Jean Samuel Pauly

Jean Samuel Pauly
Born	(1766-04-13)April 13, 1766 Vechigen
Died	1821 (aged 54–55)
Nationality	Swiss
Other names	Samuel Johann Pauli
Occupation	gunsmith

Jean Samuel Pauly (April 13, 1766 – 1821), he was born as Samuel Johann Pauli, was a famous gunsmith of the early 19th century. Pauly was born at Vechigen near Bern, Switzerland on 13 April 1766.^[1]

Career

In 1798, at 32, Pauly became an Artillery sergeant.^[2] He fought as a member of the Swiss Army, together with the French, under Masséna. During his campaigns, in 1799, Pauly wrote a manual about the usage of firearms.

Pauly moved to Paris in 1802 where he worked on designing an airship and maintained contact with the weapon manufacturer of Saint-Étienne. In 1804 he designed an automatic bridge. Pauly used for himself the title "Colonel Jean Samuel Pauly".^[2] He established a gunsmith worshop where he developed mercury fulminate platina. In 1809 he employed the German Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse who would later become the inventor of the famous Dreyse rifle.

Self-contained cartridge

In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat, Pauly created the first fully self-contained cartridges:^[3] the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated potassium chlorate^[4] primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a paper casing and a round bullet.^[2] The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle or a pin. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter.^[5] The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly.^[3] Pauly made an improved version which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812.^[3] The cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1836.

Upon the fall of Paris to the allies on 5 April 1814, von Dreyse left for Prussia and Pauly left for London, where he continued developing various weapons under the sponsorship of Durs Egg.

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