MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 89 



been attributed, appears to have been originally patented in 

 England, as a muzzle-loader, in 1831, by a Mr. Moser, of Ken- 

 nington. The invention came before its time. Its cold recep- 

 tion in England drove the patentee to seek foreign patronage for 

 his novelty, and Prussia was lucky enough to appreciate and to 

 adopt the new weapon. Dreysa, a gunmaker of Sommaler, ap- 

 plied the breech-loading principle to Moser's patent, and thus 

 amended, the arm 10 years later was in 1848 introduced into the 

 Prussian service. The principle, briefly stated, is the driving of 

 a pointed piston or "needle," by the action of a spiral spring 

 (such as is used in the manufacture of children's toy-guns) into a 

 small case of fulminate, contained in and situated between the 

 powder and the bullet of a single cartridge. In the action of 

 opening the breech, the spiral spring is set by the trigger, and 

 thus the trigger, when pulled, releases into operation the spiral 

 spring, which, in its turn, forces the needle into the cartridge 

 and lires the piece. Upon this oldest form of the Prussian needle-, 

 gun improvements have been made, the chief effects of which 

 have been a reduction of the mechanism of the needle of 1848, 

 and a general lightening of the entire piece. None of these 

 alterations, however, have touched those two apparent evils in 

 the whole form of this arm which militated against its adoption 

 by England in 1850. These are the positions of the fulminate in 

 the interior of the cartridge and the looseness of mechanism, in- 

 volving possibility of the escape of gas round the needle and at 

 the base of the plunger. To -these two particular points France 

 mainly devoted herself in seeking a superior needle-rifle to that 

 of Prussia. In the Chassepot such an improved arm has been 

 found. A triple wad of vulcanized India-rubber, placed round 

 the axis of the plunger, with a steel plate, forms a cushion to re- 

 ceive the force of the rebound and is intended to render the breech 

 gas-tight, but has been found in practice only partially adapted to 

 that object. An ingenious arrangement of notches on the outer 

 girder of iron, before described, enables the gun to be placed at 

 half-cock. The needle is lighter and smaller than in the Prussian 

 gun, and, above all, the cartridge contains its fulminate at the 

 base of the powder, instead of at the base of the bullet. A vac- 

 uum left when the gun is charged, between the base of the car- 

 tridge and the front of the plunger, is intended to effect the com- 

 bustion and removal of an} T portion of the cartridge-case that may 

 remain after firing. As compared with the Prussian gun, this 

 weapon possesses, besides the specific improvements mentioned, 

 other advantages of superior manufacture and finish. Its car- 

 tridge, besides admitting the altogether different principle of fir- 

 ing, contains a larger charge of powder than the Prussian car- 

 tridge, with a smaller bullet, which leaves a manifest advantage in 

 carrying to the French weapon; and the fact that the Prussian 

 bullet is purposely made so small as not to touch the barrel in its 

 passage, while the French bullet is of the ordinary size to fit the 

 rifle-barrel, would point to the conclusion that the Prussian 

 marksman is at a disadvantage over the Frenchman in respect to 

 his arm. The number of times of firing per minute is about the 



