The wheellock action, a successor Rifles to the matchlock, predated the flintlock. Despite its many faults, the wheellock was a powerful improvement over the matchlock in terms of both convenience and safety, since it eliminated the obligation to keep a smoldering complement in proximity to loose gunpowder. It operated using a mini wheel much like that on cigarette lighters which was wound up with a key before appliance and which, when the trigger was pulled, spun against a flint, creating the shower of sparks that ignited the dust in the fondling hole. Supposedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance man, the wheel lock action was an innovation that was not widely adopted.

Flintlock