Socket Bayonet

Timeline

1. c. 1687Paris–Versailles military administrative center · Île-de-FranceThe plug bayonet blocked the muzzle, making firing and thrusting impossible at the same time. Vauban advocated a hollow socket fitting over the muzzle with the blade offset to one side, allowing the musket to be loaded and fired with the bayonet fixed, and used this to persuade the War Ministry to gradually replace pikes and pike-and-bayonet stakes with the bayonet. The scheme addressed the structural defect of the plug bayonet rather than introducing a new cold weapon.
2. 1688–1689Camps of the Kingdom of France · FranceAround the outbreak of the Nine Years' War, the French army demonstrated the socket bayonet with an entire musketeer regiment. Because the bayonets were not made to each musket's caliber, the sockets were loose, and in the king's presence bayonets slipped off and were even ejected from the muzzle, so the scheme was initially rejected. Vauban continued to write to War Minister Louvois, opposing replacing pikes with stakes and insisting on improving the fit between socket and barrel lug.
3. 1690–1703Western European battlefields and camps · Western EuropeOnce the socket gained a right-angle slot engaging the barrel lug, the bayonet stayed fixed during both firing and thrusting. England and other countries followed in the 1690s, while the French army gradually abolished pike formations in favor of the socket bayonet around the turn of the century. Musketeers could now form a bayonet line immediately after a volley, and the plug bayonet was systematically replaced as a transitional form.