David Harding

Volume I: PROCUREMENT AND DESIGN

Chapter 8

DESIGN SURVEY: PERCUSSION ARMS 1840-56

THE ADOPTION OF PERCUSSION IGNITION, 219

An early troop-trial of percussion ignition in India, 1822-23, 220
The influence of sportsmen, 223
The Madras percussion cap trial of 1835, 224
The East India Company's initial moves, 226
Colonel Bonner's report on percussion ignition, 1839, 226
The East India Company adopts percussion ignition, December 1839, 232
The `plug breech' controversy, 233
Welded lumps, 238
Percussion arms first used in anger, 239

DESIGN CHANGES IN THE PERCUSSION ARMS, 1840-1852, 240

The Company's main types of percussion lock, 240
Brass furniture, 248
Triggers, 250
The Hanoverian bayonet catch, 250
The `Pattern F' bayonet catch, 252
Other changes in the 1840s, 256
The end of the percussion smoothbores, 259
Multiplication of patterns in the 1840s, 260
Patterns and gauges for percussion arms, 260

GENERAL DESIGN SURVEY: CONCLUSIONS, 261

The East India Company and technical developments, 261
The East India Company's ethos of serviceability, 262

Appendices, Volume I