I find them to be alot like many of the things we have these days.

That is to say, the Idea was around for a very long time, people observed and wrote things down...

And then, one tuesday, they said 'Wait, I know, lets coat some metal cups with Mercury Fulminate!'

The Idea for the cartrage was around for a while before that, but it would still take a few years to convince most gun owners that converting there revolvers to use them was a good idea.


Still, it took almost as long for them to convert the behaviors of the compressed gasses they used to clear water out of mines into refridgeration(500 years or so)