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Flintlock Mechanism
The flintlock mechanism is a type of lock used on muskets, rifles, and pistols from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. It is commonly referred to as a " flintlock" (without the word ''mechanism''), though that term is also commonly used for the weapons themselves as a whole, and not just the lock mechanism. The flintlock mechanism, also known as the true flintlock, was developed in France in the early 17th century. It quickly replaced earlier technologies, such as the matchlock and wheellock and the earlier flintlocks. It continued to be in common use for over two centuries, until it was finally replaced by the percussion lock. History Flintlock firing mechanisms made their appearance in the 16th century in the form of the snaplock, the snaphance, the miquelet, and the doglock. The so-called ''true flintlock'' was developed in France in the early 17th century. Though its exact origins are not known, credit for the development of the true flintlock is usually given to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fires. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.''The Flints from Portsdown Hill'' Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white or brown in colour, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white and rough in texture. The nodules can often be found along streams and [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Barrel
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small arms, small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas(es) is used to propel a projectile out of the front end (muzzle (firearms), muzzle) at a high velocity. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, and the diameter of the bore is called its caliber, usually measured in inches or millimetres. The first firearms were made at a time when metallurgy was not advanced enough to cast tubes capable of withstanding the explosive forces of early cannons, so the pipe (often built from staves of metal) needed to be braced periodically along its length for structural reinforcement, producing an appearance somewhat reminiscent of storage barrels being stacked together, hence the English name.''A History of Warfare'' - John Keegan, Keegan, John, Vintage 1993. History Gun bar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Touch Hole
A touch hole, also called a vent, is a small hole at the rear (breech) portion of the barrel of a muzzleloading gun or cannon. The hole provides external access of an ignition spark into the breech chamber of the barrel (where the combustion of the propellant occurs), either with a slow match (matchlock), a linstock or a flash pan ignited by some type of pyrite- (wheellock) or flint-based gunlock ( snaplock, snaphaunce and flintlock), which will initiate the combustion of the main gunpowder charge. Without touch hole, it would be nearly impossible to ignite the powder because the only otherwise access into the barrel is from the front via the muzzle, which is obturated by the projectile. In the later caplock firearms, the ignition sparks are generated by a shock-sensitive percussion cap placed over a conical "nipple", which has a hollow conduit known as the flash channel, that leads into the barrel and serves the same function as the touch hole. In modern breechl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Making
Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of artificially starting a fire. It requires completing the fire triangle, usually by heating tinder above its autoignition temperature. Fire is an essential tool for human survival and the use of fire was important in early human cultural history since the Lower Paleolithic. Today, it is a key component of Scouting and bushcraft. Archaeology Evidence for fire making dates to at least the early Middle Paleolithic, with dozens of Neanderthal hand axes from France exhibiting use-wear traces suggesting these tools were struck with the mineral pyrite to produce sparks around 50,000 years ago. At the Neolithic site of La Draga, researchers have found that fungi were used as tinder. Hearths are one of the most common features found at archaeological sites. Ötzi, also called the Iceman, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE, found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spark (fire)
A spark is an incandescent particle. Sparks may be produced by pyrotechnics, by metalworking or as a by-product of fires, especially when burning wood. Pyrotechnics In pyrotechnics, charcoal, iron filings, aluminum, titanium and metal alloys such as magnalium may be used to create sparks. The quantity and style of sparks produced depends on the composition and pyrophoricity of the metal and can be used to identify the type of metal by spark testing. In the case of iron, the presence of carbon is required, as in carbon steel — about 0.7% is best for large sparks. The carbon burns explosively in the hot iron and this produces pretty, branching sparks. The color of sparks used in pyrotechnics is determined by the material that the sparks are made from, with the possibility of adding different chemical compounds to certain materials to further influence the color of the sparks. The basic color of sparks is limited to red/orange, gold (yellow) and silver (white). This is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate ( saltpeter). The sulfur and carbon act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building pipelines and road building. Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates enough pressure to force the shot from the muzzle at high speed, but usually not enough force to rupture the gun barrel. It thus makes a good pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flash Pan
The flash pan or priming pan is a small receptacle for priming powder, found next to the touch hole on muzzle-loading guns. Flash pans are found on gonnes, matchlocks, wheellocks, snaplocks, snaphances, and flintlocks. Development The flash pan was at first attached to the gun barrel, but was later moved to the lock plate of the gun. A small amount of finely ground gunpowder is placed in the flash pan and ignited. The flash of flame travels through the touch hole igniting the main charge of propellant inside the barrel. Unlike the cannon, it was not necessary (or desirable) to place priming in the touch hole itself. The flash alone, and not particles of burning powder, was enough to ignite the main charge. "Flash in the pan" The ignition of the main charge from the flash pan was not a guaranteed operation, however, and sometimes it failed. In those cases the spark would flash in the pan, but the gun would fail to fire. This led by the end of the 17th century to the expression ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frizzen
The frizzen, historically called the "hammer" or the steel,This may appear anomalous since, in later firearm designs (e.g. percussion locks), the component operating in the same manner as the ''cock'' is called the hammer. is an "L"-shaped piece of steel hinged at the front used in flintlock firearms. The frizzen is held in one of two positions, opened or closed, by a leaf spring. When closed, it is positioned over the flash pan so as to enclose a small priming charge of black powder next to the flash hole that is drilled through the barrel into which the main charge has been loaded. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer or cock which includes a shaped piece of flint held in a set of jaws with a scrap of leather or thin piece of lead, snaps forward causing the flint to scrape downward along the frizzen's face (historically called the 'battery'), throwing it forward into the open position and exposing the priming powder. The flint scraping along the steel causes a shower of sparks t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trigger (firearms)
A trigger is a mechanism that actuates the function of a ranged weapon such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow, or speargun. The word may also be used to describe a switch that initiates the operation of other non-shooting devices such as a trap, a power tool or a quick release. A small amount of energy applied to the trigger leads to the release of much more energy. Most triggers use a small flattened lever (called the ''trigger blade'') depressed by the index finger, but some weapons such as the M2 Browning machine gun or the Iron Horse TOR ("thumb-operated receiver") use a push-button-like thumb-actuated trigger design, and others like the Springfield Armory M6 Scout use a squeeze-bar trigger similar to the "ticklers" on medieval European crossbows. Although the word "trigger" technically implies the entire mechanism (known as the ''trigger group''), colloquially it is usually used to refer specifically to the trigger blade. Most firearm triggers are "single-action", ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring (device)
A spring is an elastic object that stores mechanical energy. In everyday use the term often refers to coil springs, but there are many different spring designs. Modern springs are typically manufactured from spring steel, although some non-metallic objects like the bow are also springs. When a conventional spring, without stiffness variability features, is compressed or stretched from its resting position, it exerts an opposing force approximately proportional to its change in length (this approximation breaks down for larger deflections). The ''rate'' or ''spring constant'' of a spring is the change in the force it exerts, divided by the change in deflection of the spring. That is, it is the gradient of the force versus deflection curve. An extension or compression spring's rate is expressed in units of force divided by distance, for example or N/m or lbf/in. A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting; when it is twisted about its axis by an angle, it prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shooting
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can be considered acts of shooting. When using a firearm, the act of shooting is often called firing as it involves initiating a combustion (deflagration) of chemical propellants. Shooting can take place in a shooting range or in the field, in shooting sports, hunting, or in combat. The person involved in the shooting activity is called a shooter. A skilled, accurate shooter is a ''marksman'' or ''sharpshooter'', and a person's level of shooting proficiency is referred to as their ''marksmanship''. Competitive shooting Shooting has inspired competition, and in several countries rifle clubs started to form in the 19th century. Soon international shooting events evolved, including shooting at the Summer and Winter Olympics (from 1896) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
