Hogg. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World’s Firearms

Although the firearm has a long history, as the introductory section of this book outlines, the amount of technical progress during the first five hundred years was relatively small.Apart from the flintlock mechanism, there was little in a musket of 1800 which would have puzzled an arquebusier of 1400 had he lived to see one. But the opening years of the 19th century saw two significant advances: the adoption of the percussion principle and of rifling, and these began a revolution in weapons design. Ignition of the propellant became cer- tain and instantaneous, and the flight of the bullet became accurate.