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A touch hole, also known as a cannon 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 , a linstock or a flash pan ignited by some ...
Upon the pull of a lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the smoldering match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch hole, igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun ...
Flintlock mechanism The frizzen , historically called the "hammer" or the steel , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] 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 .
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 ...
A gun flint is a piece of flint that has been shaped, or knapped into a wedge-shape that fits in the jaws of a flintlock. The gun flints were wrapped in a small piece of lead or leather (known as a flint pad) to hold them firmly in place [6] [7] and were made in different sizes to suit different weapons. [8]
Rifles existed long before the 17th century, but were rarely used by military forces. In order to be effective, the round in a rifle had to fit snugly into the barrel. This would allow the round to grip the barrel's rifling as the weapon was fired, and the rifling would impart a spin onto the round which would make it more stable and accurate.
It is not known if multiple magazines were issued per gun, though this was possible (see here for a similar scenario with percussion revolvers). The lock slides from front to rear, with a second trigger provided that slides the lock from touch hole to touch hole, allowing each successive charge to be ignited. The lock did require cocking and ...
Percussion caps have been manufactured in various sizes to fit snugly over different sized nipples. Nipples for 4.5mm and 6mm percussion caps. The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. [1]