Matchlocks

In our previous discussion that covered some early portable firearms, we've seen how the early firearms were used by soldiers. To recap, they would hold the weapon with both arms and try to manipulate a lit rope (a slow match) with the tips of their fingers towards a touch hole on the side of the barrel, while still holding the weapon with their hands. Needless to say, the technique was extremely cumbersome and prone to inaccuracy. Hence, one of the first major developments in small arms history was the invention of the matchlock.

As far as firing mechanisms go, the idea of using a trigger to activate a weapon was not a new invention, as they had been used by crossbows in centuries before. So it was only logical that the idea would be borrowed for firearms as well.

Part List:

• A - Flash pan cover
• B - Flash pan (with touch hole)
• C - Serpentine (or cock)
• D - Trigger
• E - Slow match (i.e. a lit rope)
• F - Sear
• G - Pivot
• H - Flat spring
• I - Tumbler link
• J - Barrel
• K - Lock plate
  

The soldier would load the barrel with gunpowder and a bullet. Then, they would pour a little extra powder into a flash pan (part B in the picture). The flash pan has a tiny touch hole leading into the main gunpowder charge inside the barrel. Many rifles featured a cover on top of the flash pan, so that they could keep the powder in the flash pan safe from the elements, until the moment of use. A slow match (E) would be attached to a curved lever called a Serpentine or a Cock (because it resembled a rooster's head in some early weapons). You can see the serpentine labelled as C in the above figure. The trigger D is connected to a sear lever F, which is connected to a tumbler link I. When the trigger is pulled, the serpentine C is pulled towards the flash pan B and lights the gunpowder charge in the flash pan. This in turn burns through the touch hole and ignites the main charge inside the barrel. A flat spring H is used to return the sear lever back to its normal position.

You can see an animation of the mechanism working below (if you cannot see the animation running below, click on the image and it will open into a larger window that shows an animated image):

This was the first real firing mechanism used in small arms. It wasn't always reliable though - many a time, the gunpowder in the flash pan could be blown off or become wet in the rain, or the slow match could go out. As a precaution against the rain, the slow match rope would be lit on both ends, so that if one end went out, it could be re-lit from the other end. Sometimes when the trigger was pulled, the contents of the flash pan would ignite, but it wouldn't burn through the touch hole and therefore fail to ignite the main gunpowder charge inside the barrel. Such a phenomenon was called a flash in the pan. This phrase is still part of the English language and now means "something which starts off initially very bright and showy, but soon fails to deliver anything of value."

Disadvantages

1. It was difficult to use in wet weather because of the problems of the powder in the pan getting damp and the slow match going out in heavy rains.
2. It was quite dangerous to have around large quantities of gunpowder. For instance, when a group of soldiers were loading their weapons from their powder horns (i.e. a large container that hangs from the waist and carries extra gunpowder), there was always a chance that the open flame from one person's matchlock could set off another person's supply.
3. Since the slow match was always lit, the glow could give away a person's position at night time. The slow match also had a pretty distinct smell that could let people know that a person carrying a matchlock was nearby.
   

Nevertheless, matchlock technology stayed alive for a very long time. The Janissary troops of the Ottoman empire were using these weapons in the mid 1400s. By 1526, they were introduced into India by the invasion of Babur, the first Moghul ruler of India. In 1543, a Portuguese vessel was wrecked off Tanegashima island in Japan and some of its crew showed the local Shogun their matchlock weapons, which the Japanese were very quick to clone and use for their own local wars. Well into the 19th century, matchlock weapons were still being used in India, China and Japan. There were even some records of rebels using matchlocks in East Timor well into the 20th century.

Slow Match

Recall that in the last post, we said that soldiers would carry a slow burning rope tied around the waist, so that they could light their crude firearms quickly at any time. This special rope or cord is called a slow match or match cord.

The origin of this term has to do with the Greek word mixa (the word for "lamp wick"), which was adopted by the Romans and became mica, which in turn was borrowed by the French and became meche, which became the English word match. In the late middle ages, match cord was the only way to carry around a quickly available source of fire. In fact, when matchsticks were invented, the term "match stick" itself originated from the fact that it was a replacement for "match cord".

So what is this "match cord" or "slow match" made of? The original match cords were made of hemp or flax fibers. Remember that at this time, cotton was a luxury item in the west and people only knew that it came from a plant somewhere in India. As late as 1350, Sir John Mandeville wrote in his famous book of travels that "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie." So obviously, cotton was out, and the cheaply available hemp and flax fibers were the materials of choice to make the cord.

So how would they ensure that the cord could burn slowly for a long time without going out? The first step is to treat the cord in lye (Potassium Hydroxide). The reason for this is because unprocessed plant fibers normally contain a lot of lignin, which produces most of the ash when the cord burns. In order to reduce the amount of lignin, the cord would traditionally be soaked in a lye mixture. A lye solution is traditionally produced by taking a barrel, filling it about halfway with ashes left over from burning firewood and filling the rest with water (usually rainwater was used for better quality lye, since it is relatively purer compared to other sources of water). After letting it sit for a few days, the liquid from the barrel is filtered through a cloth filter and this is the lye solution. The rope to be prepared is put in this solution and the whole is boiled for about an hour. The rope is then taken out and rinsed in water until the rope can be placed in a pan of water without discoloring it. This means all the extra lye has been washed out of the rope. As an additional precaution, a little bit of vinegar (acetic acid) would sometimes be used in the final rinse to neutralize any remaining lye.

Next, the rope would be treated with a saltpeter solution. Saltpeter is essentially potassium nitrate (KNO3). Sodium nitrate (NaNO3) was also used sometimes, but potassium nitrate is less hygroscopic (i.e. it doesn't absorb moisture from the atmosphere as much) and thus became the chemical of choice. The traditional way to make saltpeter in Europe during the middle ages (since it wasn't available as mineral deposits as was the case in India and China) was to use urine. The urine was placed in a barrel containing straw and allowed to sit for a few months until it turned "sour". Sometimes manure was used as well. Urine from monks was considered to be of better quality, with the urine of bishops being the best of all. The resultant was then washed with water to extract the chemical salts and filtered through wood ash. The solution could also be crystallized by drying in the sun, if it was desired to use the saltpeter crystals for gunpowder manufacture. In the case of making match cord, the solution was used and the treated rope from the previous step would be soaked in the solution and left for a day or so. Then the cord would be taken out and dried in the sun.

The resulting match cord burns very slowly, but has some resistance against being put out by humid and foggy conditions. A length of match cord would usually be wound a few times around a person's waist and both ends would be lit as a precaution and left to hang from the person's belt. That way, if one end was accidentally put out, it could easily be re-lit using the other end. A soldier could therefore walk around all day carrying his crude firearm and always have a source of fire ready to be used at short notice.