Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Philip · 28th July 2020, 01:19 AM

You have what is called a "segment" lock, which employs the partial arc of a wheel, in rotating fashion, to generate sparks from the pyrites. As GIO notes, it eliminates the need to wind up a wheel with a spanner, and thus makes reloading faster. Considering that most wheellocks are designed to rotate less than a full revolution, a segment lock should be efficient enough as a spark-striker.

The pan-cover opening mechanism operates via an internal cam and pushrod system, actuated by the segment's spindle, as on snaphaunce locks.

Claude Blair writes an excellent intro to these in his article "Early Firearms" in the anthology Pollard's History of Firearms and illustrates an example. The system could possibly date back to the late 16th cent. and it seems that the Germans and Italians are butting heads as to who invented it. There are several examples in German collections cited by Moritz Thierbach in his Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Handfeuerwaffen (1886). Gen. Agostino Gaibi credits one of his countrymen, Rafaello Verdiani (c1580-1630) as the inventor, with one signed and undated example in the Royal Armouries Museum (XII.1067). Mr Blair characterizes segment lock guns as "very rare".

28th July 2020, 01:19 AM	#5
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	You have what is called a "segment" lock, which employs the partial arc of a wheel, in rotating fashion, to generate sparks from the pyrites. As GIO notes, it eliminates the need to wind up a wheel with a spanner, and thus makes reloading faster. Considering that most wheellocks are designed to rotate less than a full revolution, a segment lock should be efficient enough as a spark-striker. The pan-cover opening mechanism operates via an internal cam and pushrod system, actuated by the segment's spindle, as on snaphaunce locks. Claude Blair writes an excellent intro to these in his article "Early Firearms" in the anthology Pollard's History of Firearms and illustrates an example. The system could possibly date back to the late 16th cent. and it seems that the Germans and Italians are butting heads as to who invented it. There are several examples in German collections cited by Moritz Thierbach in his Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Handfeuerwaffen (1886). Gen. Agostino Gaibi credits one of his countrymen, Rafaello Verdiani (c1580-1630) as the inventor, with one signed and undated example in the Royal Armouries Museum (XII.1067). Mr Blair characterizes segment lock guns as "very rare".