Editing Percussion cap (section)

==Parallel developments==
[[Joshua Shaw]] is sometimes credited (primarily by himself) with the development of the first metallic percussion cap in 1814, a reusable one made of iron, then a disposable pewter one in 1815 and finally a copper one in 1816. There is no independent proof of this since Shaw was advised he could not patent it due to Alexander Forsyth's patent for using fulminates to ignite guns being in force between 1807 and 1821. Shaw says he only shared the development of his innovation with a few associates (gunmakers and others) who were sworn to secrecy and never provided affidavits at a later date. Shaw's claim to have been the inventor remains clouded in controversy as he did not patent the idea until 1822, having moved to America in 1817. According to Lewis Winant, the US government's decision to award Shaw $25,000 as compensation for his invention being used by the Army was a mistake. Congress believed Shaw's patent was the earliest in the world and awarded him a large sum of money based on this belief. The investigators had overlooked two French patents and the earlier use of the idea in Britain.

The earliest known patent anywhere in the world which specifically mentions a percussion cap and nipple was granted in France on 29 July 1818 to [[François Prélat]], four years before Shaw's patent. Prelat made a habit of copying English patents and inventions and the mode of operation he describes is flawed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjWpnQEACAAJ&q=Early+Percussion+Firearms|title=Early Percussion Firearms|publisher=Spring Books |date=2015-10-25}}</ref> Secondly a French patent of a percussion cap and nipple had been granted in 1820 to Deboubert. However predating both of these French claims, the most likely inventor of the percussion cap, according to historian Sidney James Gooding, was [[Augustus Leopold Egg#Biography:~:text=His father Joseph Egg was a wealthy gunsmith from the|Joseph Egg]] (nephew of [[Durs Egg]]), around 1817, .<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.armscollecting.com/canadian-journal.asp|last=Gooding|first=S. James|title=Joseph Egg - Inventor of the Copper Cap...|journal=Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting|volume=36|number=3|date=August 2018|pages=75–79|issn=0008-3992|publisher=Arms Collecting Publications, Inc.|access-date=2017-05-13}}{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

There were other earlier claims. Col. [[Peter Hawker]] in 1830 simultaneously claimed and denied being the inventor. "I do not wish to say I was the inventor of it - very probably not" but then immediately recounts that he came up with the idea of simplifying a Manton patch-lock, which could be troublesome, by designing a cap and nipple arrangement around 1816 when the patch lock was patented. He says he then presented a drawing to a reluctant Joseph Manton to make a few copper cap guns which were then sold.<ref>{{cite web |title=Instructions to Young Sportsmen 6th edition (1830) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cIRCAAAAIAAJ |access-date=3 July 2021 | last1=Hawker | first1=Peter | year=1830 }}</ref> Hawker, seems to give Joseph Manton more of the glory eight years later in the 1838 edition of his 'Instructions to young Sportsmen',  by stating categorically that "copper tubes and primers were decidedly invented by Joe Manton". By the 1850s Hawker was again claiming the invention for himself in his press advertisements.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hawker Ad - Inventor of the Copper Cap |publisher=Hampshire Chronicle |date=30 November 1850}}</ref> 

Despite many years of research by Winant, Gooding and De Witt Bailey, the jury is still out as the competing claims are based on personal accounts and have little or no independently verifiable evidence.   

While the metal percussion cap was the most popular and widely used type of primer, their small size made them difficult to handle under the stress of combat or while riding a horse. Accordingly, several manufacturers developed alternative, "auto-priming" systems. The "[[Maynard tape primer]]", for example, used a roll of paper "caps" much like today's toy [[cap gun]]. The Maynard tape primer was fitted to some firearms used in the mid-nineteenth century and a few saw brief use in the [[American Civil War]]. Other disc or pellet-type primers held a supply of tiny fulminate detonator discs in a small magazine. Cocking the hammer automatically advanced a disc into position.  However, these automatic feed systems were difficult to make with the manufacturing systems in the early and mid-nineteenth century and generated more problems than they solved.  They were quickly shelved in favor of a single percussion cap that, while unwieldy in some conditions, could be carried in sufficient quantities to make up for occasionally dropping one, while a jammed tape primer system would instead reduce the rifle to an awkward club.<ref name="Fadala2006"/>