19th Century 1803: First tests with so called Granatenkartätschen by the inventor, the English colonel Shrapnel (1761-1842). Besides the explosive charge they contained lead balls and were called Shrapnels. 1804: First experiments with a war rocket by the admiralty in Wollrich, England. 1807: The scotch pastor Alexander Forsyth is granted a patent for the prede-cessor of the percussion lock, the so called chemical lock, flacon lock or Forsyth lock. For the ignition he used mercury fulminate. 1808: Samuel Johannes Pauly, a Swiss gunsmith from Bern, living in Paris, is the first to have a metal cartridge with center fire patented. In addition he designed a suitable breech loader system. 1814: Invention of the percussion cap by the gunsmith J. Shaw in London England. (Disputed) 1816: J. Manton uses a firing tube with an ignition pellet and a firing pin. The ignition cylinders were prepared in advance. When loading, the shooter puts the ignition tube in a depression of the dog head. Because of a complaint by Forsyth, the production of these weapons was halted.