page_title: Tubes and primers for ammunition
section_title: Percussion tubes
hierarchical_section_title: Tubes and primers for ammunition / Percussion tubes
caption_attribution_description: English: Percussion caps, diameters 4.5mm and 6.0mm
context_page_description: Tubes and primers are used to ignite the propellant in projectile weapons.
  In ancient times various devices were adopted to ignite the charge. Small guns were fired by priming powder poured down the touch hole and ignited by glowing embers or a red-hot iron rod. Later the priming powder was ignited by a piece of slow match held in a linstock. About 1700, this was effected by means of a port-fire. This was a paper case about 16 inch long filled with slow-burning composition which burnt rather more than one inch per minute. Later again the charge was exploded by paper tubes filled with powder and placed in the vent and ignited by a port-fire. Friction primers were used in the later black powder era, while in the latest patterns percussion or electric tubes are employed.
context_section_description: The percussion tube has a similarly shaped body to the wireless electric tube, but the internal construction differs; it is fitted with a striker, below which is a percussion cap on a hollow brass anvil, and the tube is filled with powder.
  With quick firing guns (those using metallic cartridge cases) the case itself is fitted with the igniting medium; in England these are called primers.  For small guns the case contains a percussion primer, usually a copper cap filled with a chlorate mixture and resting against an anvil.  The striker of the gun strikes the cap and fires the mixture.  For larger guns an electric primer is used, the internal construction and action of which are precisely similar to the wireless tube already described; the exterior is screwed for the case.  For percussion firing an ordinary percussion tube is placed in an adapter screwed into the case.  In some foreign services a combined electric and percussion primer is used.
caption: Percussion caps
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