Linstock

A linstock (also called a lintstock) is a staff with a fork at one end to hold a lighted slow match. The name was adapted from the Dutch lontstok, "match stick". Linstocks were used for discharging cannons in the early days of artillery; the linstock allowed the gunner to stand farther from the cannon as it was dangerous applying the lighted match to the touch hole at the breech of the gun: not only could the charge flash back, but the recoil of the cannon might send the carriage toward the gunner.