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Snaphance or Snaphaunce refers to a mechanism for igniting a firearm's propellant usually in a muzzleloading gun. The mechanism, which first appeared in the late 1550s, uses flint and steel to create a shower of sparks to ignite the propellant in the gun. A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ...
A propellant is a material that is used to move an object by applying a motive force. ...
The flint is held in a clamp at the end of a bent lever called the cock. Upon pulling the trigger, this moves forward under the pressure of a strong spring and strikes a curved plate of hardened steel - called simply the steel, or in 17th century English dialect the frizzen - producing a shower of sparks (actually white hot steel shavings). These fall into a flash pan holding priming powder. The flash from the pan travels through the touch hole causing the main charge of gunpowder to detonate. Pebble beach made up of flint nodules eroded out of the nearby chalk cliffs, Cape Arkona, Rügen Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline silica rock with a glassy appearance. ...
In its earliest usage, trigger refers to a mechanical mechanism, the pulling or pushing of which sets a device into action. ...
Gunpowder is a substance which burns very rapidly and is used as a propellant in firearms. ...
The Snaphance was a development of the earlier Snaplock, the main difference being the Snaphance used an automatic pan-cover (to keep the priming dry until the exact moment of firing) similar to that used in the Wheel-lock, whereas the Snaplock had a manually operated pan cover similar to that of the Matchlock. The Snaphance also used the lateral sear mechanism from the wheel-lock to connect trigger to cock, and later, improved models also had a variety of safety mechanisms to prevent accidental discharge of the gun. Snaplock refers to a mechanism for igniting a firearms propellant usually in a muzzleloading gun. ...
The Matchlock was the first firearm to have a trigger mechanism for firing. ...
Sear has several meanings: In demonology, it is an alternate spelling for Seir, a Prince of Hell. ...
The Snaphance was used from the late 1550's until modern times (in North African guns), but by about 1680 it was out of fashion everywhere except Northern Italy where it persisted until the 1750's. In Europe, and especially France, the Snaphance was replaced by the Flintlock with its combined Frizzen/pan cover starting from about 1620. In England, a hybrid mechanism called the English Lock replaced the Snaphance from the same date. Both the Flintlock and the English lock were cheaper and less complex than the Snaphance, although the English lock had a reputation for being unsafe. A flintlock is a firearm that operates in the following manner: The operator loads the gun, usually from the barrel end, with black powder followed by shot or a bullet wrapped in a paper patch, all rammed down with a special rod; A hammer tightly holding a shaped bit of...
The origin of the name Snaphance is thought to come from the Dutch or German "Snap Hahn" and has two attributions. The first is that the action of the mechanism was likened to a chicken pecking at grain (thus the name "cock" for part of the mechanism). The second attributes the use of this type of gun to chicken thieves, who would be given away by the sight and smell of a burning match in their nocturnal depredations.
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