The caliver is a harquebus or light musket of a standard calibre, introduced into England during Elizabeth’s reign; it was four feet ten inches long, discharged without a rest, and the fire was much more rapid than that of its predecessors, and had the great advantage of uniformity of projectile. Edmund Yorke, writing in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, says: “Before the battle of Mounguntur, the princes of the religion caused several thousand harquebusses to be made, all of one ‘calibre,’ which was called ‘Harquebuse de calibre de Monsieur le Prince.’”[55] Hand-grenades of the sixteenth century were made of very coarse glass, almost slag or pottery; they were nearly three and a half inches in diameter, holding from three to seven ounces of powder. The snaphance was the immediate precursor of the flintlock, and was a German invention of the second half of the sixteenth century, fired through the medium of sulphurous pyrites. This lock forms the connecting link between the wheel-lock and flintlock, there being a hammer instead of a wheel; the pan is the same, but the cover was moved back by a spring, leaving the powder clear for the action of the sparks. A fine collection of these weapons may be seen in the Dresden Museum. The method of extracting fire by means of flint and steel is an ancient one, being mentioned by both Virgil and Pliny. The credit of the invention of the familiar flintlock is claimed by France, anno 1640, but an actual specimen in the Tower armoury, dated 1614, effectually disposes of this pretension. The French claim that the improvements of the screw-plate, “à miqulet,” led to the mechanism of the flintlock; but it was long before the system displaced that of the old matchlock. The musketeer continued to carry his matchlock gun up to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and even later, while the flintlock continued in use until long after Waterloo; indeed, matchlock, wheel-lock, and flintlock weapons were all to the fore together for a part of the seventeenth century. Wheel-lock pistols formed part of the equipment of the Reiters or Pistoliers of the second half of the sixteenth century. Hefner says pistols were common in Germany in 1512, before the invention of the wheel-lock. The pistol of the Reiters, who usually wore blackened demi-armour, are very easily recognisable by the round pommel. The pistol was often combined with other weapons, both for battle and for the chase, and such combinations are often met with in the axe, mace, and even sword; while there are instances of pistols with two and even three locks. The introduction of these weapons produced great changes in warlike tactics. The etymology of the word is uncertain, some maintaining that the name arose from the weapon having been invented in Pistoja; others believe that the word originated from a coin of the time, the pistole, from the fact, if it be one, that the bore of the weapon had the same diameter as the coin.