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Percussion cap   /pərkˈəʃən kæp/   Listen
noun
Percussion  n.  
1.
The act of percussing, or striking one body against another; forcible collision, esp. such as gives a sound or report.
2.
Hence: The effect of violent collision; vibratory shock; impression of sound on the ear. "The thunderlike percussion of thy sounds."
3.
(Med.) The act of tapping or striking the surface of the body in order to learn the condition of the parts beneath by the sound emitted or the sensation imparted to the fingers. Percussion is said to be immediate if the blow is directly upon the body; if some intervening substance, as a pleximeter, is, used, it is called mediate.
Center of percussion. See under Center.
Percussion bullet, a bullet containing a substance which is exploded by percussion; an explosive bullet.
Percussion cap, a small copper cap or cup, containing fulminating powder, and used with a percussion lock to explode gunpowder.
Percussion fuze. See under Fuze.
Percussion lock, the lock of a gun that is fired by percussion upon fulminating powder.
Percussion match, a match which ignites by percussion.
Percussion powder, powder so composed as to ignite by slight percussion; fulminating powder.
Percussion sieve, Percussion table, a machine for sorting ores by agitation in running water.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Percussion cap" Quotes from Famous Books



... like the isolation of mercury fulminate in 1800, led to the invention of the percussion cap and other primers. On many a battleground you may have picked up a scrap of twisted wire—the loop of a friction primer. The device was a copper tube (fig. 19) filled with powder. The tube went into the vent of the cannon and buried its tip ...
— Artillery Through the Ages - A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America • Albert Manucy

... If with a percussion cap and a tear we may develop sufficient power to deflect a magnetic needle 3,000 miles distant, what power may not be expected of the sun, 1,250,000 times larger than the earth; the sun exercising a force ...
— New and Original Theories of the Great Physical Forces • Henry Raymond Rogers

... enemy's breastworks, leaning against a tree, resting on his left knee, his loaded rifle across the other. In his right hand, between his forefinger and thumb, in the act of being placed upon the nipple of the gun, was a percussion cap. His frame was rigid, cold, and stiff, while his glossy eyes seemed to be peering in the front as looking for a lurking foe. He was stone dead, a bullet having pierced his heart, not leaving the least sign of the twitching of a muscle to tell of the shock he had received. ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert

... began to be aware of a wonderful revolution, compared to which the fire of Mittwalden Palace was but a crack and flash of a percussion cap. The countenance with which the pines regarded her began insensibly to change; the grass, too, short as it was, and the whole winding staircase of the brook's course, began to wear a solemn freshness of appearance. And this ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

... they talk, in dust, or mud, or snow, Both bored to death, and both afraid to go! Your hat once lifted, do not hang your fire, Nor, like slow Ajax, fighting still, retire; When your old castor on your crown you clap, Go off; you've mounted your percussion cap. ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.



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