was a wheellock. Two years later is the letter-patent of the Emperor Maximilian I, banning the use of self-striking guns which ignite themselves. Dr. Arne Hoff argues that because "striking" is a very inaccurate description of what happens with a wheellock, it is probable that he was referring to a snaplock, thus making 1517 the likely first appearance of the weapon. City regulations from Italian town Ferrara from 1522 and 1634 forbid the carrying of certain firearms which probably are snaplocks and in 1547 a corresponding law in Florence in describing the different locks speak of matchlock, wheellock and a lock with stone and steel. In this cases it is more or less inarguable that the weapons in question are snaplocks. Arsenal accounts from 1547 in Sweden also explicitly mention snaplocks, and continued to do so in 1548 and beyond. The earliest surviving example of a Swedish snaplock is currently held in the Royal Armoury of Stockholm, probably one of a series of snaplock guns made in 1556 from German barrels and Swedish locks.Arne Hoff. “What do we Really Know About the Snaphaunce?”. The American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin, No. 22, (1970) pp. 11- 18. Transcript. Compared to a matchlock, the snaplock could fire twice as many shots per minute due to requiring fewer steps to reload. Not requiring a match to be lit also made it easier to handle and more usable in a wider set of environments, such as in damp places.Michael Charney. "Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900." Page 55. It was cheap and easy to produce, and like all post-matchlock weapons, could be primed and loaded in advance and be fired at a moment's notice. It fell out of favor by about 1640, except in Sweden and Russia, where it lasted far longer. Safety Snaplocks as a class did not have safety devices, but individual models could be prevented from inadvertent firing by different mechanisms: In the early models with a manual pan cover, the steel could be swung out of the path of the flint until just before firing; also, a closed pan cover would not allow the primer to ignite and could help keep the primer dry in misty conditions. On some models, an external hook attached to the lock plate could engage the tip of the "cocked" cock to prevent it from moving forwards. Regional varieties include the Baltic Lock, the Russian Snaplock, and