A Century of Guns is a concise history of the development of small arms during the nineteenth century. In the American Civil War, it had already been shown that the rifle was more accurate than the traditional musket. The early rifle was soon transformed by a number of technical advances. The percussion cap was invented, allowing bullets to be fired by a blow rather than a spark; breech-loading replaced muzzle-loading; hammerless guns, revolvers and repeating and automatic guns were all put into production.As a member of one of London"s leading firms of gunsmiths, H.J. Blanch was well qualified to explain all these changes, and this he does in a lucid and fully illustrated text. He goes beyond a purely technical manual by linking the new weapons to the battles and campaign in which their effectiveness was demonstrated.