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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Administration]

Mechanism of flintlock

The Flintlock

Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. Introduced about 1630, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock and wheellock mechanisms. It continued to be in common use for over two centuries, replaced by percussion cap and, later, cartridge-based systems in the early-to-mid 19th century. The Model 1840 U.S. musket was the last flintlock firearm produced for the U.S. military although there is some evidence that obsolete flintlocks were still seeing action in the earliest days of the American Civil War. In fact, during the first year of the war, the Army of Tennesee (Confederacy) had over 2,000 flintlock muskets in service. While technologically obsolete, flintlock firearms have enjoyed a renaissance among black powder shooting enthusiasts and many fine flintlock rifles and pistols are still being made today.

Don Klein Flintlock Rifle

The loading and firing of a circa 1770 flintlock custom rifle at a gallon jug of water

Subtypes

Flintlocks may be any type of small arm: long gun or pistol, smoothbore or rifle, muzzleloader or breechloader. Because of the time needed to reload (the fastest experts could reload a smooth-bore muzzle-loading musket in about fifteen seconds), these weapons were sometimes produced with two, three, four or more barrels; however, multiple-barreled weapons were never very popular. The designs tended to be expensive to make and failure-prone. It was frequently cost-effective and more reliable to simply carry multiple single-shot weapons instead. Multi-barreled (up to eight) pistols had the barrels spread out in a 180 degree fan. All barrels fired at the same time, with a single lock. Known as a "Duck Foot" because of the resembalance in shape, they were intended primarily to be used by a ship's captain as a last ditch effort to defend against mutiny.

Flintlock muskets were the mainstay of European armies between 1660 and 1840. A musket was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was loaded with a round lead ball, but it could also be loaded with shot for hunting. For military purposes, the weapon was loaded with ball, or a mixture of ball with several large shot, and had an effective range between 40 and 100 meters. Smoothbore weapons that were designed for hunting birds were called "fowlers". They tended to be of large caliber. They usually had no choke, so they could also be used to fire a ball.

Some flintlock hunting arms had rifled barrels. Rifling is the process of cutting spiral grooves into the inside of the barrel. A tight-fitting projectile will tend to spin, which stabilizes its flight by the gyroscopic principle. Rifles are more accurate and have longer effective ranges than muskets but they take more time to load than a smooth-bore musket. The first rifled arms were introduced about 1500. Versions made in Germany for hunting large game such as boar had barrels about 50-75 centimeters long. When German immigrants settled in America, particularly in Pennsylvania, they adapted their technology to the type of game available and the demands of the Indian trade, and built the long rifle, an improvement on the small game rifles used in Europe. This weapon has a barrel 90 to 115 centimeters long, and carefully loaded and shot, will be accurate up to 300 meters.

Flintlock pistols were used as self-defense weapons and for duelling, and as a cavalry arm. Their effective range was very short, and they were frequently used as an adjunct to the sword or cutlass. Pistols were usually smoothbore although rifled pistols were produced.

[Administration]

The basic goal of the flintlock is simple: to create a spark that can light the gunpowder stored in the barrel of the gun. To create this spark, the flintlock uses the "flint and steel" approach. The idea behind flint and steel is straightforward. Flint is an amazingly hard form of rock. If you strike iron or steel with flint, the flint flakes off tiny particles of iron. The force of the blow and the friction it creates actually ignites the iron, and it burns rapidly to form Fe3O4. The sparks that you see are the hot specks of iron burning! If these sparks come near gunpowder, they will ignite it.

The flintlock therefore needs:

    * A piece of flint
    * A piece of steel
    * A place for the sparks to touch gunpowder

The flint needs to move at high speed and strike the steel in such a way that the sparks fall into some gunpowder.


History of the Flintlock

French courtier Marin le Bourgeoys made the first firearm incorporating a true flintlock mechanism for King Louis XIII shortly after his accession to the throne in 1610[citation needed]. The development of firearm lock mechanisms had proceeded from matchlock to wheellock to snaplock to snaphance and miquelet in the previous two centuries, and each type had been an improvement, contributing some design features which were useful. Le Bourgeoys fitted these various features together to create the flintlock mechanism. The new system quickly became popular, and was known and used in various forms throughout Europe by 1630.


The flintlock in the uncocked position

Various breech-loading flintlocks were developed starting around 1650. The most popular action has a barrel which was unscrewed from the rest of the gun. Obviously this is more practical on pistols because of the shorter barrel length. This type is known as a Queen Anne pistol because it was during her reign that it became popular (although it was actually introduced in the reign of King William III). Another type has a removable screw plug set into the side or top or bottom of the barrel. A large number of sporting rifles were made with this system, as it allowed easier loading compared with muzzle loading with a tight fitting bullet and patch. One of the more successful was the system built by Issac de la Chaumette starting in 1704. The plug passed completely through the barrel and could be opened by 3 revolutions of the triggerguard, to which it was attached. The plug stayed attached to the barrel and the ball and powder were loaded from the top. This system was improved in the 1770's by Colonel Patrick Ferguson and 100 experimental rifles used in the American Revolutionary War. The only two flintlock breechloaders to be produced in quantity were the Hall and the Crespi. The first was invented by John Hall for the US Army in 1810. The Hall rifles and carbines were loaded using a combustible paper cartridge inserted into the upward tilting breechblock. Hall rifles leaked gas from the often poorly fitted action. The same problem affected the muskets produced by Giuseppe Crespi and adopted by the Austrian Army in 1771. Nonetheless, the Crespi System was experimented with by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, and percussion Halls guns saw service in the American Civil War.

[Administration]

MUSKET

Method of operation

    * The operator loads the gun, usually from the muzzle end, with black powder followed by shot or a round lead ball, usually wrapped in a paper or cloth patch, all rammed down with a special rod (the ramrod), usually stored on the underside of the barrel;
    * A cock or striker tightly holding a shaped bit of flint is rotated to half-cock;
    * The flash pan is primed with a small amount of very finely ground powder, and the flashpan lid or "frizzen" is closed;

The gun is now in "primed and ready" state, and this is how it would be carried hunting or going into battle. A safety notch at half-cock prevents the hammer from falling by pulling the trigger. To fire:

    * The cock or striker is moved from half-cock to full-cock;
    * The gun is aimed and the trigger pulled, releasing the cock or striker holding the flint;
    * The flint strikes the frizzen, a piece of steel on the priming pan lid, opening it and exposing the priming powder;
    * The contact between flint and frizzen produces a spark that is directed into the flashpan;
    * The powder ignites, and the flame passes through a small hole in the barrel (called a vent, or touchhole) that leads to the combustion chamber, igniting the main powder charge there; and
    * The gun discharges.

The British army used paper cartridges to load their weapons. The powder charge and ball were instantly available to the soldier inside this small paper envelope. When commanded, he:

    * Moved the cock to the half-cock position;
    * Tore the cartridge open with his teeth;
    * Poured a small amount of powder into the flashpan;
    * Closed the frizzen to keep the priming charge in the pan;
    * Poured the rest of the powder in the cartridge down the muzzle and stuffed the cartridge in after it;
    * Took out his ramrod and rammed the ball (still in the cartridge) all the way to the breech;
    * Returned his ramrod and shouldered his weapon. Now he is ready to place the weapon on full cock and fire when commanded.

[Administration]

Brown Bess Musket: Three shots in 46 seconds

[Tayopa]

Hi:   Just  a few side remarks,  The Wheel lock was just as fast, and possibly a bit more reliable, but it was extremely expensive to produce.  For those that have never seen one,
it consisted primarily of a notched iron wheel that occupied the place of the later hammer, which was under spring tension,  It was so constructed that when it was released,  it spun against a piece of flint and directed a relatively long and constant series of sparks into the pan for a more reliable ignition compared to the later flint lock.  It was slower to load since one had to use a spanner to wind up the coil spring which drove the wheel  for each shot.




Regarding our friend that successfully shot three times with the Brown Bess, in civilian life that would never be thought of except in an emergency..  Unless you had top grade DRY " powder, you could have a few grains still  smoldering instead of burning rapidly.  So if one then started to pour a new priming charge, you would have a flash fire and a low grade explosion when it reached the powder container.

This happened quite frequently unfortunately.  In field pieces, they cleaned out the old unburned powder by swabbing out the barrel with wet swabs / brushes. and cleaned out the
touch hole before reloading..


Side thingie.  If you had the shower of sparks directed into the powder in the pan but it didn't enter the chamber in order to ignite the main charge  it was called a
 "flash in the pan"  an expression still used today.  It is used to denote one that starts out  spectacularly but then fizzles out in the end.




 The Ferguson Rifle was  a very interesting piece and had an equally interesting  history.  The rifle was unique in that it was rifled similar to a hexagon, the projectile was cast in the same form so there was no forcing of it through a rifling system leading to a possible deformation and loss of accuracy.  It was extremely accurate. 

Col. Ferguson himself developed it for the British army, but the traditionalists refused to consider it.   So he personally had enough  made at his own expense to form a company of sharpshooters to be sent to the American colonies.

Unfortunately, again the old traditionalists refused to use his well trained and very competent sharp shooters, but instead, absorbed them into the Infantry where their special abilities were lost. 

Col Ferguson was killed by an American sharp shooter in a later battle.  It has been speculated that If He, and his company of sharpshooters,  had been used for maximum effectiveness,  it just might have altered the outcome of the reveloution.

Don Jose de La Mancha