The next great leap in fire arm tree is the ignition source. The Archibus had a slow burning rope to set of the powder, this was effective only in short battles because the rope would be burnt to its last leg by the end. The flint lock introduced in the start of the 17th century was a huge leap forward over the the burning rope. It was a peace of flint held in place over the powder tray. For the weapon to fire, the spring loaded hammer with the flint has to strike a steel plate to make a spark and that spark makes its way to the powder charge. A example of this is the Brown Bess used by British solders in the 18th century. These flint lock weapons where not perfect. The musket had much the same problems as its earlier version. The major problems happened with the flint lock itself. Solders could not fight on a windy day or in the rain because the sparks from the flint wouldn't make it into the powder tray. Also the powder tray would let off a big cloud of smoke in the shooters face, this gave away his position. The next invention was the percussion cap.
This was a cap made out of brass that would send one spark down the into the barrel to set of the powder. The advantage to using this small brass cap is, faster ignition, faster reload and your position is more discrete. The only deference between a weapon using a percussion cap and a flint is the firing mechanism. The barrel, stock and ram rode could all be exactly the same. The muskets will become out of date with the next inventions rolling its way. In my opening the percussion cap is the best way to set off gun powder, in fact modern munitions use a percussion cap as well. flint locks and slow burning ropes where a very crude way of ignition, they where create for the day they where invented but they needed a update and the percussion cap did that
This was a cap made out of brass that would send one spark down the into the barrel to set of the powder. The advantage to using this small brass cap is, faster ignition, faster reload and your position is more discrete. The only deference between a weapon using a percussion cap and a flint is the firing mechanism. The barrel, stock and ram rode could all be exactly the same. The muskets will become out of date with the next inventions rolling its way. In my opening the percussion cap is the best way to set off gun powder, in fact modern munitions use a percussion cap as well. flint locks and slow burning ropes where a very crude way of ignition, they where create for the day they where invented but they needed a update and the percussion cap did that
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Source? Visuals?
ReplyDeleteI can only mark these 2 posts for mid-terms. You're missing 3 posts.