The snap matchlock is a type of

matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Befor ...

mechanism used to ignite early

firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

. It was used in Europe from about 1475 to 1640, and in Japan from 1543 until about 1880, and was also largely used by Korea (Joseon) during the Imjin war to the early 20th century.

Description

The serpentine (a curved lever with a clamp on the end) was held in firing position by a weak spring, and released by pressing a button, pulling a trigger, or even pulling a short string passing into the mechanism. The

slow match Slow match, also called match cord, is the slow-burning cord or twine fuse used by early gunpowder musketeers, artillerymen, and soldiers to ignite matchlock muskets, cannons, shells, and petards. Slow matches were most suitable for use aroun ...

held in the serpentine swung into a

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 p ...

containing priming powder. The flash from the flash pan travelled through the

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 o ...

igniting the main propellant charge of the gun. As the match was often extinguished after its relatively violent collision with the flash pan, this type fell out of favour with soldiers, but was often used in fine target weapons. In Japan the first documented introduction of the matchlock which became known as the ''tanegashima'' was through the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

in 1543. The ''tanegashima'' seems to have been based on ''snap matchlocks'' that were produced in the armory of Goa in

Portuguese India The State of India ( pt, Estado da Índia), also referred as the Portuguese State of India (''Estado Português da Índia'', EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a s ...

, which was captured by Portugal in 1510. There were 2 different lock mechanisms used in Indo-Portuguese matchlock guns. One has single leaf mainspring of the Lusitanian gun prototypes, which can be found in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, Malay peninsula, Sumatra, and Vietnam, and the other has V-shaped mainspring, can be found in Java, Bali, China, Japan, and Korea.

References

External links

Handgonnes and Matchlocks

Matchlokkes
{{Early firearms Early firearms Firearm actions

Description

See also

References

External links