Editing Arquebus (section)

==Mechanism and usage==
{{see also|Hand cannon}}
[[File:Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l’époque carlovingienne à la Renaissance, tome 6 - 359.png|thumb|Depiction of an arquebus fired from a fork rest. Image produced in 1876.]]
[[File:PS8004046.jpg|thumb|A [[Serpentine lock|serpentine matchlock]] mechanism]]
[[File:Japanese classic rifle.ogv|thumb|Demonstration of [[Tanegashima (Japanese matchlock)|Tanegashima]] in [[Himeji Castle]]]]

Prior to the appearance of the serpentine lever by around 1411, handguns were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm maneuvered a hot pricker to the touch hole to ignite the gunpowder.{{sfn|Arnold|2001|p=75}} The matchlock, which appeared roughly around 1475, changed this by adding a firing mechanism consisting of two parts, the match, and the lock. The lock mechanism held within a clamp a {{cvt|2|to|3|ft|cm|sigfig=1|adj=on|order=flip}} long length of smoldering rope soaked in saltpeter, which was the match.{{sfn|Arnold|2001|p=75}} Connected to the lock lever was a trigger, which lowered the match into a priming pan when squeezed, igniting the priming powder, causing a flash to travel through the touch hole, also igniting the gunpowder within the barrel, and propelling the bullet out the muzzle.{{sfn|Chase|2003|p=24}}

While matchlocks provided a crucial advantage by allowing the user to aim the firearm using both hands, it was also awkward to utilize.{{sfn|Chase|2003|p=25}} To avoid accidentally igniting the gunpowder the match had to be detached while loading the gun. In some instances the match would also go out, so both ends of the match were kept lit. This proved cumbersome to maneuver as both hands were required to hold the match during removal, one end in each hand. The procedure was so complex that a 1607 drill manual published by Jacob de Gheyn in the Netherlands listed 28 steps just to fire and load the gun.{{sfn|Chase|2003|p=25}} In 1584 the Ming General [[Qi Jiguang]] composed an 11-step song to practice the procedure in rhythm: "One, clean the gun. Two, pour the powder. Three, tamp the powder down. Four, drop the pellet. Five, drive the pellet down. Six, put in paper (stopper). Seven, drive the paper down. Eight, open the flashpan cover. Nine, pour in the flash powder. Ten, close the flashpan, and clamp the fuse. Eleven, listen for the signal, then open the flashpan cover. Aiming at the enemy, raise your gun and fire."{{sfn|Andrade|2016|pp=176–75}} Reloading a gun during the 16th century took anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute under the most ideal conditions.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=144}}

The development of [[volley fire]]—by the Ottomans, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Dutch—made the arquebus more feasible for widespread adoption by militaries. The volley fire technique transformed soldiers carrying firearms into organized firing squads with each row of soldiers firing in turn and reloading in a systematic fashion. Volley fire was implemented with cannons as early as 1388 by Ming artillerists,{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=157}} but volley fire with matchlocks was not implemented until 1526 when the Ottoman [[Janissaries]] utilized it during the [[Battle of Mohács]].{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=149}} The matchlock volley fire technique was next seen in mid-16th-century China as pioneered by Qi Jiguang and in late-16th-century Japan.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=173}}{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=169}} Qi Jiguang elaborates on his volley fire technique in the ''[[Jixiao Xinshu]]'':

{{blockquote|All the musketeers, when they get near the enemy are not allowed to fire early, and they're not allowed to just fire everything off in one go, [because] whenever the enemy then approaches close, there won't be enough time to load the guns (銃裝不及), and frequently this mismanagement costs the lives of many people. Thus, whenever the enemy gets to within a hundred paces' distance, they [the musketeers] are to wait until they hear a blast on the bamboo flute, at which they deploy themselves in front of the troops, with each platoon (哨) putting in front one team (隊). They [the musketeer team members] wait until they hear their own leader fire a shot, and only then are they allowed to give fire. Each time the trumpet gives a blast, they fire one time, spread out in battle array according to the drilling patterns. If the trumpet keeps blasting without stopping, then they are allowed to fire all together until their fire is exhausted, and it's not necessary [in this case] to divide into layers.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=173}}|''[[Jixiao Xinshu]]''}}

In Europe, [[William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg]] theorized that by applying to firearms the same Roman counter march technique as described by [[Aelianus Tacticus]], matchlocks could provide fire without cease.<ref>Ed Donald A Yerxa (2008). ''Military Revolutions, Past and Present by Geoffrey Parker in Recent Themes in Military History''. University of South Carolina Press, p. 13</ref> In a letter to his cousin [[Maurice, Prince of Orange|Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange]], on 8 December 1594, he wrote:

{{Blockquote|I have discovered evolutionibus [a term that would eventually be translated as ''drill''] a method of getting the musketeers and others with guns not only to practice firing but to keep on doing so in a very effective battle order (that is to say, they do not fire at will or from behind a barrier ...). Just as soon as the first rank has fired, then by the drill [they have learned] they will march to the back. The second rank either marching forward or standing still, will then fire just like the first. After that the third and following ranks will do the same. When the last rank has fired, the first will have reloaded, as the following diagram shows.<ref>Geoffrey Parker (2008), footnote 4, p. 21</ref>}}

Once volley firing had been developed, the rate of fire and efficiency was greatly increased and the arquebus went from being a support weapon to the primary focus of most early modern armies.<ref>Geoffrey Parker (2007). [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/29/article/213516/pdf "The Limits to Revolutions in Military Affairs: Maurice of Nassau, the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600), and the Legacy"]. ''Journal of Military History''. Vol. 71, No. 2. pp. 333–40.</ref>

The [[wheellock]] mechanism was utilized as an alternative to the matchlock as early as 1505,{{sfn|Phillips|2016}} but was more expensive to produce at three times the cost of a matchlock and prone to breakdown, thus limiting it primarily to specialist firearms and pistols.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhYnDwAAQBAJ&dq=wheellock+costly+arquebus&pg=PT11|title=From the Arquebus to the Breechloader: How Firearms Transformed Early Infantry Tactics|date=10 December 2015|publisher=Piers Platt}}</ref>

The [[snaphance]] [[flintlock]] was invented by the mid-16th century and then the "true" flintlock in the early 17th century, but by this time the generic term for firearms had shifted to ''musket'', and flintlocks are not usually associated with arquebuses.{{sfn|Needham|1986|p=429}}

<gallery widths="135" heights="200" class="center" caption="Firing sequence">
File:Arquebus mp3h3700.jpg|Placing the weapon on its rest
File:Arquebus mp3h3720.jpg|Aiming, finger on the trigger
File:Arquebus mp3h3722.jpg|The lock ignites the primer
File:Arquebus mp3h3723.jpg|The main propellant is ignited, and much smoke ensues
</gallery>