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One
of the drawbacks of the Matchlock was that it needed a
constantly burning source of ignition, the answer to this
problem was ignition by striking stone against steel thus
producing sparks; a simple enough concept one would think,
but the Wheellock had to do it the hard way!
Despite being mechanically complicated and expensive to
produce, examples of Wheellock firearms are amongst some of
the more beautiful and decorative forms of the Gunsmiths
art.
Our
first incursion into the World of the Wheellock is in the
form of the popular Dutch/German style mechanism of the
first quarter of 17th Century, found more readily
on pistols, and the slightly larger lockplate version on
carbines and fowlers.
These weapons were the mainstay of many cavalrymen in the
German Wars and were imported in small numbers to supply
Royalist cavalrymen in the early part of the English Civil
War, where it was soon to be eclipsed by the English Lock
pistol as shown below. |
