RIFLES 



719 



of the rifling. The separate grease patch was dis- 

 continued, lubrication being obtained by greasing 

 the paper in which the bullet was wrapped with a 

 mixture of tallow and beeswax. The rifle weighed 

 9 Ib. 13 oz. ; its length was 4 feet 7 inches. The 

 barrel weighed 4 Ib. 13J oz. and was 39 inches long ; 

 the diameter of the bore was '702", the number of 

 grooves three, having a twist of one turn in 36 

 inches. The charge of powder was 2J drams, or 

 nearly 70 grains, and the weight of the bullet was 

 680 grains. The rifle was sighted to 1000 yards. 

 A description of it has been given in some 

 detail for the sake of comparison with the 

 rifles of the present day. All the English infantry 

 regiments which proceeded to the Crimea were 

 armed in the first instance with this rifle, and a 

 large proportion of the French army also had a rifle 

 constructed on the same principle, though varying 

 in detail from the English pattern. This gave the 

 allies an immense advantage over their Russian 

 adversaries, who were still, with few exceptions, 

 armed with the old smooth-bore. 



But the Minie rifle was cumbersome and heavy, 

 and as early as 1852 experiments were made 

 with a view of obtaining a better weapon. The 

 result of these experiments led to the intro- 

 duction of the Enfield Rifle, Pattern 1853, so 

 called from the Royal Small-arms Factory at 

 Enfield Lock, from which factory the rifle was 

 first introduced. The principal point of difference 

 between this arm and the Mime was the great 

 reduction in the diameter of the bore from '702" to 

 '577". This reduction of the bore enabled the 

 barrel to be made very much lighter without in 

 any way impairing the arm as a shooting weapon ; 

 in fact it shot very much better, as the bullet was 

 better proportioned. And, while the powder charge 

 remained the same, the bullet was reduced in 

 weight from 680 to 535 grains ; by this means the 

 initial velocity was greatly increased and the 

 height of trajectory diminished at all ranges. The 

 lubrication of the bullet was the same as in the 

 Minie. There were two descriptions of this rifle, 

 the long and the short ; the long was issued to the 

 regiments of the line, and the short to rifle and 

 light infantry regiments. A carbine was also con- 

 structed on the same principle for issue to the 

 cavalry and Royal Artillery. The issue of this 

 rifle and ammunition to the native troops in India 

 was the occasion of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, it 

 being believed that the grease round the bullets 

 was cows' and pigs' fat purposely supplied to defile 

 Hindus and Mohammedans alike. 



But while the armies of Europe, with the excep- 

 tion of the Prussian, were all armed with a muzzle- 

 loading rifle more or less on the principle of the 

 Minio, experiments were being continually carried 

 on with the view of obtaining a good breech-loader. 

 It was not, however, till the Danish war of 1864 

 that the very vast superiority of the breech- over the 

 muzzle-loader was brought prominently home to 

 the authorities. The need was urgent, but in 

 order to give time to discover a really satisfactory 

 breech-loading rifle it was determined in the first 

 instance to convert the Enfield into a breech- 

 loader by attaching the Snider breech-action to 

 the Enfield barrel. The old arms were readily 

 converted, and a large number of new arms were 

 made on this principle, so that by the time of the 

 Franco- Prussian war the whole English army was 

 armed with the Snider breech-loader, and during 

 the winter of 1871-72 the militia and volunteers 

 also received these arms ; but it was perfectly well 

 understood that the introduction of the Snider 

 breech-loader wns only intended to fill the gap 

 until a more perfect and more efficient weapon 

 could be devised ; and after a most exhaustive 

 cries of trials, which had been conducted for some 



time by a special committee appointed for the 

 purpose, the Martini-Henry rifle was in the year 

 1871 recommended for adaption in the English 

 army. 



The manufacture commenced shortly afterwards, 

 and the first issue of rifles of this pattern to the 

 troops was made in 1874. The Martini breech- 

 action has already been described under the head 

 of Breech-loading (q.v. ). The barrel was the in- 

 vention of Mr Alexander Henry, a gunmaker of 

 Edinburgh. The calibre is -45 , and the form of 

 the rifling is peculiar. Fig. 1 represents an end 

 section of a barrel rifled on this system. There 



Fig. 1. Section of Henry Barrel, actual size (a) and 

 enlarged (6). 



are seven grooves, having a complete turn in 22 

 inches, cut in the barrel, forming seven plain 

 surfaces at AA. These are tangential to the peri- 

 phery of the projectile which is represented by the 

 dotted circle C. In addition to the bearing surfaces 

 thus obtained there are seven angular projections, 

 BB, extending inwards from the ends of the grooves 

 on plain A. Thus in its passage down the bore 

 the millet has fourteen bearing surfaces at AA...BB, 

 and it expands into the spaces left between A and 

 B, and thus obtains its rotatory motion. Whilst 

 these transformations were going on in England 

 the French had adopted the Chassepdt rifle in 

 1869, superseded in 1874 by the Gras; the Ger- 

 mans in 1871 discarded the needle-gun and adopted 

 the Mauser (see BREECH-LOADING) ; the Austrian* 

 after their war with Prussia in 1866 adopted in 

 1868 the Werndl rifle; the Italians adopted the 

 Vetterli in 1871 ; the Russians adopted the Berdan 

 rifle, Mark I., in 1867, superseded in 1871 by Mark 

 II. of the same rifle ; the Americans adopted the 

 Springfield, whilst the minor states adopted breech- 

 loaders of various designs and patterns. It ia 

 unnecessary in this article to give a full descrip- 

 tion of all these rifles, most of them having the 

 bolt breech-action, a drawing of which may be seen 

 under the head of Breech-loading (q.v.), and the 

 tables at the end of the article give all essential 

 particulars in connection with the more important 

 arms. 



At the time of its introduction the Martini- 

 Henry rifle was probably the finest military rifle 

 in Europe ; it is extremely accurate either at long 

 or short ranges ; its bullet has great penetrative 

 power. The rifle is simple and does not easily get 

 out of order. But, while the Martini-Henry rille 

 was more accurate at all ranges and had a higher 

 terminal velocity and lower trajectories at long 

 ranges than the rifles of the continental armies, 

 these rifles had a higher muzzle velocity and lower 

 trajectory up to ranges of 500 yards. This was 

 due to two causes : first, because the proportion of 

 powder to bullet was greater in the foreign than in 

 the English cartridge ; and secondly, because the 



value of was also greater this being the 



