A paper tube was rolled, filled with the appropriate powder charge and tied with a string. This saved the shooter the time required to measure the powder and pour it down the barrel. Many cartridges could be loaded in advance and carried in a pouch or pocket to be used when in a hurry.

Eventually, the projectile began being loaded into the cartridge as well. The cartridge would be tore open with the teeth, the powder charge poured down the barrel, followed by the bullet and then topped off with the paper "wad". Sometimes, the paper cartridges would be coated with oil or grease which lubricated the barrel and protected the cartridge from moisture prior to and after loading. It wasn't long before the entire cartridges was being loaded as a whole unit, both in long arms and pistols.

These cartridges still used the same priming methods as ammunition that was loaded individually. Flintlocks still used powder in the flash pan, and percussion arms used a cap.

Paper cartridges fall into a category of cartridges known as "combustible cartridges", where the entire cartridge burns up or is expelled from the barrel, leaving nothing behind. Paper gave way to animal skin, linen and collodion.

Paper cartridges evolved from a pouch of paper holding the powder and bullet inside to the more advanced combustible cartridges where a straight or tapered "cup" contained the powder with a conical bullet "seated" in the open end.

These cartridges were then placed into wooden blocks drilled to accept the particular caliber (usually five or six per block) and then wrapped with an oiled waterproof paper and labelled.

As the combustible era came to an end, paper, linen and skin gave way to heavy paper (cardboard), foil, and heavier metallics. These cartridges were separate-primed like there forerunners with small holes in the base of the cartridge for the flash to ignite the powder charge.

Breech-loading became the new method of arming the weapon. Many cartridges were tapered from front to rear, similar to an ice-cream cone. One such cartridge was the Burnside. Priming was still accomplished with a percussion cap or a tape primer.

Non-combustible cartridges presented a dilemma never before encountered: extraction of the spent cartridge. Many manufacturers had developed wonderfully-creative methods for extracting empties. The Maynards have large-diameter, flat rims which was actually a disk soldered to the brass case. Some Sharps and Maynard cartridges had "Mule Ears" or "Flop Ears" which were extracted with a fingernail or small knife blade. Others had wires or strings attached to them so that an easy tug would have the cartridge out and the chamber ready for another. This was the case in the 50 Maynard with wire extractor or 50 Maynard with cord extractor.

The mid 19th century brought forth many new developments and inventions. It seems there were no rules placed on creativity and creative individuals let their imaginations run wild.

Thus come the Self-Contained cartridges. These cartridges were old and yet brand new. The principle of self-contained cartridges is resurrected in a new light. To put it simply, self-contained cartridges were made up of a bullet with a hollowed out back that contained a powder charge and a fulminate. This was a huge advancement, because this eliminated the need for a separate primer.

Others were of a metallic nature that looked not too dissimilar to future cartridges. The new face of ammunition had arrived, and opened doors for rapid advancement in ammunition technology. One of the more famous firearms from this era was the "Volcanic". Labelled the first successful repeater, it paved the way for the Henry rifle, which when compared to the Volcanic, even look similar to it.

I personally am not entirely sure where the term "Patent Ignition" came from, but I assume it has to do with the rapid advancement of firearm technology and the rush of patent applications to protect ones proprietary right to their design. Whether I am correct or not, it leads us to another era of cartridge evolution.

These cartridges were wholly metallic, with powder and priming fulminate contained within the metallic cartridge. Many varieties of the patent ignition rounds were designed. In 1836 E. LeFaucheux of Paris introduced the first successful breech-loading cartridge: the pin fire. The pin fire consisted of a cylindrical metallic cartridge containing the powder and internally placed at the base a cup with fulminate. Protruding from the cup through the wall of the case was a pin. The pistol had a notch into which this pin would align itself. The hammer falls striking the pin forcing it into the fulminate thus igniting the charge and sending the projectile on its merry way.

An interesting patent ignition is the front-loading cup fire. The cartridge is concave on the back side. Around the radius created by the concave cup was the fulminate. The hammer struck the inside of the cup near the edge activating the fulminate. These are but two examples in a vast array of patent ignition cartridges.

Patent-ignition cartridges naturally evolved into the rim fire cartridges that we know today. Little has been done in the advancement and development of the rimfire system, proving that if it something isn't broken - don't fix it. The rimfire is a metallic cartridge containing a powder charge, a crimped bullet at the mouth and fulminate around the circumference of the rim. The firing pin falls at any point around the rim activating the fulminate. This is a proven system and the only significant changes that have been made are in the way of calibration, and evolving from black powder to smokeless powder.

Development of the centerfire cartridge and a standard method of priming the propellant opened the doors wide open for developers to experiment with rapid, radical innovations. Ammunition would find itself from the tiniest combination of components (as in the 2.7mm Kolibri) to very large scaled up versions used by the military (the 30mm M-788).

There could be books upon books written about the modern centerfire rifle cartridge, and by no means will I attempt to do so.