174 ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OP GUNNERY. 



cussion principle, although the flint equally requires percussion 

 with the steel to elicit the spark which drops into the powder 

 and ignites it. But in the former case there is no necessity 

 for an external reservoir of powder, and the blow of the 

 hammer is more evidently the cause of the explosion; so that 

 though there is no great difference between the principles of 

 the two methods, it is apparently very considerable, and in 

 practice it really is so. But whether the name is correctly 

 given or not, the plan was introduced, and is now universally 

 employed, a flint-gun in the present day being only occa- 

 sionally kept as a curiosity, and an order for one being as 

 great a rarity as the Koh-i-noor. 



The Forsyth lock, which was the first on the percussion 

 principle, was brought out by its inventor, a clergyman, 

 resident at Bethelvie, under very good patronage, and with 

 high-sounding pretensions. An advertisement announced 

 to the world that a gun had been invented which went off 

 without flash or smoke, and that consequently "flash in the 

 pans" would be hereafter unknown. Now, every sportsman 

 up to that time was constantly annoyed by these little acci- 

 dents, and therefore the novelty was accepted by all but 

 those bigoted to old-fashioned ways, simply because they 

 are old, as a step in the right direction. The plan was pro- 

 posed soon after the discovery of the new fulminating 

 powders, which are now so well known, and it was used by 

 means of a small magazine which held enough powder to 

 effect thirty discharges. But in practice it was open to the 

 objection that sometimes the quantity was too small, and at 

 others the whole of it contained in the magazine exploded ; 

 again, the tube leading to the powder was small and with a 

 sharp angle in it, so that missfires were almost as common as 

 with the old flint lock. 



MODES OF EXPLODING. 



The Invention of the Percussion Cap has been the greatest 

 improvement in firearms during the present century; for, 

 though it is not outwardly apparent, yet in almost every 

 variety of shot-gun or rifle it is now employed in some 

 shape or other. Lancaster's needle-gun, it is true, has no 



