Jean Lepage (1779–1822) was a well-known French gunsmith.''Eugene Onegin and Other Stories'' by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin p.25

/ref> He worked for

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

Napoléon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and then

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

. He was the inventor of

fulminate Fulminates are chemical compounds which include the fulminate ion (). The fulminate ion is a pseudohalic ion because its charge and reactivity are similar to those of the halogens. Due to the instability of the ion, fulminate salts are friction ...

percussion systems for firearms, which superseded the flint-lock mechanism and opened the way to modern firearms.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 Edward Charles Howard FRS (28 May 1774 – 28 September 1816) the youngest brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, was a British chemist who has been described as "the first chemical engineer of any eminence." Career In January 1799 h ...

in 1800. Between 1807 and 1810, Lepage invented a new way to fire portative firearms, by using the

mercury fulminate Mercury(II) fulminate, or Hg(CNO)2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators. Mercury(II) cyanate, though its chemical formula ...

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.''Deanes' Manual of the History and Science of Fire-arms'' by John Deane p.89-9

/ref> 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. Since the fulminate powder was highly sensitive to humidity, methods of coating the fulminate in

varnish Varnish is a clear transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not a stain. It usually has a yellowish shade from the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmented as desired, and is sold commercially in various ...

were developed, as well as methods of encasing the fulminate culminating with the invention of the

percussion cap The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise t ...

François Prélat François Prélat was a Frenchman involved in gunmaking in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is sometimes claimed that he invented the first fully contained cartridge in 1808, as well as the percussion cap in 1818. However most gun histo ...

in 1818 and Deloubert in 1820.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lepage, Jean 1779 births 1822 deaths 19th-century French inventors Gunsmiths