Wheel-Lock Pistol

[CaptainBill03]

Good afternoon
I just picked up the August issue of Military History magazine. It has an article, under weaponry, on Wheel-lock pistols. The article seems to contain a number of errors.
1) indicates that early flintlocks appeared before wheel-locks
2) there were other pistols in use before wheel-locks?
3) early flintlocks required both hands to cock and fire (perhaps not a pistol?)
4) first wheel-locks used flint and since flint damaged the wheel this was changed to iron pyrite
5) springs had a tendency to stop compressing and uncoil

Also i have found numerous other references stating that if a wheel-lock is left cocked to long the spring will loose strength. I

 

[Teleoceras]

Good afternoon
I just picked up the August issue of Military History magazine. It has an article, under weaponry, on Wheel-lock pistols. The article seems to contain a number of errors.
1) indicates that early flintlocks appeared before wheel-locks

Nope, the Wheellock was around 1520, the early flinters were a few decades later.

2) there were other pistols in use before wheel-locks?

Not pistols no. But the Handgonne did have a short barrel at the end of a long stick. Then there were the Monk's guns which had a rasp that you pulled against pyrite to get ignition. They had a short barrel, the igntion system lasted only several years.

3) early flintlocks required both hands to cock and fire (perhaps not a pistol?)

Well, you couldn't aim and cock the gun. The locks were too big and the springs too strong. You held the gun with one hand which you used the other to cock it.

4) first wheel-locks used flint and since flint damaged the wheel this was changed to iron pyrite

I haven't heard of that. I know that pyrite was listed as being used with the first Wheellocks.

5) springs had a tendency to stop compressing and uncoil.

Also i have found numerous other references stating that if a wheel-lock is left cocked to long the spring will loose strength. I

 

[hawkeye2]

Cap, I am somewhat confused by what the author might have meant by statement #5. Wheellocks use a "V" type mainspring similar to a flint or percusson lock, not a coil spring. I have been cautioned all my life never to leave ANY type of firearm cocked as it will weaken the mainspring or cause it to take a set. I don't know how true this is but I always lower the hammer, firing pin, striker, or whatever and use snap caps in my shotguns and have never had any trouble. I have however seen used firearms with weak mainsprings. It takes 2 hands to cock a flint pistol and 2 hands to span a wheellock. Pistols existed before the wheellock as matchlocks, I have never heard of any flintlock type ignition predating the wheellock.Hawkeye

 

[Teleoceras]

Hawkeye2:

Pistols existed before the wheellock as matchlocks, I have never heard of any flintlock type ignition predating the wheellock.

I know that the Japanese made Matchlock pistols since I've seen some pictures of them. I heard that the Polish might have made Matchlock pisols. But eveything I've read said that pistols first came about with the Wheellock. At least in Europe.

 

[robinghewitt]

Hi Teleoceras

Can't argue with any of that, have you been reading Lenk? ::

There is his question of the spiral spring tinder boxes which evolved into the wheellock, is it likely that the spiral spring carried over to the gun locks for a while?

I have a snapping matchlock mechanism dated mid to late fifteenth century by the Royal Armouries. It uses a spiral leaf spring for the serpentine and a folded leaf spring for the sear, the springs are in bronze. You find iron spiral leafs on period armour for locking the various parts together.

Lenk also quotes J Alm who quotes Rathgen to a refernce in the Burgundian accounts of 1432 to the purchase of a tinder-box for the purpose of kindling the fire for firing shots with firearms. Was this a gun lock or a way to light the match cord?

 

[Teleoceras]

Can't argue with any of that, have you been reading Lenk? ::

Robert Held actually mentions it in his book The Age of Firearms.

There is his question of the spiral spring tinder boxes which evolved into the wheellock, is it likely that the spiral spring carried over to the gun locks for a while?

There was a problem with getting the strength of the spring just right. Too strong and the slowmatch was stubbed out. Too weak and it couldn't make the pan. The japanese figured out how to get it done correctly. The europeans didn't and that was why the Snap-Matchlock didn't last too long in Europe.

Lenk also quotes J Alm who quotes Rathgen to a refernce in the Burgundian accounts of 1432 to the purchase of a tinder-box for the purpose of kindling the fire for firing shots with firearms. Was this a gun lock or a way to light the match cord?

It must be for igniting slowmatch. 1432 was still in the era of the Handgonne and the Serpentine Lock. The true Matchlock didn't appear for a couple of decades.

 

[robinghewitt]

Robert Held actually mentions it in his book The Age of Firearms.

Lenk is a bit heavy going and academic, about time someone sanitised him for easy reading :: Plus I got a rather musty smelling copy which is only just drying out and becoming fit for reading (the advantage of living in a small centrally heated box).