Samuel Guthrie (1782–1848) was an American physician. He invented a form of percussion powder and also the punch lock for igniting it, which made the flintlock musket obsolete. He discovered chloroform independently in 1831. Life Background Samuel Guthrie was born in Brimfield, in Hampden's county, Massachusetts, in 1782 Family His father, Dr. Samuel Guthrie, was a practicing physician and surgeon in that village, and died there in 1808. His brother James, moved soon to Dayton, Ohio where he became a farmer and continued his life following only religious values. During his period in Smyrna, Samuel Guthrie married Sybil Sexton, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters. His son, Alfred, mechanical engineer, born on April 1 1805 in Sherburne, New York; died 17 August 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, re-located with his parents to Sackett's Harbor in 1817, where he studied medicine and chemistry with his father, serving as his assistant at the time of his father's discovery of chloroform. He practiced medicine for ten years before moving on to other jobs due to an aversion to the field. In 1846 he settled in Chicago, where he advanced the idea of supplying the summit level of the Illinois and Michigan canal with water by raising it from Lake Michigan with steam power. The hydraulic works of this canal in Chicago were designed by him and constructed under his supervision, and when completed they were capable of handling a larger volume of water than any other similar works then in existence. He then died in Chicago on the 17th of August 1882, at 78 years old. Another son, Edwin, a physician who was born in Sherburne, New York, on December 11, 1806 and died in the Castle of Perote, Mexico, on July 20, 1847, studied medicine alongside his father before settling in Iowa and holding public office. He recruited a company of Iowa volunteers, of which he became captain, and proceeded to the front lines soon after the conflict with Mexico began. During the Battle of Pass La Hoya, he was wounded in the knee and died after two amputations. Guthrie county, Iowa, is named in his honour. Career and education Guthrie studied medicine with his father and then started his profession in Smyrna, Chenango. He was greatly inspired by the contemporaneous studies and researches conducted by Jenner on inoculation (1790-1803) and conducted some experiments on the subject during