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48-550: The firm of Pursall and Phillips operated a ' percussion cap manufactory' at Whittall Street, in Birmingham , in the mid 19th century. In 1856, Scottish entrepreneur George Kynoch joined the company. An explosion in 1859 destroyed the works, killing 19 of the 70 employees. As a result, the firm moved to Witton in 1862, on a site adjacent to the London and North Western Railway 's Grand Junction line . In 1863, Kynoch took over

96-488: A Manton patch-lock, which could be troublesome, by designing a cap and nipple arrangement around 1816 when the patch lock was patented. He says he then presented a drawing to a reluctant Joseph Manton to make a few copper cap guns which were then sold. Hawker, seems to give Joseph Manton more of the glory eight years later in the 1838 edition of his 'Instructions to young Sportsmen', by stating categorically that "copper tubes and primers were decidedly invented by Joe Manton". By

144-436: A cartridge loaded in the chamber. There is nothing to prevent the hammer from contacting the firing pin and by default the cartridge, in some models, and so the gun will be discharged unintentionally. Other models do have an internal safety mechanism that prevents contact between the hammer and the firing pin unless the trigger is actually pulled. Even so, many single-action revolver owners choose to carry their revolver with

192-486: A copper cup filled with fulminates. The first purpose-built caplock guns were fowling pieces commissioned by sportsmen in Regency era England. Due to the mechanism's compactness and superior reliability compared to the flintlock, gunsmiths were able to manufacture pistols and long guns with two barrels . Early caplock handguns with two or more barrels and a single lock are known as turn-over or twister pistols , due to

240-574: A hollow conduit which goes into the rearmost part of the gun barrel, and the percussion cap is placed over the nipple hole. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer, which strikes the percussion cap against the nipple (which serves as an anvil ), crushes it and detonates the mercury fulminate inside, which releases sparks that travel through the hollow nipple into the barrel and ignite the main powder charge. Percussion caps have been made in small sizes for pistols and larger sizes for rifles and muskets. Earlier firearms used flintlock mechanisms causing

288-404: A jammed tape primer system would instead reduce the rifle to an awkward club. This invention was gradually improved, and came to be used, first in a steel cap and then in a copper cap, by various gunmakers and private individuals before coming into general military use nearly thirty years later. The alteration of the military flintlock to the percussion musket was easily accomplished by replacing

336-428: A munitions factory on the north side of Arklow , Ireland . This factory employed several thousand workers during World War I, but closed shortly after it, all production being moved to South Africa . Seventeen workers were killed in an explosion there on 21 September 1917. It was believed that the plant was shelled by a German U-boat During the 1950s, the sound of test firing of munitions still occasionally shattered

384-401: A nearly identical fashion to flintlock firearms and used a fulminating primer made of fulminate of mercury, chlorate of potash , sulphur and charcoal , ignited by concussion. 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

432-469: A paper cartridge filled with black powder and strike the percussion cap that was fastened to the base of the bullet. While it had a number of problems, it was widely used by the Prussians and other German states in the mid-nineteenth century and was a major factor in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War . The needle gun originally fired paper cartridges containing a bullet, powder charge and percussion cap, but by

480-429: A percussion cap connected to a detonator at one end. The detonator is inserted into an explosive charge—e.g., C-4 or a block of TNT . Triggering the booby-trap (e.g., by pulling on a trip-wire) releases the cocked firing pin that flips forward to strike the percussion cap, firing it and the attached detonator; the shock-wave from the detonator sets off the main explosive charge. Hammer (firearms) The hammer

528-405: A piece of flint to strike a steel frizzen producing sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the gun's main powder charge. The flintlock mechanism replaced older ignition systems such as the matchlock and wheellock , but all were prone to misfire in wet weather. The discovery of fulminates was made by Edward Charles Howard (1774–1816) in 1800. The invention that made

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576-433: A single shell that could be easily loaded from the breech of a firearm. The introduction of such a technology led to the implementation of the firing pin and hammer system that is even now still used in certain designs. Whereas the percussion cap in the caplock mechanism was external, the percussion cap in a self-contained cartridge is inside the breech. It is therefore necessary to use a firing pin (a thin rod) to strike

624-500: A supply of tiny fulminate detonator discs in a small magazine. Cocking the hammer automatically advanced a disc into position. However, these automatic feed systems were difficult to make with the manufacturing systems in the early and mid-nineteenth century and generated more problems than they solved. They were quickly shelved in favor of a single percussion cap that, while unwieldy in some conditions, could be carried in sufficient quantities to make up for occasionally dropping one, while

672-403: Is a part of a firearm that is used to strike the percussion cap / primer , or a separate firing pin , to ignite the propellant and fire the projectile. It is so called because it resembles a hammer in both form and function. The hammer itself is a metal piece that forcefully rotates about a pivot point. The term tumbler can refer to a part of the hammer or a part mechanically attached to

720-416: Is a small cylinder of copper or brass with one closed end. Inside the closed end is a small amount of a shock-sensitive explosive material such as mercuric fulminate (discovered in 1800; it was the only practical detonator used from about the mid-19th century to the early 20th century ). The caplock mechanism consists of a hammer and a nipple (sometimes referred to as a cone ). The nipple contains

768-408: Is a type of firing pin operated by the direct action of a spring rather than by a hammer striking the firing pin. Striker-operated firearms lack a hammer. There are some notable drawbacks to the external hammer system compared to other modern, internal designs. In single-action revolvers , specifically, there is an ever-present danger of accidentally discharging the weapon if the hammer is struck with

816-552: The 1853 Enfield and 1861 Springfield , this involved installing a firing pin in place of the nipple, and a trapdoor in the breech to accept the new bullets. Examples include the Trapdoor Springfield , Tabatière rifle , Westley Richards and Snider–Enfield conversions. The British Army used Snider Enfields contemporaneously with the Martini–Henry rifle until the .303 bolt action Lee–Metford repeating rifle

864-592: The UK ammunition and explosives manufacturers were brought together under Nobel Explosives to become Nobel Industries , which was a founding element of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI) in 1926. Once Nobel Industries, including Kynoch Ltd, had merged to form ICI, the original Kynoch factory in Witton became the head office and principal manufacturing base of the "ICI Metals Division". Kynoch, along with names such as Eley, became brands of subsidiaries. Kynoch, established

912-1144: The US Cavalry during the Indian Wars , and also by gunfighters , lawmen, and outlaws in the old west. In the 1840s and 1850s, the percussion cap was first integrated into a metallic cartridge, where the bullet is held in by the casing, the casing is filled with gunpowder, and a primer is placed on the end. By the 1860s and 1870s, breech-loading metallic cartridges had made the percussion cap system obsolete. Today, reproduction percussion firearms are popular for recreational shooters and percussion caps are still available (though some modern muzzleloaders use shotshell primers instead of caps). Most percussion caps now use non-corrosive compounds such as lead styphnate . Caps are used in cartridges , grenades , rocket-propelled grenades and rescue flares . Percussion caps are also used in land mine fuzes , booby-trap firing devices and anti-handling devices . Most purpose-made military booby-trap firing devices contain some form of spring-loaded firing pin designed to strike

960-460: The caplock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms . Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun . Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle . Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot. The percussion cap

1008-468: The .700 Nitro Express. They also produce various other types of ammunition for industrial, film and re-enactment use. To date, Kynoch continues to manufacture in a smaller capacity. The Kynoch Press was founded as a company press in 1876 to print packaging. To manage publicity, the company set it up as a fine press , which, when Kynoch became part of ICI in 1926, continued as a division and kept its name, The Kynoch Press. The Kynoch Press not only handled

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1056-440: The 1850s Hawker was again claiming the invention for himself in his press advertisements. Despite many years of research by Winant, Gooding and De Witt Bailey, the jury is still out as the competing claims are based on personal accounts and have little or no independently verifiable evidence. While the metal percussion cap was the most popular and widely used type of primer, their small size made them difficult to handle under

1104-472: The 1850s onwards, and new guns based on existing designs were manufactured as caplocks. The Austrians instead used a variant of Manton's tube lock in their Augustin musket until the conventional caplock Lorenz rifle was introduced in 1855. The first practical solution for the problem of handling percussion caps in battle was the Prussian 1841 ( Dreyse needle gun ), which used a long needle to penetrate

1152-569: The US military was the percussion carbine version (c.1833) of the M1819 Hall rifle . The Americans' breech loading caplock Hall rifles, muzzle loading rifled muskets and Colt Dragoon revolvers gave them an advantage over the smoothbore flintlock Brown Bess muskets used by Santa Anna 's troops during the Mexican War . In Japan, matchlock pistols and muskets were converted to percussion from

1200-444: The business, which was subsequently renamed G. Kynoch and Co . A further series of explosions in the 1860s and in 1870 led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. In 1895 Kynoch built an explosives factory east of Shell Haven Creek , Essex (now known as Coryton ). This opened in 1897, with an estate for employees called Kynochtown. Products included cordite , guncotton , gunpowder , and cartridges. After World War I many of

1248-439: The cock was held rearward under spring tension. Pulling the trigger allowed the cock to rotate forward at a speed sufficient to produce sparks when it struck the steel frizzen . This ignited a small priming charge in the external flash pan , which in turn ignited the propellent charge in the breech through a connecting vent hole. The identification of percussion sensitive fulminates provided an alternative to spark ignition of

1296-421: The firing mechanism are mounted between the sides that form the frame. While not unique, percussion and flint-locks more typically use a side-lock firing mechanism, with the components mounted either side of the mounting plate. The caplock was in wide use for almost five decades until the widespread introduction of the self-contained cartridge which contained the projectile, gunpowder, and percussion cap all in

1344-477: The firm's printing, but performed independent work, operating at times like a small press , and at other times like a fine press , and yet at other times like a private press . Percussion cap The percussion cap , percussion primer , or caplock , introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to

1392-418: The flintlock. Many of the older flintlock weapons were later converted to the caplock, so that they could take advantage of these features. Joshua Shaw is sometimes credited (primarily by himself) with the development of the first metallic percussion cap in 1814, a reusable one made of iron, then a disposable pewter one in 1815 and finally a copper one in 1816. There is no independent proof of this since Shaw

1440-597: The fragments of the cap if it fragmented, reducing the risk of injury to the firer's eyes. From the 1820s onwards, the armies of Britain, France, Russia, and America began converting their muskets to the new percussion system. Caplocks were generally applied to the British military musket (the Brown Bess ) in 1842, a quarter of a century after the invention of percussion powder and after an elaborate government test at Woolwich in 1834. The first percussion firearm produced for

1488-413: The hammer may snag on clothing and cause the loss of seconds in a dangerous situation. Paul B. Weston, an authority on police weapons, called the external a "fish hook" that tended to snag clothing during a fast draw. A linear hammer is similar to but differs from a striker in that the hammer is a separate component from the firing pin. When released, a linear hammer, under spring pressure, slides along

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1536-409: The hammer resting on an empty chamber to minimize the risk of accidental discharge. Additionally, for those who carry their firearm as a personal defense weapon, there is the ever-present worry that an external hammer may catch on a loose article of clothing in an emergency situation, because the hammer protrudes at an angle from the rear of the weapon, and as the owner moves to quickly draw their weapon,

1584-582: The idea in Britain. The earliest known patent anywhere in the world which specifically mentions a percussion cap and nipple was granted in France on 29 July 1818 to François Prélat , four years before Shaw's patent. Prelat made a habit of copying English patents and inventions and the mode of operation he describes is flawed. Secondly a French patent of a percussion cap and nipple had been granted in 1820 to Deboubert. However predating both of these French claims,

1632-450: The idea until 1822, having moved to America in 1817. According to Lewis Winant, the US government's decision to award Shaw $ 25,000 as compensation for his invention being used by the Army was a mistake. Congress believed Shaw's patent was the earliest in the world and awarded him a large sum of money based on this belief. The investigators had overlooked two French patents and the earlier use of

1680-409: The most likely inventor of the percussion cap, according to historian Sidney James Gooding, was Joseph Egg (nephew of Durs Egg ), around 1817, . There were other earlier claims. Col. Peter Hawker in 1830 simultaneously claimed and denied being the inventor. "I do not wish to say I was the inventor of it - very probably not" but then immediately recounts that he came up with the idea of simplifying

1728-432: The need to manually rotate the second barrel to align with the hammer. With the addition of a third barrel, and a ratchet to mechanically turn the barrels while cocking the hammer, these caplock pistols evolved into the pepper-box revolver during the 1830s. The caplock offered many improvements over the flintlock. The caplock was easier and quicker to load, more resilient to weather conditions, and far more reliable than

1776-527: The peace over Witton, but with the standardization of cartridges across the Western powers and a general downturn in ammunition requirements, the sidelines in sporting cartridges were discontinued by Imperial Metal Industries (IMI) in 1970. IMI became independent of ICI in 1977, still producing rimfire and shotgun cartridges for the sporting markets. The more economically viable production of shotgun and rimfire ammunition continued. The Ammunition Division

1824-535: The percussion cap possible using the recently discovered fulminates was patented by the Reverend Alexander John Forsyth of Belhelvie , Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1807. The rudimentary percussion system was invented by Forsyth as a solution to the problem that birds would startle when smoke puffed from the powder pan of his flintlock shotgun, giving them sufficient warning to escape the shot. This early percussion lock system operated in

1872-412: The pivot-point of the hammer, depending on the particular firearm under discussion (see half-cock ). According to one source the term tumbler is synonymous with hammer. In the development of firearms, the flintlock used flint striking steel to produce sparks and initiate firing by igniting the gunpowder used as a propellant. The flint was fixed to a swinging arm called the cock . Prior to firing,

1920-412: The powder pan and steel frizzen with a nipple and by replacing the cock or hammer that held the flint by a smaller hammer formed with a hollow made to fit around the nipple when released by the trigger. On the nipple was placed the copper cap containing Shaw's detonating composition of three parts of chlorate of potash, two of fulminate of mercury and one of powdered glass. The hollow in the hammer contained

1968-499: The primer through a small penetration in the breech and cause firing. An external hammer is one that can be accessed by the operator during use. This allows the hammer to be manually cocked or eased (uncocked) without firing. The hammer is designed with a spur (extension) to facilitate manual operation. An internal hammer cannot be accessed manually during operation. Pistols and shotguns in particular, which have an internal hammer may be referred to as being hammerless . A striker

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2016-500: The propellant. The percussion lock (also caplock) was adapted from the flintlock firing mechanism, with the cock being modified to strike a small cup-like cap containing percussive material. The cap was placed over an external nipple , which acts as an anvil and conduit to ignite the main propellant charge within the breech. In this use, the cock has come to be termed a hammer . Samuel Colt 's Colt Paterson revolver of 1836 used percussion caps. The hammer and other components of

2064-477: The stress of combat or while riding a horse. Accordingly, several manufacturers developed alternative, "auto-priming" systems. The " Maynard tape primer ", for example, used a roll of paper "caps" much like today's toy cap gun . The Maynard tape primer was fitted to some firearms used in the mid-nineteenth century and a few saw brief use in the American Civil War . Other disc or pellet-type primers held

2112-599: The time of the Franco-Prussian War this had evolved into modern brass ammunition. The percussion cap brought about the invention of the modern cartridge case and made possible the general adoption of the breech-loading principle for all varieties of rifles, shotguns and pistols. After the American Civil War, Britain, France, and America began converting existing caplock guns to accept brass rimfire and centrefire cartridges. For muskets such as

2160-512: The trigger pull and the shot leaving the muzzle. Forsyth patented his "scent bottle" ignition system in 1807. However, it was not until after Forsyth's patents expired that the conventional percussion cap system was developed. Joseph Manton invented a precursor to the percussion cap in 1814, comprising a copper tube that detonated when crushed. This was further developed in 1822 by the English-born American artist Joshua Shaw , as

2208-410: Was advised he could not patent it due to Alexander Forsyth's patent for using fulminates to ignite guns being in force between 1807 and 1821. Shaw says he only shared the development of his innovation with a few associates (gunmakers and others) who were sworn to secrecy and never provided affidavits at a later date. Shaw's claim to have been the inventor remains clouded in controversy as he did not patent

2256-583: Was incorporated separately as Eley Limited in 1983. In 1996, David Little working under the company name Kynamco Ltd (Kynoch Ammunition Company) took over the Kynoch brand. Initially production commenced in Royston, Hertfordshire and in 2000, moved to a purpose built facility in Mildenhall, Suffolk. Kynamco, using the Kynoch trademark manufacture 51 of the more popular Kynoch calibres from 6.5x54 ms up to

2304-597: Was introduced in the 1880s. Later, military surplus Sniders were purchased as hunting and defensive weapons by British colonists and trusted local natives. Caplock revolvers such as the Colt Navy and Remington were also widely converted during the late 19th century, by replacing the existing cylinder with one designed for modern ammunition. These were used extensively by the Turks in the Russo-Turkish War ,

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