Sorry Michael. The point seems to have got lost somewhere. I wasnt suggesting that the push button pan release ; the presence or lack of it , was of any particular geographic or chronological significance.
It seems from about 1535, and certainly by 1550 the wheelock in Germany had achieved all its classic features . But without , as far as I am aware much evidence of a development stage. In contrast , in early Italian wheelocks , we see a much wider range of solutions to problems that look more like a developing idea. Such as single locking bars (Da Vinci ) , matchlock style slot in wheel pancovers, exposed mechanisms etc.This is not a who invented the wheelock argument but it might be an argument for independant lines of development .The question was whether we should regard these Italian locks as being earlier than the earliest known German examples or simply that the Italians did things differently and for whatever reason were slower to adopt more mechanically sophisticated (and safer!) solutions.
And yes , their is I think a simple theory why push button pan covers might have been considered a desirable neccesity on some classes of firearm and an optional extra on others....
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