1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Rifling
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In firearms, rifling consists of helical grooves in the internal surface of a guns barrel, which impart a spin to a projectile around its long axis. This spin serves to stabilize the projectile, improving its aerodynamic stability. Rifling is often described by its twist rate, which indicates the distance the rifling takes to complete one revolution, such as 1 turn in 10 inches. A shorter distance indicates a faster twist, meaning that for a given velocity the projectile will be rotating at a spin rate. Barrels intended for long, small-diameter bullets, such as the ultra-low-drag, 80-grain 0.223 inch bullets, extremely long projectiles such as flechettes may require high twist rates, these projectiles must be inherently stable, and are often fired from a smoothbore barrel. Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired, barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany in 1498. In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work, though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century. The most successful weapons using rifling with black powder were breech loaders such as the Queen Anne pistol, the grooves most commonly used in modern rifling have fairly sharp edges. More recently, polygonal rifling, a throwback to the earliest types of rifling, has become popular, polygonal barrels tend to have longer service lives because the reduction of the sharp edges of the land reduces erosion of the barrel. Supporters of polygonal rifling also claim higher velocities and greater accuracy, polygonal rifling is currently seen on pistols from CZ, Heckler & Koch, Glock, Tanfoglio, and Kahr Arms, as well as the Desert Eagle. Such guns have achieved significant increases in velocity and range. Examples include the South African G5 and the German PzH2000, gain-twist rifling begins with very little change in the projectiles angular momentum during the first few inches of bullet travel after ignition during the transition from chamber to throat. This enables the bullet to remain undisturbed and trued to the case mouth. After engaging the rifling the bullet is progressively subjected to accelerated angular momentum as burning powder propels it down the barrel. By only gradually increasing the rate, torque is spread along a much longer section of barrel. Gain-twist rifling was used as early as the American Civil War, colt Army and Navy revolvers both employed gain-twist rifling
3.
Kynoch
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Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition, later incorporated into ICI but remaining as a brand name for sporting cartridges. Kynoch was established in Witton in Birmingham in 1862 by Scottish entrepreneur George Kynoch when he opened a percussion cap factory in Witton, in 1895 he built an explosives factory east of Shell Haven Creek, Essex. This opened in 1897, with an estate for employees called Kynochtown, products included cordite, guncotton, gunpowder, and cartridges. Once Nobel Industries, including Kynoch Ltd, had merged to form ICI, Kynoch, along with names such as Eley, became brands of subsidiaries. Kynoch, established a factory on the north side of Arklow. This factory employed several thousand workers during World War I, but closed shortly after it, seventeen workers were killed in an explosion there on 21 September 1917. IMI became independent of ICI in 1977, still producing rimfire, the more economically viable production of shotgun and rimfire ammunition continued. The Ammunition Division was incorporated separately as Eley Limited in 1983, john Sutton Nettlefold JP - former managing director Eley Brothers Corringham Light Railway Kynamco A History of Kynoch Works
4.
Cordite
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Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and these produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, Cordite was used initially in the. Cordite was also used for weapons, such as tank guns, artillery. It has been used mainly for this purpose since the late 19th century by the UK and its use was further developed before World War II, and as 2-and-3-inch-diameter Unrotated Projectiles for launching anti-aircraft weapons. Small cordite rocket charges were developed for ejector seats made by the Martin-Baker Company. Cordite was also used in the system of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima in August 1945. The term cordite generally disappeared from official publications between the wars, during World War II double based propellants were very widely used and there was some use of triple based propellants by artillery. For small arms it has replaced by other propellants, such as the Improved Military Rifle line of extruded powder or the WC844 ball propellant currently in use in the 5. 56×45mm NATO. Production ceased in the United Kingdom, around the end of the 20th century, with the closure of the last of the World War II cordite factories, triple base propellant for UK service is now manufactured in Germany. Gunpowder, a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate, was the original propellant employed in firearms. It was used from about 10th or 11th century onwards, but it had disadvantages, the first smokeless powder was developed in 1865 by Major Johann F. E. Schultze of the Prussian artillery. His formulation was composed of nitrolignose impregnated with saltpetre or barium nitrate, in 1882 the Explosive Company of Stowmarket introduced EC Powder, which contained nitro-cotton and nitrates of potassium and barium in a grain gelatinesed by ether alcohol. It had coarser grains than other nitrocellulose powders and it proved unsuitable for rifles, but it remained in long use for shotguns and was later used for grenades and fragmentation bombs. In 1884, the French chemist Paul Vieille produced a smokeless propellant that had some success and it was made out of collodion, resulting in a plastic colloidal substance which was rolled into very thin sheets, then dried and cut up into small flakes. It was immediately adopted by the French military for their Mle 1886 infantry rifle, the rifle and the cartridge developed to use this powder were known generically as the 8mm Lebel, after the officer who developed its 8 mm full metal jacket bullet. The following year,1887, Alfred Nobel invented and patented a smokeless propellant he called Ballistite and it was composed of 10% camphor, 45% nitroglycerine and 45% collodion. Over time the camphor tended to evaporate, leaving an unstable explosive, using acetone as a solvent, it was extruded as spaghetti-like rods initially called cord powder or the Committees modification of Ballistite, but this was swiftly abbreviated to Cordite
5.
Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations
6.
Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
7.
Bullet
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The word bullet is a firearm term. A bullet is a projectile expelled from the barrel of a firearm, the term is from Middle French and originated as the diminutive of the word boulle which means small ball. Bullets are made of a variety of materials and they are available singly as they would be used in muzzle loading and cap and ball firearms, as part of a paper cartridge, and much more commonly as a component of metallic cartridges. Bullets are made in a numbers of styles and constructions depending on how they will be used. Many bullets have specialized functions, such as hunting, target shooting, training, defense, a bullet is not a cartridge. In paper and metallic cartridges a bullet is one component of the cartridge, bullet sizes are expressed by their weight and diameter in both English and Metric measurement systems. For example.22 caliber 55 grain bullets or 5. 56mm 55 grain bullets are the same caliber, the word bullet is often used colloquially to refer to a cartridge, which is a combination of the bullet, paper or metallic case/shell, powder, and primer. This use of bullet, when cartridge is intended, leads to confusion when the components of a cartridge are discussed or intended, the bullets used in many cartridges are fired at a muzzle velocity faster than the speed of sound. Meaning they are supersonic and thus can travel a substantial distance, bullet speed through air depends on a number of factors such as barometric pressure, humidity, air temperature, and wind speed. Subsonic cartridges fire bullets slower than the speed of sound and so there is no sonic crack and this means that a subsonic cartridge such as.45 ACP can be effectively suppressed to be substantially quieter than a supersonic cartridge such as the.223 Remington. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the target by impact. The first use of gunpowder in Europe was recorded in 1247 and it had been used in China for hundreds of years. Later in 1364 hand cannon appeared, early projectiles were made of stone. Stone was used in cannon and hand cannon, in cannon it was eventually found that stone would not penetrate stone fortifications which gave rise to the use of heavier metals for the round projectiles. Hand cannon projectiles developed in a similar following the failure of stone from siege cannon. The first recorded instance of a ball from a hand cannon penetrating armor occurred in 1425. In this photograph of shot retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose which was sunk in 1545, the round shot are clearly of different sizes and some are stone while others are cast iron. The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles, bullet is derived from the French word boulette, which roughly means little ball
8.
Grain (unit)
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A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and, for the troy grain, equal to exactly 7001647989100000000♠64.79891 milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat, rather, expressions such as thirty-two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear appear to have been ritualistic formulas, essentially the premodern equivalent of legal boilerplate. Another book states that Captain Henry Kater, of the British Standards Commission, the grain was the legal foundation of traditional English weight systems, and is the only unit that is equal throughout the troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries systems of mass. The unit was based on the weight of a grain of barley. The fundamental unit of the pre-1527 English weight system known as Tower weights, was a different sort of known as the wheat grain. The Tower wheat grain was defined as exactly 45⁄64 of a troy grain.79891 milligrams, 7000100000000000000♠1 gram is approximately 7001154323600000000♠15.43236 grains. The unit formerly used by jewellers to measure pearls, diamonds, or other stones, called the jewellers grain or pearl grain, is equal to 1⁄4 of a carat. The grain was also the name of a traditional French unit equal to 6995531150000000000♠53.115 mg. In both British Imperial and U. S. customary units, there are precisely 7,000 grains per avoirdupois pound, the grain is commonly used to measure the mass of bullets and propellants. The term also refers to a particle of gunpowder, the size of which varies according to requirements. In archery, the grain is the unit used to weigh arrows. In dentistry, gold foil, used as a material to restore teeth, is measured in grains, in North America, the hardness of water is often measured in grains per US gallon of calcium carbonate equivalents. Otherwise, water hardness is measured in the metric unit parts per million, one grain per US gallon is approximately 6995171000000000000♠17.1 ppm. Soft water contains 1–4 gpg of calcium carbonate equivalents, while hard water contains 11–20 gpg, though no longer recommended, grains are still used occasionally in medicine as part of the apothecaries system, especially in prescriptions for older medicines such as aspirin or phenobarbital. For example, the dosage of a standard 6996325000000000000♠325 mg tablet of aspirin is sometimes given as 7000500000000000000♠5 grains, in that example the grain is approximated to 6995650000000000000♠65 mg, though the grain can also be approximated to 6995600000000000000♠60 mg, depending on the medication and manufacturer. The apothecaries system has its own system of notation, in which the symbol or abbreviation is followed by the quantity in lower case Roman numerals. For amounts less than one, the quantity is written as a fraction, or for one half, therefore, a prescription for tablets containing 325 mg of aspirin and 30 mg of codeine can be written ASA gr
9.
.460 Weatherby Magnum
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The.460 Weatherby Magnum is a belted, bottlenecked rifle cartridge, developed by Roy Weatherby in 1957. The cartridge is based on the.378 Weatherby Magnum necked up to accept the. 458-inch bullet, the original.378 Weatherby Magnum parent case was inspired by the.416 Rigby. The.460 Weatherby Magnum was designed as an African dangerous game cartridge for the hunting of heavy. However handloaders can push the cartridge to generate as much as 15,000 foot-pounds of energy in a bolt action. However, doing so necessitates a rifle so heavy it is almost inoperable for hunting purposes, the.700 Nitro Express was itself eclipsed in only five years by the 1993 introduction by A-Square of the.577 Tyrannosaur. The.577 T-Rex develops approximately 10,180 foot-pounds force with a velocity of 2,460 ft/s, the.460 will launch a 500-grain bullet at a chronographed velocity of 2,700 ft/s from a 26-inch barrel, measuring 8,100 ft·lbf of muzzle energy. Prior to the arrival of the.460 Weatherby Magnum on the hunting scene, Roy Weatherby had expected that the. Furthermore, new regulations prohibiting the hunting of heavy, thick skinned and these regulations would essentially ban the use of all previous Weatherby cartridges for the hunting of elephant, African Cape buffalo and rhinoceros.40 caliber rifles. He accomplished this by necking up the.378 Weatherby Magnum case to accept a.458 caliber bullet and he named the new cartridge the.460 Weatherby Magnum. The first rifles for the.460 Weatherby Magnum were built on Brevex Magnum Mauser action, however, Roy Weatherby was not the first cartridge designer to neck up the.378 Weatherby Magnum to.45 caliber. That distinction belongs to John Buhmiller, a gunsmith and hunter from Montana, Buhmiller named his cartridge the.45 Weatherby. He had success with the cartridge in Africa shooting Cape buffalo and rogue elephants in 1956, Norma Precision of Sweden was the first and only manufacturer of.460 Weatherby Magnum cases and ammunition which carried the Weatherby name and has done so under contract from Weatherby. During Weatherby’s partnership with J. P. Sauer/Dynamit-Nobel, production at Norma ceased and shifted to RWS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dynamit-Nobel. However, RWS did not tool up in time to produce the.460 Weatherby Magnum cartridge, DuPont at one time shipped DuPont No.4350 powder to Norma Projektilfabrik for the reloading of Weatherby ammunition. But some time later Norma was able to source a powder with similar burn characteristics locally which was used instead of DuPonts IMR4350, Norma would later purchase the company and rename the powder Norma 204. The.460 Weatherby Magnum case uses a necked up.378 Weatherby Magnum case. Although the.378 Weatherby Magnum case was inspired by the.416 Rigby case, the.460 Weatherby Magnum requires a case with the large propellant capacity necessary to propel a 500 gr bullet at 2,700 ft/s. To accomplish this goal, the cartridge case has a capacity able to hold 141.1 gr. of water
10.
Berdan rifle
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The Berdan rifle is a Russian rifle created by famous American firearms expert and inventor Hiram Berdan in 1868. Standard issue in the Russian army from 1870 to 1891, the Berdan was replaced by the Mosin–Nagant rifle, widely used in Russia as a hunting weapon, sporting variants, including shotguns, were produced until the mid-1930s. The Russian Berdan I and Berdan II rifles of.42 caliber are distinct from the Spanish Berdan 15mm conversion rifles adopted by Spain as the M1857/67 Berdan, two different versions of the later single-shot Berdan rifle were adopted as service weapons by Imperial Russia. The first version, manufactured by Colt in the USA, is known as the model of 1868 and it is a hammerless trapdoor breechblock design, and was manufactured in limited numbers as a full length infantry rifle. Colt also manufactured a few half-stock Berdan I cavalry carbine prototypes, Colt even produced a few target rifles based on the Berdan I. The model of 1870, or Berdan II, is a single-shot bolt-action with a distinctive short, the bolt handle serves as the only locking lug for the action, and when closed, points upwards at a 30-degree angle, rather than horizontally. The Berdan II was produced in four variants, a rifle, the lighter and slightly shorter dragoon rifle, a Cossack rifle with a button trigger and no trigger guard. Infantry and dragoon rifles were issued with quadrangular socket bayonets, initial production of the Berdan II was at Birmingham Small Arms in England. The rifles were manufactured in large numbers by Russian factories at Tula, Izhevsk. Estimated total production of all models is over 3 million, the rifle was known for its accuracy, simplicity and reliability. The 10. 7×58mmR cartridge used in the Berdan was also invented by Hiram Berdan and it was the subject of many patents in both the USA and United Kingdom. The bottleneck cartridge case used the Berdan primer, its first use in a small arms cartridge, cartridges were issued in blue paper packets of six rounds each. In addition to the cartridge for rifles, a special cartridge was manufactured for use in the cavalry carbine. It consisted of the cartridge case and bullet, but with a lighter powder charge of only 4.5 grams. At the time of its use, the 10. 75×58mmR cartridge was known for its power, no magazine-fed versions of the Berdan ever progressed beyond the prototype phase. Russian troops, however, did have various cartridge holders, such as the Krnka quick-loader, by the late 1880s Russia began the process of replacing the Berdan with a high velocity and magazine fed rifle, and this resulted in the adoption of the Mosin–Nagant. In 1892, a batch of 3,004 Berdan II rifles were converted to 7. 62×54mmR for Russian service by arms makers in Belgium and these rifles have new barrels and sights, and new bolts with a front locking lug and longer bolt handle. Had the conversion been deemed fit for service, an additional 40,000 were to be converted, however this did not go through
11.
Westley Richards
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Westley Richards is a British manufacturer of guns and rifles and also a well established gunsmith. The company was founded in 1812 by William Westley Richards, who was responsible for the innovation of many rifles used in wars featuring the British Army during the 1800s. It remained in the hands of the Richards family until it was purchased by Clode in 1957, the company has received a number of royal warrants since 1840. Famous gun owners have included Ernest Hemingway, Maharaja of Alwar, today, Westley Richards is one of the oldest surviving traditional gun and rifle makers in England. In 2009, the company diversified into a number of other markets, Westley Richards was founded in Birmingham in 1812 by William Westley Richards at the age of 22. His family background had been in fine jewellery, cutlery and the gun trade, early in the companys history, Richards coined the motto, to be the maker of as good a gun as can be made, which is still used to this day. William Westley Richards was an early gun innovator, creating a number of gun-related patents, Richards opened a gun store in London in 1815 on New Bond Street. The store was owned and managed by William Bishop, who was known as the Bishop of Bond Street and it was stated in a book published by G. T. Teasdale-Buckell in 1900, that Bishop had served as a lieutenant. In 1865, control of the company was inherited by Westley Richards. Richards carried on in a vein to his father, innovating various guns. In 1862, he was responsible for the innovation of the system used on some rifles. His innovations with rifles continued for the decade, creating the falling block rifle in 1868. John Deeley took over the side of the company, with the aim to expand the business from 1871 onwards. These expansions were mainly focused on South Africa and India, both of which were part of the British Empire, in the decades to come, these expansions proved to be vital to the companys global success. Deeley not only focused on the aspects, but also worked on innovations. His greatest achievement is likely the invention of the Anson & Deeley Boxlock action, the cocking mechanism was first established in this shotgun. Sporting guns today still use a method to release the barrel fall. Following the establishment of the new type of mechanism, the companys success in manufacturing both military and sporting weapons saw them move to a new base in 1894
12.
Primer (firearms)
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In firearm ballistics, the primer is a component of pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. Early primers were simply the same black powder used to fire the weapon and this external powder was connected though a tube in the barrel that led to the main charge. As powder wont burn when wet, this led to difficulty, or even the inability, modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals. In smaller weapons the primer is usually integrated into the rear of a cartridge, in larger weapons like cannon the primer is a separate component placed inside the barrel to the rear of the main propellant charge. The first step to firing a firearm of any sort is igniting the propellant, the earliest firearms were cannons, which were simple closed tubes. There was an aperture, the touchhole, drilled in the closed end of the tube. This hole was filled with finely ground powder, which was ignited with a hot ember or torch. With the advent of firearms, this became an undesirable way of firing a gun. The first attempt to make the process of firing a small arm easier was the matchlock, the matchlock incorporated a lock that was actuated by a trigger, originally called a tricker. The lock was a lever which pivoted when pulled. The match was a burning fuse made of plant fibers that were soaked in a solution of nitrates, charcoal, and sulfur. This slow-match was ignited before the gun was needed, and it would slowly burn, after the gun was loaded and the touchhole primed with powder, the burning tip of the match was positioned so that the lock would bring it into contact with the touchhole. To fire the gun, it was aimed and the trigger pulled and this brought the match down to the touchhole, igniting the powder. With careful attention the slow-burning match could be burning for long periods of time. The next revolution in technology was the wheel-lock. It used a spring-loaded, serrated steel wheel which rubbed against a piece of iron pyrite, a key was used to wind the wheel and put the spring under tension. Once tensioned, the wheel was held in place by a trigger, when the trigger was pulled, the serrated edge of the steel rubbed against the pyrite, generating sparks. These sparks were directed into a pan, called the flash pan, the flashpan usually was protected by a spring-loaded cover that would slide out of the way when the trigger was pulled, exposing the powder to the sparks
