The black powder used in flints quickly polluted the barrel, which was a problem for rifles and smooth-diameter barrels firing a tighter pass cartridge for greater accuracy. Each shot would add more fouling to the barrel, making the weapon increasingly difficult to load. Even if the barrel was heavily soiled, the flint user had to sit properly during turns until the barrel was closed. Leaving a gap of air between the powder and the bullet (known as a „short start“) was very dangerous and could cause the barrel to explode. Both the British Army and the Continental Army used paper cartridges to load their weapons. [24] The powder charge and bullet were immediately available to the soldier in this small paper envelope. To load a flintlock weapon with a paper cartridge, a soldier A genius from the machine shop turned a matchlock musket into flint and showed local gunsmiths how to do it. However, while European military tactics continued to rely on vaguely targeted mass salvos, most of their flints were still smooth – as the spiral grooves of the rifle took longer to load and black powder tended to pollute the guns after repeated firing. Find out which words work together and create more natural English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
The most welcome capture was weapons, as many of his men were armed with flintlock muskets. Because of the time required to reload (even experts needed 15 seconds to reload a smooth-muzzled musket,[20] flints were sometimes made with two, three, four or more guns for multiple rounds. These designs were generally expensive to manufacture and often unreliable and dangerous. While weapons such as double-barreled shotguns were reasonably safe, weapons such as the pepperbox revolver sometimes fired all the barrels at once or sometimes simply exploded in the user`s hand. It was often cheaper, safer and more reliable to carry multiple firearms to a single gun instead. The new flint system quickly became popular and was known and used throughout Europe in various forms until 1630, although the old flint systems were still in use for some time. Examples of early flintlock muskets can be seen in Rubens` painting „Marie de` Medici as Bellona“ (painted circa 1622-25). These flintlock locks have been used alongside older firearms such as matches, wheel locks and Miquelet locks for nearly a hundred years. The last major European power to standardize flint was the Holy Roman Empire, when the emperor introduced a new regulation in 1702 that all wicks had to be rebuilt or discarded. [6] „Real“ flint was cheaper to produce than previous flints, which, along with general economic development, allowed any 18th century European soldier to own one. Compared to the previous matchlock, flints could be recharged about twice as fast, missed much less frequently, and easier to use in different environments because they didn`t require a hot match. This immediately changed the calculation of infantry combat; According to one calculation, a formation fully equipped with flint (with paper cartridges) could fire ten times more shots in a period of time equivalent than a typical pike of the early 17th century and a shooting formation equipped with matches (spike-to-shot ratio of 3:2).
[7] When a flint was fired, it sprayed a shower of sparks from the snout forward and another from the side of the lightning hole. One of the reasons for firing salvos was to make sure that one man`s sparks didn`t ignite the next man`s powder when he charged. Most flints were made in an era that predates the modern manufacturing processes that have become commonplace. Even in mass weapons, the pieces were often handmade. If a flint was damaged or parts were worn due to age, the damaged parts could not be easily replaced. Parts often had to be filed, hammered, or otherwise modified to fit, making repairs much more difficult. Machine-made interchangeable parts were only used shortly before flints were replaced by caplocks. Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term can also be applied to a specific form of mechanism itself, also known as true flint, which was introduced in the early 17th century and gradually replaced earlier ignition technologies for firearms such as match, wheel lock, and earlier flint mechanisms such as pressure locking and pressure locking. One of the most successful was the system built by Isaac de la Chaumette from 1704. The barrel could be opened by 3 turns of the trigger to which it was attached. The cap remained attached to the barrel and the ball and powder were loaded from above.
This system was improved in the 1770s by Colonel Patrick Ferguson and 100 experimental rifles used during the American Revolutionary War. The only two flintlock cylinder head magazines produced in large numbers were the Hall and the Crespi. The first was invented by John Hall and patented around 1817. It was issued to the U.S. Army as the Model 1819 Hall Breech Loading Rifle.[8] [9] Flintlock weapons were widely used until the mid-19th century, when they were replaced by percussion locking systems. Although long considered obsolete, flintlock weapons are still produced today by manufacturers such as Pedersoli, Euroarms and Armi Sport. These weapons are not only used by modern re-enactors, but also for hunting, as many US states have special hunting seasons for black powder guns, which include both flintlock and percussion weapons. Genuine flint was in common use for more than two centuries, was replaced by an impact cap from the early to mid-19th century and later by cartridge systems.
Although they have long since been replaced by modern firearms, flintlock weapons continue to enjoy popularity among black powder shooting enthusiasts. Shortly after his accession to the throne in 1610, the French court gunsmith Marin le Bourgeoys made a firearm with a flintlock mechanism for King Louis XIII. [1] However, firearms with some form of flint ignition mechanism had been in use for more than half a century. The first proto-flint was the pressure lock, probably invented just before 1517 and undeniably used around 1547. [2] Their cost and sensitivity limited their use; For example, around 1662, only 1 in 6 firearms used by the British Royal Army was a snaphaunce, the rest were matches. [3] The development of gun locking mechanisms had evolved over the previous two centuries, from match wicks to wheel locks to old flints (Snaplock, Snaphance, Miquelet, and Doglock), and each type was an improvement and contributed to later firearm design features that were useful. The Bourgeoys brought together these different characteristics to create what became known as flint or real flint castle. Flintlock firearms of various types were used by elite infantry, scouts, artillery guards and individuals in European armies for most of the 16th and 17th centuries, although matches continued to surpass them massively.
[4] The first Dutch state army used flints on an exceptionally large scale, issuing snapshots to its infantry in the 1620s and real flints until 1640.[4] Although it is known that the Dutch were the first power to adopt flint as their standard infantry weapon, the exact timing of the transition is uncertain. [5] Military flintlock muskets tended to weigh about ten pounds because heavier weapons were too bulky and lighter weapons were not sturdy or heavy enough to be used in close combat. They were usually designed to be equipped with a bayonet. On flints, the bayonet played a rather insignificant role – casualty lists of several battles in the 18th century showed that less than 2% of injuries were caused by bayonets. [16] The black powder used in flints contained sulfur. If the gun was not cleaned after use, the powder residue would absorb moisture from the air and combine with sulfur to create sulfuric and sulfonic acids. These acids would erode the inside of the rifle barrel and the locking mechanism. Flint weapons that were not properly cleaned and maintained would corrode to the point of destruction. Due to the long active life of the flint castle, it left lasting traces in the language and during exercises and parades. Terms such as „lock, stock and barrel“, „going off half-cocked“ and „flash in the pan“ remain common in English. In addition, weapon positions and exercise controls, originally developed to standardize the carrying, loading and firing of a flintlock weapon, remain the standard for drilling and displays (see Weapons Manual).
