percussion pistol

[Hammerhead]

when did the percussion pistol come in. i have a real nice one i was wanting to use for F&I reenacting but idk if i could get away with it being percussion and i dont wanna put alot of money into a flintlock pistol.

 

No percussion during the F&I War.

 

[bangfxr]

The precussion system didn't come about till the late 1820's in europe then to america in the early to mid 1830's. France and england are fighting as to who came up with the precussion system but I'll wager it was Switzerland (producer of the Snaphence Precourser to the flintlock), Germany or Italy with the idea first.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

As I recall the percussion idea actually started around 1810 or slightly before. A Scottish minister/duck hunter was convinced that there was a more reliable ignition system for the moors than flintlocks. He experimented with a "pill" to be struck and ignite the powder charge. within a few short years, the percussion cap was born. Once in a great while a "pill lock" gun is encountered. The Maynard Tape primer was basically a roll of caps and an individual cap was to be lined up over a flash hole and then struck by a hammer to ignite the powder. I believe however, that the tape primer came along slightly after the percussion cap was spreading across the world.

 

The rudimentary percussion system was developed by Rev. Alexander John Forsyth as a solution to the problem that sitting birds would startle when smoke puffed from the powder pan of his flintlock shotgun, giving them sufficient warning to escape the shot. His invention of a fulminate-primed firing mechanism deprived the birds of their early warning system, both by avoiding the initial puff of smoke from the flintlock powder pan, as well as shortening the interval between the trigger pull and the shot leaving the muzzle. Forsyth patented his ignition system in 1807. However, it was not until after Forsyth's patents expired that the conventional percussion cap system was developed.

The explosive properties of chemical fulminates had been identified in the 17th century but were not harnessed until the Revd Alexander Forsyth (1768-1843) combined mercury fulminate and potassium chlorate to form a priming charge capable of igniting the main charge so quickly as to make the two explosions virtually simultaneous. Forsyth developed his new primer for dispensing from a series of styles of magazine which replaced the flintlock's steel and pan; since his primer was exploded by being struck, a hammer replaced the flintlock's cock. His percussion system was patented in 1807 and is most associated with his ”˜scent-bottle’ magazine which housed about 40 primings, each of which was dispensed by simply inverting the magazine. The separate percussion cap, in which the priming was contained in the crown of a copper cap shaped like a hat, was invented c.1814 and other percussion systems, like pill, pellet, and tape primers, were developed over the following 40 years. Initially avidly accepted by sportsmen and civilians, the percussion system only ousted the flintlock for military use in the 1830s, two decades after it had been invented. Britain, France, Sweden, and the USA were the first to adopt the percussion system militarily. Percussion firearms dominated the military world from their eventual adoption until their replacement by breech-loaders in the late 1860s.