I notice that Ed didn't give the poster a clue as to what the prime topic of debate was at the turn of the twentieth century, so I will. He's right, it wasn't sidelocks and boxlocks. As someone who has read at least one percent of what Ed has in nineteenth century shooting periodicals, I am going to say it is "barrels, patterns, and penetration". I too have never seen much discussion, if any, about lockwork. OK, so the penetration business was a red herring, but it was discussed and advertised to death, whether a legitimate item for discussion or not. Of all the thousands of words of wit and knowledge contributed by readers in each weekly issue of the most popular publications, I don't remember ten words in all my reading about a gun that wouldn't go bang when the trigger was pulled. Oh well.