The match was a constant source of trouble to the soldier, both from the difficulty of keeping it alight in bad weather, and from the length of time it sometimes took to ignite the charge. It was therefore not without justice that many persons clamoured about this time against the introduction of fire-arms. They contended that upon no point, save that of penetration, was the harquebuss superior or equal to the long-bow; its great weight 16 or 18lbs. (seldom less than 12lbs.) obliged it to be supported by a rest, which had a kind of fork to receive the musket, and at the bottom a sharp metal spike, to strike into the ground; (Plate 19, fig. 5, 7, and 8). When the harquebuss was shouldered the rest was carried in the right hand, and subsequently hung upon it, by means of a string or loop. The difficulty of keeping the powder and match dry, the time taken to load, and its comparative inaccuracy, rendered it of low reputation. Nevertheless it held its ground, and the next improvement was the wheel-lock, by which a more instantaneous ignition of the charge was secured; it was invented at Nuremberg, 1517. It consisted of a little solid wheel of steel, fixed against the plate of the lock of the harquebuss or pistol; it had an axis that pierced it in its centre; at the interior end of this axis which went into the lock, a chain was fastened, which twisted round it on the wheel being turned, and bent the spring by which it was held; to bend this spring a key was made use of, into which the exterior end of the axis was inserted. By turning this key from left to right, the wheel was made to revolve, and by this movement a little slider of copper, which covered the pan with the priming, retired from over it; and by the same movement the cock, armed with a flint like the cock of a fusil, was in a state to be discharged on pulling the trigger with the finger; the cock then falling on the wheel, produced fire, and communicated it to the priming. The wheel-lock was first used at the siege of Parma, 1521, and was brought to England 1530. It was however complicated and difficult to repair, for which reason it could not always be depended upon, as is proved by some fire-arms of this description at the Tower, which are made with a serpentine, as well as with a wheel, both acted upon by the same trigger. ~Musket in Spain.~ ~At Pavia, 1525.~ ~Low Countries, 1567.~