Question regarding early percussion caps

[Dennis Glazener]

I recently assisted a distant cousin in the purchase of a rifle that one of his ancestors made. He knew very little about flintlocks and percussion ML rifles and has been asking a lot of questions most of which I could answer but then he asked these and I wasn't sure I know the correct answers. Maybe some of you could shed light on the subject.

He read that percussion caps came into use in this country around 1805. His first question was:
Where/how did frontiersmen get mercury fulminate? 
How did they carry it? 
The equivalent of a tiny powder horn? 
Wasn’t it dangerous just to carry? 
Do you know what they did to reduce the risk?

Thanks if you have any historical information on this subject.
Being a flintlock man I know very little about percussion caps.
Dennis


 

[blienemann]

I started with the western fur trade many years back, researched Missouri Hist Soc microfilm of suppliers to the trade out of St. Louis and other docs.  I don't remember seeing fulminate of mercury mentioned in towns, nor available to frontiersmen.  But might have missed it.
 
My general recollection is that percussion caps in quantity first showed up in St. Louis about 1833?  More by 1835 and common from then on.  I've seen other posts here which have been specific.

I think that when Deringer first made pistols in 1826, he skipped flint and went straight to percussion.

In contrast, when Henry Fraeb's trapping party fought for their lives on the CO/WY border in 1840, most were carrying flint rifles.

Careful research will show the variety by time and location.  A factor at trading post or river boatman with ready access to goods might have the latest gear, while others in the field may have stayed with what worked there.

[smart dog]

Hi Dennis,
I do not believe percussion caps, as we know them, were invented before 1815 or so.  Alexander Forsyth developed the idea of using a fulminate for detonating gun powder around the turn of the century but his device, the "scent bottle" was expensive and delicate.  Shortly after his invention, gunmakers started producing detonating pills and paper caps, but it wasn't until almost 1820 that practical metal percussion caps were available, and no doubt they made it out west very slowly.  It wasn't until the late 1830s and 1840s that armies converted from flint.  I seriously doubt any frontiersman carried fulminate of mercury on them except after it was incorporated in commercially made caps.

dave   

[flinchrocket]

In Morton's History of Pendleton County WV, page 358-359, day notes of a merchant in Franklin,WV
doesn't show any percussion caps. It has gunlocks 1.12, gunflints .50 a doz. lead .04 a lb. and
gunpowder .62 a lb. Not much help, but I thought it was interesting that percussion caps were
not available at the general store in 1820.

[Curt J]

As others have already mentioned, it was at least a decade after Alexander Forsyth's original invention, before percussion caps as we know them today, evolved.  The "pill lock" was in competition with the caplock for most of that period.  Out here in the "West" (now the Midwest) percussion guns were still very uncommon during the Blackhawk War (1832).  At the Battle of Apple River Fort, there was only one percussion rifle present, and it was the first one that most of the fort's defenders had ever seen. I do have an original percussion rifle made in Peoria County, Illinois, by Thomas Hunt, that is dated Feb. 21, 1833. Hunt was on the cutting edge of technology, for this time period. I have seen another Thomas Hunt rifle, that he made in Ohio, before moving to Illinois, that is dated 1828, and is also original percussion. I can safely say that it is the oldest dated, American percussion rifle that I have personally seen.

[Dphariss]

I do not believe the percussion cap as WE know it existed prior of about 1825-27 to the extent that they would be very common at all.
There were a number of different percussion designs and the first caps were iron and reloadable.

Dan

[Feltwad]

The early type of percussion cap was made of steel and shaped like a top hat, this type of cap was invented by Joshua Shaw  The first gun to use this type  of cap was a sxs shotgun which was built by James Rowntree a gun maker of Barnard Castle , Co Durham, England for Joshua Shaw this was prior to 1817 because Joshua Shaw emigrated to America  on board the ship Electra in 1817 so it may have been Shaw that brought the percussion cap to America
Feltwad

A simular type of gun using steel tophat caps built at the same period by John Gardner of Newcastle Upon Tyne
England

[gibster]

So if Fulminate of Mercury was not something that was generally available during the early 1800's, how did the people that owned/used pill lock guns fire them?  I have seen several examples of pill locks on rifles and I own a pistol that was made in NC that has a mule ear type lock on it that is a pill lock.  I talked about this with Jerry Noble once and he seemed to think that the pill lock was in use from about 1820 to about 1825 which follows what is being said here as far as the time frame.  But if the Fulminate of Mercury was something that was scarce, or just hard to find period, why would Mr. Whoever have bought one in the first place, unless it was to say that he had the latest and greatest, even thought he couldn't shoot it

[smart dog]

Hi Gibster,
I don't think carrying loose fulminate of mercury was a very good idea because it degrades over time, is dangerous to handle, and is corrosive.  Certainly, users of Forsythe's "scent bottle" lock must have had a supply of it on them to refill the reservoir on the gun.  That was probably not ideal and would likely never have appealed to frontiersmen even if the gun lock and system were imported to the US.  Perhaps more urban sportsmen in the uS purchased the system.  Forsythe patented the compound and his system for firearm ignition, and that patent delayed the spread of the system and its further development into the cap.  Eventually, several ignition methods using fulminate of mercury were invented, almost simultaneously.  The tube lock and pill lock were examples.  I am sure pills and tubes were imported from Europe and used by shooters in the settled portions of the US, but I am doubtful those systems were used much on the frontiers.  Until caps became widely available and proved their reliability, rural and frontier folks probably relied on the flintlock.

dave

[PPatch]

Going with Master Smart Dog here, fulminate of mercury is highly unstable if it is not formulated to not be so and it is quite hydrophilic so wouldn't keep very well "in the wild."

dave

[mr. no gold]

Wish I had time to get into this with some depth, but I am about to leave for the east coast and am running out of time for that. So, let me direct you to Vol. I, 2007 of The ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR TRADE JOURNAL, the journal article on page 85, entitled "The Yankee Pedlar: Introduction of Percussion Lock Firearms into the Far West." This was written by Alex Miller and is based on excellelnt research and source materials. He discusses the exploits of Boston trader, Nathaniel Wyeth and his business dealings with the mountain men in the far West. You may find some great surprises in this treatise.
Also, a west coast historical society once owned a percussion pistol, (actually a pair once upon a time) owned by Jedediah Smith. The alcalde of one of the jurisdictions he had visited seized them and other arms. Memory dictates that the one surviving pistol was a typical Philip Creamer product. The guns were taken in 1828.
If this topic is still alive when I return, I will try to summarize the Miller article and see if I can turn up a photo of the pistol. The Journal aritcle should be able to be found on the Museum of the Mountain Man, PInedale, Wyoming website.
Dick

[Dennis Glazener]

Thanks to all that replied. Dick, hope you will summarize the Miller article when you get back.
Thanks again for all that furnished information. This is an area I know little about.
My poor (or dis-trusting) southern mountain ancestors were still using flint in the late 1840's and 50's.
Dennis

[Mark Elliott]

My memory is that the percussion cap system, specifically, was not patented until 1822.   The following article confirms that at the VERY end; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CEIQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Famericansocietyofarmscollectors.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2FB019_Bedford.pdf&ei=5U_rVPzbHuXGsQSYz4DoCw&usg=AFQjCNFuO8KmbXrkefbFjkd-IiKKIrisoA&sig2=vbN8o8vIx3oNKaZcnqCi8g&bvm=bv.86475890,d.cWc&cad=rja

[JV Puleo]

According to a friend of mine, who is researching this very question in regards to the Boston gun trade, percussion caps begin showing up in newspaper advertisements around 1820 and by 1825 are commonplace. The first American patent for a percussion lock mechanism dates to 1827 so, by this time, they must have been commonplace at least along the eastern seaboard. Their use west of the Mississippi is probably more a result of transportation difficulties than technology.

[JCKelly]

The late 19th century caps around my den are of thicker metal than todays. They used mercury fulminate and/or potassium chlorate. If you had a pill lock, circal 1825, you bought the pills. Ned Roberts discusses a fine 7-shot revolving rifle he used on bear, with the pills nicely covered over by beeswax. Mighta been a Billinghurst, Rochester, NY

Amateurs messing with mercury fulminate tend to misplace body parts.



Just got a nice new flint rifle by Bob Elka, Michigan.
Tired of dropping those @!*% little caps on the ground, and I don't shoot in the rain anyway.

[Frank Graves]

Here is a cap tin for the pill primers that I have with my Billinghurst Cylinder Rifle.  It is about the diameter of a quarter and shows some of the pills that are in it.  The entire label reads: “WATERPROOF PILL/PERCUSSION PRIMING./Made by W. Billinghurst, Rochester, N.Y.”  I cannot imagine the danger of this tin of primers banging around in someone’s pocket and what might have, or did, happen.

The add to what was said in the previous comment was something that I found while researching William Billinghurst for a piece that I did for Man At Arms magazine in 2011.

“Seth Green, the best shot in New York State, and an ardent sportsman, prefers a rifle made by Billinghurst, of Rochester on Millar’s patient.  It is a seven-shooter, having a cylinder similar to Colt’s, patch ball, round or long, and pill-lock.  In loading, the powder is put into the cylinder, and the ball patched and pushed down the barrel to the cylinder, turning the cylinder every time a ball is put down, until the cylinder is loaded, then drop a pill in the prime-hole, and tallow it over, and you are alright for 7 shots.  With this kind of rifle, Green has shot for many years, and always found it answer well; in his own words, “When you are in the woods, with one of the above guns, you feel that you are monarch of all you survey, and do not fear anything that wears hair”.”

From “Notes on William Billinghurst, Rochester, N.Y. and Edward C. Barber, a contemporary” by Eric. C. Stone Rochester Public Library, 1868.

[kaintuck]

and as the story goes.....: before common sense and OSHA, a well know manufacture use a plain bucket to discard 'bad' primers into. One day when the workman was walking to dump the said bucket into the trash heap, the entire bucket exploded......all that was left was his two shoes.......it 'evaporated' him
after that, they seemed to use a oil bath or something other to keep the primers dumped in~~~~

marc n tomtom

[ratfacedmcdougal]

They don't make shoes like that anymore.
RFMcD

[Shreckmeister]

Well at least he never felt it