Editing Lock (firearm) (section)

==Hand cannon==

[[Hand cannon]], the earliest of firearms, had arrived in Europe by {{ca}} 1338.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Holmes |first=Robert |year=2015 |title=Medieval Europe's first firearms |journal=Medieval Warfare |volume=5 |issue=5|jstor=48578499 | pages=49–52|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/48578499.pdf}}</ref>  These cannons were loaded from the [[muzzle loader|muzzle]].  The [[propellent]] charge is lit through a [[touch hole]].  A small [[Primer (firearms)|priming charge]] over the touch hole is ignited with a lit piece of [[slow match]] or similar.  These hand cannons were ungainly: the difficulty being in holding and aiming the weapon while manipulating the slow burning fuse needed to fire it.  Improvements to the basic design placed the touch hole and a priming pan ([[flash pan]]) to the side of the barrel.  A cover to the priming pan allowed this to be filled with priming powder in advance of firing but there was no actual ''mechanism'' for firing.<ref name="penny">[https://books.google.com/books?id=swsDAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA375 Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge], ''Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge'', '''Vol.1''', pp. 372–373, C. Knight, 1833.</ref>