Research Press

The English snaphance is not only one of the most innovative "flint-locks" but is probably one of the rarest gun mechanisms to have survived. Recent research has found that only about 80 English snaphance muskets, pistols and detached locks have survived worldwide, although this does not include excavated, converted or incomplete locks. Modern tests by the author have proved it to be a fast and reliable mechanism and it must have been a serious challenger to the matchlock and wheellock in the 16th century. This article looks at the history of the lock and examines two examples.

Jean Samuel Pauly, Henri Roux, and Successors
- their inventions from 1812 to 1882 -
New Light on the Forerunners of Modern Fire Arms Ammunition

by Georg Priestel

This work should serve to explain the historical background and events of ammunition development with its brilliant inventors J. S. Pauly and Henri Roux, and to put these inventors in a better light than it had previously been. The author rewrites the early development of the Pauly and Roux cartridges. This composition of many individual pieces of a puzzle gives a picture of how the story went from the beginning to the modern central fire cartridge.

Note
For the student of ammunition as a professional, historian, researcher or collector, reference should be made to the International Ammunition Association. The IAA was founded in 1955 to serve cartridge collectors and professionals in the areas of ammunition research and forensics and their web site includes on line resources and discussion forum.