The next improvement upon the wheel-lock was the snaphaunce; a flat piece of steel, furrowed in imitation of the wheel, was placed on a steel post, which being screwed beyond the pan, was made moveable; the pan had a cover which required to be pushed off by the thumb, and the furrowed piece being then brought to stand over it, on pulling the trigger, the flint, which was substituted for pyrites, struck against it, and gave the spark. ~Flint lock.~ The next step in the improvement of the musket was the introduction of the flint-lock, now so well known, that I need not enter into the details of its mechanism. ~In France, 1630.~ ~In England, 1677.~ ~Earl Orrery’s opinion.~ It was used in France as early as 1630, but was not employed in the army until 1670 or 80, when it took the name of “fusil.” It was not employed in England until about 1677, and its advantages over the matchlock are thus described in a work addressed to King Charles II., in 1677, by the Earl of Orrery:--“First it is exceedingly more ready, for with the fire-lock you have only to cock, and you are prepared to shoot, but with the matchlock, you have several motions, besides if you fire not the matchlock as soon as you have blown your match, (which often, particularly in hedgefights and sieges, you cannot do) you must a second time blow your match. The match is very dangerous, either when bandoliers are used, or when soldiers run hastily in fight to the budge barrel, to refill their bandoliers. I have often seen sad instances thereof. Marching in the nights to avoid an enemy or to surprise one, or to assault a fortress, the matches often discover you, whereby you suffer much, and he obtains much. In wet weather, the rain deads the powder and the match too, and the wind sometimes blows away the powder, ere the match can touch the pan; nay, in very high winds, I have seen the sparks blown from the match, fire the musket ere the soldier meant it, and either thereby lose his shot, or kill some one before him. Whereas in the firelock, the motion is so sudden, that what makes the cock fall on the hammer, strikes the fire and opens the pan at once. Lastly, the quantity of match does much add to the baggage, it naturally draws the moisture of the air, which makes it less fit, and if you march without close waggons, it is the more exposed, and without being dried again in ovens is but of half the use which otherwise it would be of, and which is full as bad as the skeans you give the corporals, and the sinks you give the private soldiers, being rendered useless if damp; nothing of all which can be said of the flint, but much of it to the contrary.” ~Bows to be replaced by muskets, 1596.~