Jean Lepage
Right image: Rifling of Lepage carbine.
Jean Le Page (1779–1822) was a well-known French gunsmith.[1] He worked for Louis XVI, Napoléon and then Louis XVIII. He was the inventor of fulminate percussion systems for firearms, which superseded the flint-lock mechanism and opened the way to modern firearms. This followed the discovery of fulminates by Edward Charles Howard in 1800.
Between 1807 and 1810, Le Page invented a new way to fire portative firearms, by using the mercury fulminate priming medium to be fired by the blow of a percussion hammer. The new method permitted the abandonment of flint-lock firing mechanisms and opened the way to modern firing methods.[2] The new mechanism used a magazine filled with fulminate primer, which would deliver a small amount of priming powder near the gun breech every time the magazine was cocked.[2] Since the fulminate powder was highly sensitive to humidity, methods of coating the fulminate in varnish were developed,[2] as well as methods of encasing the fulminate culminating with the invention of the percussion cap by François Prélat in 1818 and Deloubert in 1820.[2]
Notes
- ^ Eugene Onegin and Other Stories by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin p.252 [1]
- ^ a b c d Deanes' Manual of the History and Science of Fire-arms by John Deane p.89-90 [2]
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- Delvigne rifle (1826)
- Thouvenin Carabine à tige (1846)
- Lefaucheux M1858 revolver
- Minié rifle (1849)
- Tabatière rifle (1864)
- Chassepot rifle (1866)
- Gras rifle (1874)
- Lebel rifle (1886)
- Modèle 1892 revolver
- Steam battleship Napoléon (1850)
- Ironclad floating battery Lave (1854)
- Ironclad Gloire (1858)
- Mechanical powered submarine Plongeur (1863)
- Steel battleship Redoutable (1876)
- Armoured cruiser Dupuy de Lôme (1890)
- Electrical submarine Gymnote (1888)
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