Alexander Forsyth (1768-1843) was a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman who invented the percussion ignition.
He was educated at
King's College, AberdeenKing's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...
, and succeeded his father as minister of
BelhelvieBelhelvie is a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in a parish of the same name. It was the site of a suspected water pollution incident in 2006.-External links:* * * *...
in 1791.
While hunting wild duck he was dissatisfied with his
flintlockFlintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced about 1630, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock and wheellock mechanisms...
fowling-piece due to its hang-fire; by the time the bullet was discharged the duck had time to dive before the shot reached them.
He patented his scent-bottle lock in 1807; this was a small container filled with fulminate of mercury
During the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
Forsyth worked on his design at the Tower armories but when a new Master General of Ordnance was appointed he was dismissed; other experiments had destructive results and the new master general did not wish to see Britain's main arsenal destroyed.
Napoleon Bonaparte offered Forsyth a reward if he took his invention to France but Forsyth declined.
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Alexander Forsyth (1768-1843) was a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman who invented the percussion ignition.
He was educated at
King's College, AberdeenKing's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...
, and succeeded his father as minister of
BelhelvieBelhelvie is a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in a parish of the same name. It was the site of a suspected water pollution incident in 2006.-External links:* * * *...
in 1791.
While hunting wild duck he was dissatisfied with his
flintlockFlintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced about 1630, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock and wheellock mechanisms...
fowling-piece due to its hang-fire; by the time the bullet was discharged the duck had time to dive before the shot reached them.
He patented his scent-bottle lock in 1807; this was a small container filled with fulminate of mercury
During the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
Forsyth worked on his design at the Tower armories but when a new Master General of Ordnance was appointed he was dismissed; other experiments had destructive results and the new master general did not wish to see Britain's main arsenal destroyed.
Napoleon Bonaparte offered Forsyth a reward if he took his invention to France but Forsyth declined. The French gunsmith
Jean LepageJean Lepage was a famous French gunsmith. He worked for Louis XVI, Napoléon and then Louis XVIII. He was the inventor a fulminate percussion system for firearms, which superseded the flint-lock mechanism and opened the way to modern firearms...
developed a similar form of ignition in 1807 based on Forsyth's design but this was not pursued.
Gunsmiths like
Joseph MantonJoseph Manton was a much celebrated British gunsmith who was to revolutionise sport shooting, vastly improve the quality of weapons and father the modern artillery shell....
invented more reliable forms of ignition like the tube lock in 1814. The artist
Joshua Shaw- Early life :Shaw was born in Lincoln, England in 1776 and was orphaned at the age of 7. To survive he worked for a local farmer as a bird scarer. During the three years he spent doing this work he discovered his artistic talent and began drawing the animals he encountered...
designed what is recognised today as the
percussion capThe percussion cap, introduced around 1830, was the crucial invention that enabled muzzle-loading firearms to fire reliably in any weather. Before this development, firearms used flintlock ignition systems which produced flint-on-steel sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the...
which he patented in America in 1822 as in England Forsyth had threatened his rivals with legal action.
These new forms of ignition proved popular among hunters during the Regency period who had their old reliable flintlocks converted.