281

GUNS, GUN LOCKS, BARRELS, &C,

effloresce, a vitreous stone was affixed to the improvementof the lock, somewhat resembling our gun-lo£.k. Butthese progressive improvements advanced slowly, becauseas recently as the early part of the last century these clumsycontrivances were in use. During that period, those in-struments were denominated by various names, chieflyGerman and Dutch , such as b'uchse, hakenbuchse, arque-buses musket, martinet, pistol, jlinte, &c. Those who mayhe desirous of other names, and further particulars, arerespectfully referred to Grose's Military Antiquities. It issaid, the first name arose from the oldest portable kindof fire-anns having a similarity to a box. There were longand short b’uchse, the latter of which, as we have beeninformed from Jlortleder, were peculiar to cavalry; thelongest kind, also, from their resemblance to a pipe, werecalled in Germany rohr.

Large pieces, which were conveyed on carriages, were calledKarrenbuchse, from the action of conveyance. Soon after-wards cannon were also introduced, at first called canna ; nowknown as artillery. However, artillery-men, arsenal-men,and others concerned in those employments, still use theterms previously mentioned. The hakenbuchsen were sovery large and heavy, that if carried in the hand they couldnot Jie manually used alone ; they were therefore supportedby a post or stay, called a bock, because it had a forkedend, somewhat rudely resembling the horns of that animal,the buck, between which the piece was fixed by a hookprojecting from the stock; figures of which parts, as wellas their utility, may be found in the French work Histoire,de la Milice Francois, par Daniel, 1724, 4to. There is stillpreserved an old b’uchse in the Tower of London , whereevery species of our national arms are preserved. 1

From those terms before mentioned, it should appear,that not only the French, but also the English , and mostother European nations took the names of their fire-arms.

The hakenbuchsen, is said to have been a German inven-tion of the beginning of the sixteenth century. Daniel, weunderstand, says, “ Fabrice Colonne dans les ‘ Dialogues deMachiavel sur Fart de la guerre, parle de cette arnie commed’une invention nouvelle el de son terns.’ L’arquebuse, dit il,qui est un baton invente de nouveau, comme vous scacez, estbien necessaire pour le terns qui court. Idauteur de la Disci-pline miUtaire, altribue au Seigneur de Langei, en parle demane ; la harquebuse, dit il, a etc trouvee de peu d ans en fd,

i See also in Grose's Military Antiquities.