Pair of Forsyth Patent Third Model Sliding Primer Pistols ca. 1828 Alexander John Forsyth The Reverend Alexander Forsyth, a Scottish clergyman and exceptionally creative gunmaker and amateur chemist, invented and patented the first percussion lock in 1807. The most consequential firearms invention since the flintlock, the percussion system was a forerunner to the modern centerfire cartridge. As a means of ignition percussion mechanisms utilized a highly combustible chemical compound called fulminate, which burns more rapidly than gunpowder when struck with force. Forsyth continually developed his mechanism over the next decades. These pocket pistols feature a priming reservoir that slides on a track over the pan when the hammer is cocked, depositing loose fulminate powder into the pan and covering it, snapping forward out of the way when the trigger is pulled.Firearms technology advanced at an extraordinary pace in Europe in the early nineteenth century. Londons elite gunmakers, inten