AH Challenge: Earliest possible percussion ignition of firearms

IOTL percussion ignition is invented by Alexander Forsyth and others in the early 19th century from which it was refined before Shaws percussion cap replaced flintlock ignition on most military firearms from the 1840s on.
How much earlier can percussion ignition be invented and how much earlier can it become the main form of ignition on military arms? What effects does this earlier invention have on the developement of firearms? Ex. does it lead to earlier breechloaders or cartidge weapons?
 
Doesn't this require percussion caps, which in turn require fairly sophisticated chemistry to keep from blowing up at the wrong time?

I got the distinct impression that percussion caps were used about as soon as they were practically possible.
 
wasn't that a while back? I also remember quartz crystals being used for ignition, idk it was very strange to me.
 
Doesn't this require percussion caps, which in turn require fairly sophisticated chemistry to keep from blowing up at the wrong time?

I got the distinct impression that percussion caps were used about as soon as they were practically possible.

Not necissarily caps. IOTL caps proved to be the best form of percussion ignition but their were a number of other systems that were used. Maynards tape primer in the US and Council tube locks by the Austro-Hungarians. The tube locks were used in the 1830s so more widespread use of them could get you percussion ignition a decade earlier.
Earlier then that would probably require a European war in the 1820s or somebody massproducing percussion arms of some sort during the later part of the Napoleonic Wars.
 
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