BY THE second quarter of the 18th century in Europe the matchlock gun had all but vanished and the wheellock was retained mainly for the ignition of heavy rifles used in Germany and Austria. Except for the Mediterranean area, the flintlock was in almost universal use, being the French type of plain, uncomplicated construction in which the spark necessary to ignite the priming powder was obtained from a piece of sharpened flint striking a steel immediately over the priming pan.
The barrels, which at the beginning of the 1700s had seldom been less than 48 inches, were steadily reduced to 42 and 40 inches as gunmakers began to find that the reduction made no difference to performance but increased a gun’s manoeuvrability. By
