718 



RIFLKS 



yean the art of rutting grooves in tin- rliiinilier of 

 the guns has been introduced witli the object of 

 increasing the accuracy of lire; the disadvantage 

 n-u!t in;; therefrom to the common marksman ha- 

 own discord amongst them. In ordinary ifaooting 

 matches marksmen are therefore forbidden under a 

 penalty of 10 to provide themselves with rifled 

 arms. Every one in nevertheless pomiMtd to rifle 

 his military weapon and to compete with marks- 

 men anned with similar weapons lor special prizes.' 

 In the Inter half of the 16th century Augustus 

 K utter of Nureiiil>erg brought out a rifle the grooves 

 of wliich were in a spiral form, and to him is due 

 the idea of thin form of rifling. In 1662 a cleric, the 

 Bishop of Minister, invented elongated projectiles 

 for use in such arms. Inn whether in conjunction 

 with a rifled arm or simply with the idea of improv- 

 ing the accuracy of a smooth bore is not known. In 

 IT'-".! Ijuitmann, a Russian, brought out a pamphlet 

 advocating the advantage of tiring with balls of an 

 elliptical form with a cavity at the base BO as to 

 augment considerably the impetus imparted to the 

 projectile when tired from a rilled arm. Laiitmann 

 undoubtedly hit upon the true theory, and had liis 

 idea been worked out to a practical result the 

 armies of Europe would in all probability have 

 been armed with rifles a hundred years sooner 

 than they actually were. But Lautmann, like so 

 many other inventors, was in advance of his age 

 and did not live to see the correctness of his theory 

 vindicated. 



In 1750 Wild brought out a rifle with MX grooves 

 having one turn in the length of the barrel, from 

 which he fired balls weighing eighteen to the 

 pound, wrapped in an envelope of greased linen, 

 the object of the linen being to fill up the bore and 

 to impart the necessary rotatory motion to the 

 bullet ; but nothing came of his invention. And 

 again in 1770 experiments, which were not success- 

 ful, were made at Metz with elongated bullet-. 



The adoption of rifles into the British service 

 dates from about the year 1800, when the old 95th 

 Itegiiuent, which later became the Rifle Brigade, 

 were armed with 'Baker's rifles,' so called from 

 the name of the inventor. There were two patterns 

 of this arm. one with eleven and the other with 

 seven grooves, the twist of rifling being one turn 

 in 136 inches. The weight of the nfle was 8 Ib. 9 oz. 

 and its length 3 feet 9} inches ; the length of the 

 barrel was 2 feet 6 inches, and bore "705". The 

 bullet was spherical ; before being rammed home 

 it was wrapped in a greased patch, there being 

 a cavity in the butt for carrying these patches. 

 After firing a few rounds the barrel became so foul 

 that it was difficult to ram the ballets home ; a 

 wooden mallet was therefore served out with each 

 rifle to drive the ball down the barrel. This rifle 

 remained in the British service till about the year 

 1835, when it was superseded by 'the Brunswick 

 rifle,' the invention of Major Bernerin the Brunswick 

 army. The barrel of this arm was rilled with only 

 two grooves having one turn in the length of the 

 barrel ; the bullet, which was spherical, was 

 'belted' the belt fitting into the grooves in the 

 barrel this method being adopted to give the 

 bullet a spin. A grease patch was also used with 

 this rifle ; it added greatly to the difficulty of load- 

 ing, as it mad" it extremely difficult to see. whether 

 the belt on the bullet was properly placed in the 

 grooves or not. This rifle was the first arm in the 

 Ifriti-li service which had a perciission-liH'k, ami it 

 wan not till the year 1842 that a percussion musket 

 wan generally adopted for the service. A rifle of a 

 similar design was filxnit the same time adopted in 

 IJii ia and in some of the < iernian tirincipuhtieg. 



In is:i7a rifled arm was adopted in France for 

 the ue of the 'dUMMOft'or rifle regiments. This 

 arm wax rifled in the chamber on a system invented 



by Captain Delvigne of the French army. The 

 diameter of the chamber was slightly -mailer than 

 the calibre of the bore; the ball was driven into 

 the rifling, but not Milliciently far to crush the 

 powder. In 1841 the Prussians discarded their 

 old muzzle-loading smooth-bore musket, and imio 

 duced in its steadan arm which, besiilcs having a 

 rifled barrel, was also mode to load at the breech, 

 and in a few years the whole l'ru--ian army was 

 armed with the celebrated 'Zundimdelgewehr' or 

 needle-gun. This arm, the invention of I'leyse 

 (q.v. ), is a bolt-gun, the needle being contained in 

 the I "ill ; to load, give a smart blow to tin- handle of 

 the bolt to release it from ii- fastening, then draw 

 bock the bolt and insert the cartridge, close ihc 

 bolt and lock it by turning the handle down to the 

 right. The act of closing the bolt compresses the 

 mainspring and holds back the neeillc. whieh is 

 released in the usual way on pulling the trigger. 

 The cartridge is a peculiar one. There is a pnpier- 

 inache plug called /imdspiegel,' in which is 

 imbedded the bullet in the form of an egg. The 

 iiereiission-cap is fixed in the rear of the plug ; 

 lichind the plug is the powder charge. The powder, 

 the plug, and the bullet are all enclosed in a paper 

 cartridge-case, which is tied in front of the bullet. 

 On firing the gun the needle presses through the 

 powder charge and strikes the cap in the plug so 

 that the charge is ignited from the front, the idea 

 being that by this means the bullet is less likely to 

 be detached from its bed in the papier-mache plug, 

 which latter takes the rifling and imparts rotation 

 to the projectile, the diameter of which is '.~>4 of an 

 inch, whereas the calibre of the barrel is '61 of an 

 inch. 



During some experiments at Span dan in 1846 so 

 many needles were broken that the continuance of 

 the arm in the service was in great jeopardy ; but 

 its efficacy in quelling disturbances in the troublous 

 times in 1848 and 1849 was so great that in the 

 year 1850 a further large number of arms was 

 made, ami the system was further extended by the 

 introduction of carbines on the same model. In 

 1842 the Austrians armed their rifle regiments 

 with a rifle. Thus we see that by the year 1S4'_' 

 all the great powers of Europe had armed a 

 part of their troops with rifles, and that by 1846 

 the whole of the Prussian army was not only so 

 armed, but that their arms also possessed the great 

 superiority over all others of being breech-loaders. 

 Another point in which tho Prussians hod a superi- 

 ority over other nations was that they had a com- 

 plete cartridge combining in one case the projectile, 

 the powder charge, and the percussion -cap tho 

 introduction of a breech-loader enabling them to 

 have a cappe \ cartridge instead of having to place 

 a cap on the nipple for each discharge. Those who 

 are old enough to remember the old i>ercussion-lock 

 with the capping and uncapping of the nipple will 

 appreciate the immense advantage that was gained 

 by the introduction of a capped cartridge. 



The vast superiority of the Prussian needle- 

 gun over the rifles in use in other countries gave 

 a great impetus to the spirit of invention, and in 

 1S41I Captain Minie (q.v.), of the French army, 

 brought out a rifle called the Mini6 rifle ; this arm 

 was first introduced into the French, and subse- 

 quently, about 1851, into the English army. 

 Up to this date rifles were only issued to rifle 

 regiments, but with the introduction of the Minie 

 rifle it was intended to discard the smooth Ixire 

 altogether and to arm the whole army with rille-. 

 The adoption of the Minie rifle was a great step in 

 advance; it was the first time the spherical bullet 

 was discarded in favour of one of a cylindro-con- 

 oidal form. The bullet had a hollow base in which 

 was placed an iron cup; on the explosion of the 

 powder this cup forced the bullet into the grooves 



