1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VIII.: Forsyth and Co
256. FORSYTH and CO., Leicester Street, Leicester Square — Inventors and Manufacturers.
Patent safety gun, which cannot be discharged either in carrying when loaded, or during the time of loading, until brought up to and placed against the shoulder, and the trigger pulled in the firing position. In its use the chances of the occurrence of an accident, even at full-cock, are entirely obviated, the cock being checked in its descent by the projection of the safety-stop.
The preceding cuts represent the apparatus for working the safety stops from the heel-plate of the gun; the safety-stops themselves, and the original percussion lock.
Also, an original percussion gun, illustrating the first application of the principle of percussion by the exhibitor to the purposes of fire-arms. This gun contains a reservoir of percussion powder sufficient for a day's shooting.
[Fire-arms have been discharged by three different methods, by the direct application of a lighted match, by the ignited particle of steel produced by the flint lock, and by the ignition of an explosive powder through the heat developed by percussion. This is the exact historical order of these applications. The flint-lock is now passing rapidly into disuse, and the principle of percussion, in various forms, but essentially the same, is obtaining universal application. This principle was first discovered and applied by Mr. Forsyth in 1819, and was then patented. The explosive powder was contained in a small magazine attached to the locks, and by turning it on its axis a few grains of the powder were conveyed beneath a striking pin, and were ignited on the descent of the hammer. The copper cap has now supplied the place of these magazines.]