Tie a weight on the end of a string, and swing it in a circle. You will feel it become easier to accelerate as it comes over the top arc and begins its downward "drop". That is the affect of gravity on the weight at the end of the string.
That is the same principal that affects MOVING objects, traveling over an arc, towards a source of gravity. That is why, for instance, the Earth's orbit is NOT ROUND, but elliptical, as the Earth is pulled closer to the sun in part of its orbit. We don't yet know exactly why that happens- only that it does.
Gravity does pull on everything equally, sorta.
But all that tells us in this context is that gravity will pull on a short, small **** the same as it pulls on a large **** as both come over their arc, and begin to fall towards the frizzen. In small locks, its difficult to notice( or improve upon as Lock speed), because there is Not much distance to cover between the top of the arc, and the face of the frizzen. In large, musket sized locks, Every little bit of tuning helps to speed ignition, and we can see the difference with time lapse photographs.
Going back to my weight on a string analogy: If you length the string, so that the weight is further from the center, you can feel the affect of gravity easier, than if you shorten the string to only a couple of inches long. On a flintlock, these changes in speed are not readily observed by the human eye, or ear. With better measuring equipment, we know that these change are measured in milliseconds. Once change in a lock is not going to make much of a difference in how that locks " Shoots". However, several changes in the lock can improve the performance by accumulation of a bit of time here, a bit of time, there.
Polish the burrs off all moving parts, and you save some lock time.
Reduce bearing surfaces of moving parts against the lock plate, and you save lock time( increase speed.)
Reduce spring tension on the Frizzen, and polish the bearing surfaces on the upper arm of the spring, and the Cam, and you speed up getting that frizzen out of the way, so that the **** throws sparks down into the pan. You speed ignition.
Adjust the height of the flint so that your Point of Impact is 2/3 up from the heel of the frizzen, at a 60 degree downward angle, and you improve ignition, by speeding the creation of sparks.
Reduce the tension on the mainspring so you don't smash the flint, any you save flints, and stop rattling the action and your rear sight, giving you greater accuracy. It also reduces wear on the tumbler's full ****, the sear nose, and on the mainspring itself.
Change the shape of the end of the mainspring ( V-spring) so that it has a "wrist", and you increase the speed that the **** and tumbler turn after the **** comes over the top of the arc. Yes, an underhammer flintlock would see gravity slow the movement of the **** as it rise up, against the pull of gravity. But, in such a lock, gravity will help speed the lock as it " climbs" the arc, at the beginning of its movement when the tumbler is released by the sear, so that the actual, total, travel time will not be different enough to worry about. :thumbsup:
