Alexander John Forsyth (1768–1843) was a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman who invented the percussion ignition.
Gunsmiths like Joseph Manton invented more reliable forms of ignition, like the tube lock in 1814. The artist Joshua Shaw designed what is recognised today as the percussion cap, which he patented in the United States in 1822, since Forsyth had threatened his rivals in Britain with legal action. These new forms of ignition proved popular among hunters during the Regency period, who had their old reliable flintlocks converted.
Read more about Alexander John Forsyth: Life
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“An Austrian army, awfully array’d,
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Deal devastation’s dire destructive doom;”
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