content_output-099_3 (Q7001)

The other illustration represents an early hammerless gun. The body of this weapon is of brass chiselled. The hammer is fixed upon a hinge, and kept in position over the flash-pan by means of a spring; the flash-pan is at the base of the barrel in the body. The flint is fixed upon a rod working in the body, and actuated by a spiral spring. To cock the gun the flint is drawn back by means of the knob underneath the barrel, which is affixed to the rod in the body. There is a notch in the rod into which a scar engages. When the gun is cocked, and the hammer placed in its position, the gun presents no protuberances whatever, but is to all intents a hammerless gun. Even at this early date the advantages of having no complicated mechanism or ever-entangling hooks upon the exterior appear to have been well appreciated, for in the Continental museums are preserved several high-class specimens of guns so constructed.