Close-up showing the trigger and hammer of the Pauly sporting gunThe Paris-based Swiss gunsmith Jean-Samuel Pauly patented his remarkably advanced double-barrelled, smoothbore sporting gun in 1812.

Pauly had combined Alexander Forsyth’s percussion system and Joseph Egg’s idea for a ‘priming capsule’ to invent a gun that was way ahead of its time. Not only was it breech-loading, it also used internal detonation by means of a unitary cartridge, instead of an external flint or hammer. This early form of centre-fire cartridge was made of paper with a metal base surrounding a central primer, detonated by an internal pin in the breech. Pauly’s centre-fire concept would not be seen again for another 25 years, whereupon it came to dominate cartridge design, as it still does to this day.

Close up showing the barrel of the Pauly sporting gun