Today, there are so many types, shapes and models of pistols, it’s a little bewildering.
But back in the day of flintlocks, pistol shapes were predictably uniform. The Flintlock mechanism had to be large enough to function reliably and required a large hammer to hold the flint, a bulky hammer, frizzen and powder pan.
This necessarily kept early muzzle loading pistols quite large with a thicker, rounded butt, often with a metal cap on the end. Being single-shot, this allowed you to use your pistol as a club if things got dicey and you’d fired your one and only shot before reloading, a timely affair.
Flintlocks are finicky things, subject to wind and moisture, the frizzen condition and shape of the flint. There was no guarantee they would reliably fire. This is a bit stressful if an enemy was bearing down on you with a pike, club, sword or other close-range weapon which, though close range, was absolutely fatal at all times.
This all changed when Philadelphian, English/American Joseph Shaw perfected the percussion cap. Born in Ellesmere Port, England in 1776 Shaw migrated to America where he quickly gained a reputation as a scientist, artist and firearms designer. Joseph is largely attributed with perfecting the percussion cap about 1817.
A percussion cap is a thin, short, originally steel and later copper, tube whose closed end was coated with fulminate of mercury which in turn was coated with a thin coat of varnish to protect it from moisture. When struck, this mixture exploded.
The original percussion caps used chlorate of potash fulminate and were invented by Alexander John Forsyth in 1814, but this combination was highly corrosive.
The new percussion caps fit snugly over a slightly smaller tube, called a nipple, which connected to the chamber of the rifle or pistol. Now, hammer size could be greatly reduced, eliminating the flint and screw mechanism needed to secure it as well as the bulky frizzen and powder pan. This percussion cap changed everything in the firearms world dramatically.
Suddenly, you could count on your firearm reliably firing no matter what the weather, temperature or other unfavorable conditions. Naturally, the military jumped on the battle changing technology as well as hunters on both sides of the ocean.
Small and warlike Europe caught on quicker than most and were manufacturing percussion caps by the millions by 1827. Several patent battles occurred in America before Shaw, after some lengthy legal entanglements reaching up to the Supreme Court, was finally awarded patent rights.
The US military had in the meantime adopted the percussion cap fired, .58 caliber, Model 1841 Springfield as its standard military rifle and largely ignored the patent disputes, reequipping the army with the new rifle, but refusing payment to Shaw for his invention.
With his patent rights finally legally recognized, Shaw was at long last able to petition Congress for payment. It was 1846 before he received half of the $25,000 due him. The rest dribbled in by small payments for several years.
These early percussion or musket caps used fulminate of mercury which when struck exploded, but was also sensitive to sudden shocks, heat and friction and could explode if dropped or heated. Despite the dangers involved though, the percussion cap had dramatically changed the firearms world.
Gunsmiths could care less about patent disputes and immediately began building smaller and lighter rifles and pistols. Rifles still retained much of their original length and shape, but pistols now could be greatly reduced in size.
In 1825, Henry Deringer took full advantage of the percussion caps’ impact by inventing and manufacturing what was immediately became known as the Philadelphia Deringer. Typically, .41 caliber with rifled bores and walnut stocks they were an immediate hit with the public. The hammer and lock were a nickel copper alloy known as German silver.
Suddenly, a pistol you could carry in a pocket or handbag was available. The shortest version had a 1.5-inch barrel, the longest a six-inch barrel. The small, light, easy to carry pistol had arrived.
The small size of percussion caps started people thinking about the possibility of self-contained cartridges and in 1866 American inventor Hiram Berdan invented a workable primer size and shape that could be used in centerfire ammunition. His primer necessitated two flash holes in the cartridge base, the space between supplying the anvil.
In England, almost simultaneously, Edward Boxer developed a primer with the anvil inside the primer only needing one hole in the base of the case. Centerfire ammunition means the primer’s located in the center of the base of the cartridge or the case head.
Every nation saw the incredible potential of a failsafe, individual, single round of ammunition the primer made possible. The problem was these early primers were so corrosive the firearm had to be cleaned immediately after use, not always practical in combat and hunting conditions.
Scientists around the world worked on this problem, but it wasn’t until 1928 that Germany developed the first less corrosive, non-mercuric primer. Ammunition could be loaded, stored and fired rapidly without degrading the firearm.
Now that safe, non-corrosive, self-contained cartridges were available pistol design flourished. As steel alloys improved pistol cartridges continued to increase in power. Today every model imaginable from the .22 long rifle to huge 50 caliber behemoths are available to those interested. Amazing, all this is possible due to the simple but irreplaceable primer.
