A linstock (also called a lintstock) is a metre-long staff with a fork at one end to hold a lighted slow match,[1] The name was adapted from the Dutch lontstok, "match stick".[2] Linstocks were used for discharging cannons in the early days of artillery; the linstock allowed the gunner to stand further from the cannon[3] as it was dangerous applying the lighted match to the touch hole.[4] This was located in the breech and filled with fine black powder; when ignited it caused the gun to fire.[5]
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Linstocks had serpentine jaws to grip the slow match and a sharp point at the base to stick in the ground.[6] In emergencies gunners could use the spear blade as a weapon to defend the cannon.[7]
Like most early modern military equipment the linstock had a second function; 16th century examples had measurements in inches and a protractor engraved on the blade to allow the gun captain to check the angle.
By the 18th century flintlock firing devices had been introduced, rendering the artillery linstock obsolete[8] though the linstock remained in service in many places where the older form of ignition was used, including America during the War of Independence and parts of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.[9] During the War of 1812 and American Civil War gun crews were issued linstocks[10] which were used when the flintlock and percussion cap-ignited primers failed.[11]
LINSTOCK (adapted from the Dutch lontstok, i.e. " matchstick," from lont, a match, stok, a stick; the word is sometimes erroneously spelled "lintstock" from a supposed derivation from "lint" in the sense of tinder), a kind of torch made of a stout stick a yard in length, with a fork at one end to hold a lighted match, and a point at the other to stick in the ground. "Linstocks" were used for discharging cannon in the early days of artillery.
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