Account of' Mr F orresis New Percussion Lock. 
burgh, which, I have been informed, is esteemed by sportsmen 
to be a very ingenious contrivance, and considerably different 
from others which have been made upofi the same principle. I 
am entirely ignorant of the properties of these implements, and 
would not have troubled you with any account of Mr Forrest’s 
improvement, had it not been mentioned to me at the time I 
saw the fowling-piece, that the celebrated Dr Wollaston had 
examined it with some interest, while lately on a visit to that 
place. I was also informed, that it had been tried by the Earl 
of Minto and his two brothers, who expressed themselves very 
highly pleased with the ease and certainty of its operations, and 
the perfect safety with which it may be used. 
The chief advantages of this invention, are the great conve- 
nience of being enabled to supply as much priming powder be- 
fore setting out on a day’s sport, as (with a double-barrelled 
piece) will answer for eighty discharges, with scarcely any far- 
ther trouble than merely filling the magazine before setting out, 
— the perfect certainty of the explosions, — the greatest ease 
in keeping the lock clean and unexposed to a damp atmosphere, 
— and, above all, the most complete security against every pos- 
sibility of accident by the explosion of the powder contained 
in the magazine. These properties I hope will be understood 
from the following description of the sketch, and, on the inven- 
tor’s account, I shall be most happy if you shall think it worthy 
of your notice. 
Fig. 1. of Plate I. is a representation of the complete lock, 
as seen at half cock. A, a steel punch fixed into the point of 
the cock, which, when the trigger is pulled, descends into the 
pan B, in the direction of the dotted line, and, in its sudden 
descent, strikes upon the hammer C, and removes the hammer 
(wdiere also the magazine is contained) to the position shewn in 
Fig. % D, a finger-screw, by turning which the proper quan- 
tity of priming powder is measured out for a single discharge, 
and emptied into the pan B. E is that part of the lock through 
which there is a small perforation leading from the pan to the 
barrel. This part of the lock will be better understood by ex- 
amining Fig. 5. which is a lateral view, shewing (by the dotted 
lines) the canal through which the fire is conducted from the 
pan A to the barrel at B. 
