The
Perrins Business
John
Perrins senior was born in 1796, so would have started his gun making
career at an important transitional stage in the development of the
sporting firearm. The flintlock would have been at its zenith, as
refined as it could get, when along comes the new development of the
percussion cap. A Scottish clergyman named Alexander
John
Forsyth, developed the percussion cap and was granted a patent in
1807. Development of the percussion cap continued and by 1830 the
system we still see today, with the percussion cap sitting on a hollow
nipple, had become the accepted means of ignition.
During
John
’s formative teenage years he would have witnessed the introduction of
this new innovation and would almost certainly have worked on both
mechanisms when he first started his business in 1831.
As yet, we have not uncovered a flintlock Perrins but I am sure he
must have worked on them early in his career and it is likely he would
have converted flintlocks to percussion.
For 20 years or so the percussion cap reigned supreme but gun makers
and shooters were always looking for improvement. People started
to experiment with placing the igniting method inside a paper cartridge
and loading it from the breach end of the gun. The ‘needle fire’ gun, where the paper cartridge was pierced by a thin
needle to initiate the explosion proved to be rather unreliable. A
more robust means of ignition was the ‘pin
fire’ where the cartridge had a pin sticking out of the top, which
sat in an internal percussion cap surrounded by the black powder.
The hammer would strike the pin causing the cap to fire and initiate the
explosion. This method worked well except there was a real danger
of the exposed pin getting knocked while in a pocket resulting in an
unpleasant explosion.
By the 1860's the centre fire cartridge, as we know it today, had
became the most popular and accepted form of ammunition for the sporting
gun. The two sons,
John
junior and Henry would have been starting their gun making careers in
around 1838 to 1847, so like their father, they witnessed a transitional
stage of shotgun development. They must have seen the well
developed percussion cap being eclipsed by the various new innovations
of using breach loading cartridges. Some of these would succeed
and others would fade away, but soon everyone would want breach loading
hammer guns in all sorts of different specification and sizes. The
two brothers must have done well during this boom time, not only
supplying the domestic market but also the British Gentlemen throughout
the Empire. Again, like their father before them, it is likely
they would have converted percussion and pin fire guns to the new centre
fire breach loading system.
As well as shotguns Perrins made rifles and pistols at a time when
there was a need for personal protection, shooting for the pot and big
game hunting.
The final innovation that
John
junior and Henry would have been involved with was the introduction of
the hammerless shotgun, which
has changed little in the 117 years since they ceased trading at 59 Broad Street.
Worcester
City
Museum
has given us a copy of an interesting page from a catalogue of a trade
fair held in Worcester
in 1880 . Perrins and Son were exhibiting and it shows a list of
guns with prices. Their shotguns range in price from £30 to £47 10
shillings (£47.50 in today’s money). To put this into context a
farm labourer would have taken a year to earn £41.52.
Another interesting reference is
to ‘Bessemer
Steel barrels’ which is indicating the start of the transition
away from the Damascus barrels more commonly found at this time.
It is also interesting to note
that Perrins were using several of Westley Richards patents in the
construction of their guns at this time.
The page refers to several of the guns by their serial numbers and it would be
fantastic if one of these was to turn up today.
It
is a credit to their workmanship that some of these guns are functioning
as well today as they did when they were made up to two centuries ago.
