Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/346

 330 RIFLE FIG. 6. Breech of Carabine a tige (1846). The carabine d tige was still used, but the rifling was made more abrupt, having a twist of 6 ft. instead of 20 ft., an increase necessary on account of the greater weight of the new pro- jectile, and the greater range attained. The rod at the breech (tige) was left out. Ranges of more than 1,300 yards were ob- tained, and accu- rate shooting was done at ranges of 900 yards. Grooves had been made in the rear part of the bullet to hold the lubri- cant. In order to simplify the shape of the ball these grooves were afterward left off ; but the shooting was materially diminished in ac- curacy by the omission, and the experiment showed that such greoves made the very re- sistance which was necessary to keep the axis of the long projectile coincident with the tan- gent of the trajectory through its flight ; or in other words, they kept the bullet from turning end over end. About 1849 Capt. Minie in- vented a bullet which had in its rear a recess of a truncated conical form lined with a tin cup something like a small thimble. This re- cess made the sides of the bullet thin, so that the effect of firing the charge was to press the tin cup into the bullet, forcing the lead into the grooves of the ri- fling. This invention caused the abandon- ment of the rod in the carabine d tige, and gave an impetus to the introduction of rifles into all Euro- pean armies, so that by 1855 the infantry tin-arm in those ar- mies was the rifle ; the old smooth-bore mus- kets were rifled, and used the Minie" bullet, be- coming rifles in all respects, and retaining the ease of loading of the smooth-bore. The Uni- ted States had for 30 years before that time kept a small supply of military rifles, manufac- tured at the Harper's Ferry armory. Their calibre was '54 in., and their weight about 9f Ibs. The rifling was in three grooves, each '36 in. broad, with a constant twist, making one turn in 10 ft. The depth of the grooves was '005 in. at the muzzle and '008 in. at the breech. The ball, which was spherical and patched, weighed i oz. or 220 grs., and the powder charge weighed 75 grs. These rifles were used in some fron- tier campaigns, and by a few regiments in the Mexican war. They were altered about 1855 by increasing the calibre to -58 in., and by ma- king the grooves -3 in. broad, -005 in. deep at the muzzle, and -013 in. deep at the breech. In 1855 the United States adopted a new model rifle musket, which has been known since as the Springfield rifle. The calibre was -58 in., and the weight with bayonet about 10 Ibs. FIG. 7. Mini.-'s Bullet Of 1-1'.'. The rifling was in three grooves, each -3 in. wide, '005 in. deep at the muzzle, and -015 in. deep at the breech. The twist was uniform, making one turn in 6 ft. The bullet was cylin- dro-conical with expanding base, and weighed 500 grs. The powder charge weighed 60 grs. From this date the rifle became the infantry arm of the United States, although the sudden- ness of the outbreak of the civil war of 1861-'6 made it necessary to bring into use all the small arms then belonging to the -United States, smooth-bores as well as rifles. All attempts to improve muzzle-loading small arms may be con- sidered to have ceased after 1861, the fact that breech-loaders were soon to supersede them as infantry arms having become apparent to all military authorities. In 1814 Pauly's inven- tion was examined by a commission of which Brillat-Savarin was president, and an exhaus- tive series of experiments was made. The commission reported that troops armed with these guns would have a very great advantage over an enemy armed with muzzle-loaders, be- cause the Pauly guns could be loaded and fired without slackening the march ; that they could be fired more rapidly than muzzle-loaders, would carry further, and required less powder; that rain or dampness would not affect the fire ; that they never hung fire ; that the charge was easily withdrawn ; that a ramrod was not re- quired ; and that, other things being equal, the range was greater than that of a muzzle-loader. Add to these the further advantage that they could be loaded while the soldier was lying down, and we have all the merits claimed for the breech-loaders of the present day. But Europe was at that time exhausted with the wars of Napoleon, and little attention was given to the invention. About 1811 a breech- loading rifle was invented in the United States by John H. Hall, and after trial at the Wash- ington arsenal and at Fortress Monroe in 1818-'19, a large number were ordered to be made at the Harper's Ferry armory. They were manufactured there under the direction of the inventor, who first introduced the sys- tem of making the parts of the arm inter- changeable, and was the first or among the first to use the drop-hammer for stamping out the parts by one or two blows. Carbines were made after the same invention, which were used by the mounted troops of the United States until about the time of the Mexican war. Al- though these rifles were very strong shoot- ers, there were some elements of danger about them, and they never were favorites with the troops. This is the first instance of the suc- cessful introduction of a breech-loader into a military service. The Hall rifle was made to use both the flint and the percussion locks. Taking an ordinary muzzle-loader, and cutting the barrel in two about 6 in. or less in front of the breech, and arranging the rear piece on a hinge or trunnions so that it may be raised high enough to expose the bore, we have near- ly the Hall rifle. This movable piece could be