A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume II (of 2)
TextGUNS. GUN-LOCKS
The first portable fire-arms were discharged by means of a match, which in the course of time was fastened to a cock, for the greater security of the hand while shooting. Afterwards a fire-stone was screwed into the cock, and a steel plate or small wheel, which could be cocked or wound up by a particular kind of key, was applied to the barrel. This fire-stone was not at first of a siliceous nature, like that used at present for striking fire, but a compact pyrites or marcasite, which was long distinguished by that name. But as an instrument of this kind often missed fire, a match till a late period was retained along with the wheel; and it was not till a considerable time after, that instead of a friable pyrites, so much exposed to decay, a siliceous stone came into use with the improved cock or present lock. On each new improvement, the piece, the caliber and length of which were sometimes enlarged and sometimes lessened, obtained various new names; such, for example, as Büchse, Hakenbüchse, Arquebuse; Matchlock, Musket, Pistol, Flinte, &c. But I shall leave it to those who are versed in matters of artillery to determine the difference between these kinds, and shall here add only what follows.
The first name undoubtedly arose from the oldest portable kind of fire-arms having some similarity to a box. There were long and short büchse, the latter of which, as Hortleder says, were peculiar to the cavalry. The long kind also, on account of their similarity to a pipe, were called rohr. Large pieces, which were conveyed on cars or carriages, were called karrenbüchse, but soon after also canna, cannon. Instead of artillery-man, artillery and arsenal, people used the terms büchsenmeister, büchsenmeistery, büchsenhaus, &c. The hakenbüchsen were so large and heavy that they could not be carried in the hand; it was necessary therefore to support them with a prop, called bock, because it had two horns, between which the piece was fixed with a hook that projected from the stock1303. Hence arose the name hakenbüchse, hakenbüsse, which the French and different nations, along with many other German words, adopted, and corrupted till they at length became arquebuse, archibugio, archibuso, &c. From the passages of ancient writers collected by Daniel, it may be concluded that these hakenbüchsen with a wheel were invented in Germany, in the beginning of the sixteenth century; and this is confirmed by the testimony of Martin Bellay. Speaking of the league formed between the emperor Charles V. and pope Leo X. against France, and the siege of Parma undertaken in the year 1521, he says, “De ceste heure là furent inventées les harcquebouzes qu’on tiroit sur une fourchette.”
Pistols also, which at first had a wheel, seem to have been used at an earlier period by the Germans than by the French. Bellay mentions them in the year 1544, in the time of Francis I., and under Henry II. the German horsemen, des reiters, were called pistoliers. De la Noue, who served under both these kings, says, in his Discours Politiques et Militaires, that the Germans first employed pistols. I know no probable derivation of this term. Frisch conjectures that it may have arisen from Pistillo or Stiopo, because pistols used to have large knobs on the handle. Daniel and others think that the name comes from Pistoia in Tuscany, because they were there first made. He says he saw an old pistol, which, except the ramrod, was entirely of iron.
Muskets received their name from the French mouchet, or the Latin muschetus, which signifies a male sparrow-hawk. This derivation is the less improbable, as it is certain that various kinds of fire-arms were named after ravenous animals, such, for example, as falconet. Daniel proves that they were known in France as early as the time of Francis I. Brantome however asserts, that they were first introduced by the duke of Alva, in the year 1567, when he exercised his cruelty in the Netherlands, in order to overawe and keep in subjection the people of that country; and that they were not then known in France. In another place he says that they were first made general in France by M. de Strozzi, under Charles IX.1304
That the lock was invented in Germany, and in the city of Nuremberg, in 1517, has been asserted by many, and not without probability; but I do not know whether it can be proved that we are here to understand a lock of the present construction. In my opinion, the principal proof rests on a passage made known by Wagenseil1305, from an unprinted Nuremberg Chronicle, the antiquity of which he has not determined. The same year is given by J. Guler von Weineck1306, Walser1307, M. von Murr and others. It is also certain that in the sixteenth century there were very expert makers of muskets and fire-locks; for example, George Kühfuss, who died in 1600, and also others, whose names may be seen in Doppelmayer. I must not omit here to remark, that many call the fire-lock the French lock, and ascribe the invention to these people; yet as, according even to Daniel’s account, the far more inconvenient wheels on pistols were used in France in 1658, it is probable that our neighbours, as is commonly the case, may have made some improvement in the German invention. In the history of the Brunswick regiments, it is stated that the soldiers of that duchy first obtained, in 1687, flint-locks instead of match-locks. It has often been asserted, that fire-tubes, which took fire of themselves, were forbidden first in Bohemia and Moravia, and afterwards in the whole German empire, under a severe penalty, by the emperor Maximilian I.; but I have not found any allusion to this circumstance in the different police laws of that emperor.
That the first fire-stones were pyrites, appears from various accounts; and as a siliceous kind of stone was introduced in its stead, this circumstance gave often rise to confusion, some instances of which are related by Henkel, so that many applied to the stone what was related by our forefathers of pyrites. In the greater part of Europe1308 people use at present that hornstein called by Wallerius Silex igniarius, and by Linnæus S. cretaceus. In Germany it was formerly called Flins or Vlins, which some consider as more proper; and in the Swedish, Danish and English, Flinta and Flint. This appellation is of great antiquity; for the Wends had a pagan deity of that name, which they erected on a stone called Flynstein1309. In some districts of Germany this word has been still retained; for example, white or grey ferruginous spar, Minera ferri alba, is called in Styria Flins, or, as it is often improperly written, Pflinz; and in Bayreuth that fire-stone is still called flint-stone1310. In our neighbourhood the same name is still used by the stone-cutters. It cannot be doubted that the weapon which is fired by the help of this stone, obtained from it, in German, the names of Flintgewehr, Flint, or Flinte; but since the old name of the stone has been forgotten, it is in general named from the weapon flint-stone. Those acquainted with the German and northern antiquities, know that the knives employed at the ancient sacrifices, and other articles, were made of this kind of stone, as appears by the remains still found in old barrows and between urns1311. This proves that these stones were much used by the ancients. In England and France old buildings constructed of them are still to be seen, and the stones appear to have been cut with the greatest care1312. The above articles, which have lain in the earth more than a thousand years, and these edifices, among which some at Norwich were inhabited in 1403, show the wonderful durability of this kind of stone. Some imagine that the art of working it has been lost; but though our artists prefer employing their talents and dexterity on stones which have a more beautiful appearance and less brittleness, they are able to cut also the flint-stone. Enamel painters, for the most part, rub their glass enamel on plates made of it; but they are obliged to purchase them at a very dear rate1313.
Many of my readers will perhaps be desirous to know in what manner our gun-flints are prepared. Considering the great use made of them, it will hardly be believed how much trouble I had to obtain information on this subject. One would laugh were I to repeat the various answers which I obtained to my inquiries. Many thought that the stones were cut down by grinding them; some conceived that they were formed by means of red-hot pincers; and many asserted that they were made in mills. On the least reflection it may be readily conjectured, that the double cuneiform shape is given to these stones without much labour, because they are so cheap; and as every country, at all times, with whatever other it may be engaged in war, can obtain them in sufficient quantity, no nation can have an exclusive trade in them. It is nevertheless difficult to discover the places whence they are procured; and in works which give an account of the different articles of merchandise they are not named. The best account with which I am acquainted, is that collected by my brother, and published in the Hanoverian Magazine for the year 1772. Shepherds, and other persons who gain little by their service, break the flint-stone merely by manual labour, and chiefly in Champagne and Picardy. Some years ago, Gilbert de Montmeau, a merchant at Troye, carried on the greatest trade with them, and sold them at the rate of five livres six sous per thousand. The Dutch always buy up large quantities of them, which they keep in reserve, in order to sell them when the exportation of them is forbidden by France, in the time of war. Savary, however, relates that the largest quantity and best stones come from Berry, and particularly the neighbourhood of St. Agnau and Meusne. I know also that a great many are made at Stevensklint in Zeeland1314, and exported from that country. In the year 1727, the chancery of war at Hanover sent some persons to learn the art of breaking flints; but after their return, it was given out that our horn-stone was unfit for that purpose. It is possible that those stones which occur in continued veins may be split easier in any required direction than those found in single pieces, as it appears to me that the latter are harder and more compact than the former. Perhaps the case is the same with flints as with vermilion, the preparation of which we endeavoured to learn from the English and Dutch, though from the earliest periods it had been made better in the very centre of Germany than anywhere else.
That stones were used at least in the middle of the sixteenth century, is confirmed by the account of an ingenious Italian, named Francis Angelerius. This artist had constructed a short piece of wood, to which he applied a wheel, and instead of a cock substituted a dog, which held the stone in its mouth, the whole so ingeniously made, that a person who appeared with it at a masquerade was arrested by the guard, because it was considered to be a real pistol1315. I have thought it proper to mention this circumstance, because it proves that the wheel was then invented and known under the appellation of pistol. In old arsenals and armouries, large collections of arms with the wheel are still to be seen. I have inspected those preserved in the arsenal at Hanover. What I consider to be the oldest, have on the barrel the figure of a hen with a musket in its mouth, because perhaps they were made at Henneberg. A pistol of this kind was entirely of brass without any part of wood, and therefore exceedingly heavy. On the lower part of the handle were the letters J. H. Z. S. perhaps John duke of Saxony. A piece with a wheel, which seemed to be one of the most modern, had on the barrel the date 1606.
Together with fire-stones, properly so called, pyrites, which is sometimes named fire-stone, continued long in use. In the year 1586, under duke Julius of Brunswick, when abundance of sulphureous pyrites was found near Seefen, the duke caused it to be collected, and formed it himself into the necessary shape, though in doing so he often bruised his fingers, and was advised by the physicians not to expose himself to the sulphureous vapour emitted by that substance.
[The use of flint-locks to guns has, within the last few years, been almost entirely laid aside in this country; the percussion- or detonating-lock being substituted for it. The certainty and rapidity with which the discharge takes place, gives them a very great superiority. This ingenious invention belongs to a Scottish clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Forsyth, minister of Belhelvie in Aberdeenshire, but it has since received some great improvements, especially in the application of the copper cap, to which indeed may be attributed all its superiority. —Brande.]