, a new form of ignition became
popular, employing a metal cup or Cap which
was placed over a cylendrical anvil, or "nipple" mounted on the rear of
the barrel. The Cap was filled with a substance known as Fulmonate
of Mercury, which sent a flame into the barrel
charge after being smashed by a flat faced "Hammer".
Right after the Civil War,
the cartridge was introduced, and the age of Muzzlelaoders came to a gradual
end, although manufacture never entirely
disappeared.
