CLERGYMAN AND GUNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

CLERGYMAN AND GUNS.

MEMORIAL TO INVENTOR.

PERCUSSION LOCK'S ORGIN

The memory of a .man who, although in Holy Orders, played a no small part in the development of modern munitions of war, is being perpetuated in the Tower of London. A tablet is being erected there to recall the association with that fortress of the Rev. Alexander John Forsyth, M.A., LL.D., the inventor of the percussion lock for small arms. It was hoped that the work will be completed in time for the unveiling ceremony this month. Mr. Forsyth was born on December 28, 1768, at Bclhelvie, Aberdeenshire. He was educated at King's College. Aberdeen, ordained at the age of 23, and appointed to the parish church of his native town, Anns and implements of war generally appear to have fascinated Mr. Forsyth. In 1880 he produced a detonating powder, for the secret of which it is said Napoleon offered him £20.000. But this he naturally refused, and following a series of successful experiments with detonating compounds, ho was invited by Loro Moira, Master-General of Ordnance, to work upon the production of percussion locks, and to carry out his efforts at the Tower. ■ . , •After several years Mr. Forsyth was successful, and in 1807 had patented not only a percussion lock for small arms, but had also produced one for threo- ■ pounder guns. It se«nis,/indeed, that ho waS too successful, for his achievement appears to have resulted in exhibitions of both envy and resentment, and somo months later, whilo still experimenting at. the Tower, the Earl of Chatham ordered him to leave there.

. This was a severe blow to the young inventor, who thereupon returned to his ministerial duties in Scotland, and continued to work with the limited resources which were at his disposal there. In 1834 tests on his percussion lock resulted in the final approval of the invention, and two years later an issue of the experimental arms was made to the Third Grenadier Guards and the Hrst Coldsi ream Guards. Afterwards percussion rifles were generally adopted for use in the British Armv. b'oing first employed-in action by the Second Battalion of the Border Regiment (55th), at Amov in 1841. A vear before this a petition was presented to Parliament asking tho Government to grant Mr. Forsyth a gratuity, but it was not until October, 1843, four months after the sudden deatJi of tho inventor, (lint. Approval was pivon for a grant of £IOOO. which sum was equally divided among his surviving relations. Major Charles Ffoulkes. Keeper of tho Armoury at the Tower, said recently:— " The more one looks into the history of this remarkable Scottish minister, the more one feels how much lie achieved in revolutionising small arms. , He was also a remarkable man in other ways. For example, when the advantages of vaccination were first realised, ho took it upon himself to vaccinate the whole of his parishioners. During tho Feninsular wars tho French pirated the Forsyth lock wholesale, which resulted in tho inventor taking action for infringement of his pa font." Major Ffoulkes related how recently at the Tower lie decided to open one of the littlo priming boxes that were used by Forsyth, and in it was found a quantity of the original powder. It is proposed, if funds permit, to institute a " Forsyth Medal" for competition at Bisley.