1814
Joshua Shaw invented a percussion cap using the mercury fulminate developed by Alexander Forsyth. This would eventually become the method of igniting the propelling charge of small arms and artillery. The percussion cap reduced the rate of misfire to fewer than one in two hundred rounds and was not affected by wind and damp.

1824
Henri Paixhans developed a horizontal-firing naval shell gun which, in a test, was able to break up an old naval hulk

1825
Completion of the first true railway, the Stockton and Darlington

1830s
Watershed period of the development of inventions that would alter war:
- telegraph (allowed control over great distances)
- railroads (mobilization and supply)
- naval warfare (steam engine, perfection of weapons especially cannon, construction of iron and steel)

1840s
Perfection of screw propeller to replace paddle wheel

1840
Prussia's King Frederick William equips his army with the newly invented Dreyse breech-loading rifle or needle gun. Its range was only about half that of the Minie rifle but it could fire seven shots per minute compared to the Minie rifle's two and it could be loaded from a prone position. Production was slow, however, and by 1847 the inventor had not been able to speed production beyond ten thousand per year.