Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/345

 RIFLE 329 prevented its general adoption. In Germany, during the thirty years' war, organized com- panies of riflemen were used with advantage by William V., landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. In 1645 three regiments were organized in Ba- varia, and in 1674 the elector Frederick Wil- liam of Brandenburg had riflemen distribu- ted among his infantry regiments. In 1740 Frederick the Great organized a small body of light infantry of 60 men armed with rifles, which finally grew into a regiment. France also early made use of sharpshooters or rifle- men. In 1689 a French organization existed in which the men were armed with two pis- tols, a sword, and a rifle called escopette. But the rifle, on account of the difficulties in its manipulation, did not grow in favor, and at the commencement of the French revolution no rifle regiments or companies existed in France. The Swiss and Austrians paid much attention to their military rifle organizations during the last half of the 18th century, being forced into that direction by the passionate fondness for the arm which existed in the Swiss moun- tains and in Tyrol. During the war of the American revolution the Americans, who were obliged to bring every weapon into requisi- tion, made excellent use of their hunting rifles, and were really the first sharpshooters. The British, taught by their dearly bought expe- rience, adopted rifles as an important part of their armament in 1794. Rifled carbines are mentioned in Smith's " Military Dictionary " (1779) as arms " used by the hunters or light infantry." In the new organization the left flank company of each battalion of ten com- panies was composed of light infantry or rifle- men, and received special instruction, the right flank company being grenadiers. The French about the same time (1792), following the same example, introduced new model rifles into their infantry and cavalry armaments. Their accuracy for short ranges was superior to that of the musket ; but the shortness of the range, the slowness of loading, the necessity for a peculiar patched ball and for using a mallet, and the fact that no bayonets were used with them, soon caused their abandonment. The consequence was that under Napoleon I. rifles were little used in the French army. But although Napoleon had a low opinion of the rifle as it existed in his day, he had great faith in the improvement of the musket. He there- fore designated Col. Pauly at Paris to improve the musket, who in 1812 patented in France what has since been known as the Pauly gun. The cartridge in this gun contained its own means of ignition. In Pauly's shop Dreyse worked. Pauly's gun having been thrown aside on account of its alleged want of sim- plicity, Dreyse worked on in the direction of the bolt gun, and in 1836 made the first breech-loading needle gun. As Pauly's was the parent gun of all breech-loaders which close the breech with a swinging block, so Dreyse's needle gun is the parent of all breech- loaders which close the breech with a bolt. In 1826 Lieut. Delvigne of the French artil- lery invented a rifle with a chamber smaller than the bore. The chamber was connected with the bore by a spherical surface of the tea* FIG. 8. Pauly Breech-loader. 1. Vertical section. 2. Ele- vation. 8. Cartridge. same radius as that of the ball. The powder having been poured into the chamber from the muzzle, the ball was dropped into the bore, and rested on the top of the chamber. A few blows of the ramrod, with its head hollowed to fit the bullet, squeezed the lead into the rifling grooves without disturbing the powder, and when the piece was fired it was found that the range and accuracy were ma- terially increased, an effect due to the rifling. This idea of Delvigne's, viz., getting the ball to its place on top of the powder in the cham- ber without other force than its own weight, and then causing it to take the rifling by the action of ramming, was the mother idea of all improvements in muzzle-loading military rifles from that time onward, and in fact may be said to be the first step in modern im- provements of rifles. In 1842 France armed ten battalions of chasseurs with rifles made on Delvigne's principle, and at the same time instituted the school of firing for the purpose of educating sharpshooters. This school has been imitated by nearly all other nations. The cartridge for Delvigne's arm was special, and FIG. 4. Breech of Delvigne's Kifle (1842). therefore objectionable ; hence Col. Thouve- nin invented the carabine d tige, in which the bore is of the same diameter from the muz- zle to the breech. From the breech projects into the bore a steel rod about ^ in. in diame- ter, the axis of which is coincident with that of the bore, and its length such that the front end of the rod reaches to the top of the pow- der charge. The rifle was loaded precisely as was the old musket. The middle part of the ball rested on the front end of the rod, and a few blows of the ramrod squeezed the lead into the rifling. This rifle made a good target at 500 yards. The next step in the improvement of rifled small arms was the introduction of the elongated projectile of Capt. Mini6 about 1845.