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The lock of a firearm is the mechanism used to initiate firing. It is generally used as a historical term, referring to such mechanisms used in muzzle loader and early breech loader firearms, as modern firearms uniformly fire by use of a firing pin to strike the rear of a cartridge. Side-lock refers to the type of construction, in which the individual components of the mechanism are mounted either side of a single plate. The assembly is then mounted to the stock on the side of the firearm. In modern firearm designs, the mechanism to initiate firing is generally constructed within the frame or receiver of the firearm and is referred to as the Firing mechanism or trigger mechanism.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> definition of firelock, accessed 29 October 2021.Collinsdictionary.com, definition of firelock, accessed 29 October 2021.Oxfordreference.com, firelock, accessed 29 October 2021. More specifically, it refers to the mechanism or lock of such firearms. It may also refer to a gun's lock which uses slow match to ignite the powder charge.Merriam-webster.com, definition of firelock, accessed 29 October 2021.On the origin of the term lock: "The fabrication of these devices fell to locksmiths ... They gave to the firing mechanism the enduring name lock". ( War on Land, Robert Curley (ed.), Britanica Educational Publishing, 2011)
The matchlock was a lever mechanism that simplified the ergonomics of firing. Slow match would be held clear of the flash pan in a spring-loaded pivoting arm (the serpentine). Depressing the firing lever would dip the burning match into the flash pan. The snap matchlock latched the serpentine back against spring tension. Actuating the trigger or firing lever would release the serpentine, allowing it to rotate and dip the lit match into the priming pan. This reduced hesitancy at the moment of firing and thereby improved accuracy. However, rather than firing, the match might be snuffed out when it struck the flash pan.Britanica.com, Matchlock, accessed 29 October 2021.
The next advance was a self-igniting firearm that did not require a lit slow match to fire. The first of this type is the wheellock. The wheellock produces a spark in much the same way as a Zippo lighter. Pyrite held against a rotating steel wheel produced a spark directed at the priming charge in the flash pan. The wheel is rotated by a spring under tension. It would be wound up like a clock before each firing, held by a latch and fired by a lever that released the latch. To avert stalling, the pyrite would be lowered onto the rotating wheel rather than being permanently held against it. The mechanism would also remove a cover from the flash pan at the moment of firing, sliding it forward. The cover would retain the priming charge in the flash pan during transit. The mechanism was altogether quite complicated. Consequently it was expensive and found limited use.
The next advance in firearm design was the snaplock, which used flint striking steel to generate the spark. The flint is held in a rotating, spring-loaded arm called the cock. This is held cocked by a latch and released by a lever or trigger. The steel is curved and hinged. This accommodates the arc of the flint, maintaining contact with the steel. The spark produced is directed downward into the flash pan. The snaphance incorporates a mechanism to slide the pan cover forward at the moment of firing. The doglock incorporates a second latch (or dog) as a safety mechanism that engages the cock in a halfway or half-cock position. The dog is independent of the trigger. The dog is only released when the lock is bought to the full-cock position. The miquelet lock is the penultimate of the flint-sparking locks. It has an L-shaped frizzen, the base of which, covers the flash pan and is hinged forward of the pan. The flint strikes against the upright of the "L" and flips the frizzen forward to reveal the pan to the sparks created. The miquelet lock also has a half-cock mechanism similar in function but differing in operation from the doglock.
The flintlock is also referred to as the true flintlock to distinguish it from other flint-sparking mechanisms. It is also known as the French lock.Kinard, 2003, p. 24. It uses a frizzen similar to the miquelet lock and has a half-cock position. The distinction between the two locks is that the flintlock uses a single vertical sear to latch the cock in both the cocked and half-cocked positions. The sear is a lever that pivots in the vertical plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the cock and acts much like a pawl engaging the catch points of a ratchet gear. The tumbler is similar in function to a ratchet gear. It is mounted on the inside of the lock-plate and has two catch-points corresponding to the half-cocked and full-cocked positions. The half-cock catch-point is a V-notch into which the sear fits and cannot be levered away by the trigger to disengage the tumbler. Flintlock -Looking at the internal parts of a Brown Bess, accessed 6 August 2022.
Firelock firing mechanisms are assembled either side of a mounting plate. The assembly is then mounted to the side of the stock of the firearm. The actual trigger may be separately mounted from the lock-plate. Side lock refers to lock mechanisms of this general construction.The Queen Anne pistol is a notable exception. It is a breech-loading flintlock in which the barrel is screwed off to load the chamber. In this style of firearm, the chamber and lock-plate are forged as a single piece. However, the lock-plate is still off-set to one side. (See: Silver Clad Queen Anne Pistols) It continued to be used in percussion-lock firearms and early firearm designs using metallic cartridges.
The flintlock mechanism was readily adapted to utilise this new technology. The flash pan was removed. A nipple (a small hollow cone) was fitted to the touchhole. The percussion cap is fitted over the end of the nipple. The cock was modified to strike the cap and redesignated as the hammer. As a safety measure, the face of the hammer was soon hollowed to surround the cap. As an economy, many existing flintlocks (particularly military stocks) were converted to use the percussion cap. Most conversions modified rather than replaced the lock mechanism of the firearm being convertedThe 1807/35 M “Console” Jägerstützen, a tube lock, was one of the most basic of conversions. It replaced the flint in the cock with a piece of steel to become the hammer ( The story of the Augustin tube lock ignition system accessed) while lock designs in new models of longarms were largely unchanged. Some designs emerged, such as Maynard carbineThe Maynard carbine used a paper tape, much like that used in toy . and the pellet feed system employed by the Sharps carbine, How the pellet priming system works on an original 1863 M Sharps percussion carbine (accessed 31 October 2021) which mechanised the recharging of the primer but such systems were never widely adopted.
Percussion lock refers generally to firearms that use external percussive primers. Cap lock and tube lock refer to percussion-lock firearms that utilised either cap or tube primers respectively. Scent-bottle lock refers to a design by Forsyth. The charger containing the fulminating powder resembles a scent bottle in shape.
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