Lock

That part of a fire-arm by which fire is produced for the discharge of a piece. The first form of the apparatus was the match-lock , which consisted of a lever holding a lighted match, which by a simple mechanism was brought in contact with the priming. This was superseded by the wheel-lock , invented in Nuremburg, or Italy, according to different authorities, which made its appearance early in the 16th century. This consisted of a wheel wound up against a spring and released by a trigger. In its revolution it evolved sparks by friction against an alloy of iron and antimony, which fell upon and ignited the priming. This was replaced about 1680 by the flint-lock , consisting of a hammer, or cock, holding a flint, which in its descent struck a steel plate. This device gave way in its turn, about 1840, to the percu ion-lock , which, in one or another of its many forms, promises to endure indefinitely. The terms matchlock , flintlock , firelock , etc., have also been used to designate the weapon itself.