snaphaunce

The snaphaunce lock appeared in Europe in the mid-16th century and was the earliest form of flintlock firearms ignition system. It was later differentiated from the ‘true’ flintlock by firearms scholars for whom the ‘true’ and original snaphaunce lock had a steel separate from the pan cover and a cock incapable of the half-cock safety position. The pan cover either slid open automatically upon the trigger being pulled or had to be slid open manually first. Snaphaunce locks seem to have been invented by the Dutch, who gave them the name snaphaan, meaning ‘snapping hen’. They likened the flint-bearing hammer to a cock bird (Hahn in German, Haan in Dutch) and Haan, when translated into English as ‘cock’, came to mean the hammer, which struck the steel with its flint to ignite the primary charge. Differing styles of snaphaunce developed in the Low Countries, in Britain, Spain, Italy, and North Africa. As a system it remained popular in Spain, the Balkans, and North Africa into the 19th century, where it was the ignition system principally found on miquelet muskets.

Bibliography

• Blair, Claude (gen. ed.), Pollard's History of Firearms (London, 1983)

— Stephen Wood