ON THIS DAY

Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 8

ON THIS DAY

HASTENING SLOWLY. A parson, the Rev. Alexander Forsyth, of Aberdeen, revolutionized war when, on April 11, 1807, he took out a patent, for percussion powder made of chlorate of potash, sulphur, and charcoal. Brown Bess, the flint-lock musket which served at Blenheim (and was to serve at Waterloo) was doomed. Within thirty years British troops were rearmed wtih a percussion musket; pretty quick work, seeing that the other great step in the evolution of firearms, the adoption of the rifle, took 300 years. (There is, or was recently, a rifle in the Rotunda at Woolwich dated 1547). In this, as in other matters, Britain’s policy of hastening slowly was not so foolish after all. The first percussion caps were the deuce to manipulate, and reduced musketry fire from five rounds a minute to three. As the old order, in the days of shox-t-range muskets, was “hold your fire tiff you can see the whites of the enemy’s eyes,” such slowing-up meant losing battles. Wisely, the authorities waited a while, profiting by other nations’ mistakes.