Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/350

 334 RIFLE RIGA envelope cartridges, for another with calibre it available for use with the metallic cartridge. 433 in., using a metallic-shell cartridge ; and France has commenced the introduction of an altered form of the Chassepot which will make It may be said therefore that all civilized na- tions are now using breech-loading, metallic- cartridge arms. TABLE SHOWING THE VARIETIES OF BREECH-LOADING RIFLES USED IN THE MILITARY SERVICES OF THE NATIONS NAMED. NAME OF NATION. NAME OF UIKI.E. DESCRIPTION OF BREECH ACTION. Shoti per tnin- Weight of car- tridge, Weight of rifle without bayonet, Ibt. Range, vtrdi. Calibre, InchM. REMARKS. Great Britain, and 1 Turkey ) Martini-Henry WerndJ j Block opens breech by fall- ( ing at forward end 12 9 11 >r 19 8 19 5 T 8 10 19 10 689 602 648 625 627 642 602 626 669 698 600 611 585 9-82 8-98 9-71 9-81 9-69 10-21 8-9 11-47 10-54 9-06 9-5 9-18 9-25 1,200 1,000? 900 i,2<J6 600 1,200 600 900 1,000 1,000 1,000 800 45 40 488
 * 488

60 60 42 488 46 50 Sweden and Den- mark have the Remington rifle in their services experimentally. Changed to metallic cartridge. Changed to metallic cartridge, calibre 488 Inch. Block opens breech by turn- ing around axis of bore. . Falling breech block Werder Alblni Breech block opens upward and forward Holland Beaumont Carcano Sygttme d brocfie Transformed arm, needle system Italy France

Chassepot Dreyse Needle system Needle system Prussia Russia Karl Transformed arm, needle system Gorloff. Block lifting upward end forward Egypt and Spain United States army I and militia f Remington Springfield Remington Block falling down and backward {Block moving upward and forward United States nary. . The extreme accurate range of military breech- loading rifles now in use by nearly all nations is about 1,000 yards. An expert shot will strike a man at this distance three times out of four. It is claimed for the Russian rifle de- scribed above, that an expert will place every bullet within a space 3 ft. high by 1$ ft. broad at 1,000 yards distance. The range of maga- zine or repeating rifles does not in general ex- ceed 500 yards. In order to place a large num- ber of charges in the magazine, the charge is kept small, in some degree sacrificing range to rapidity of fire. The range of rifled pistols is about 100 yards. Thirty years ago the range of the musket, which was the infantry arm in use in all armies, was 200 yards, and the tactics of the three arms, infantry, cavalry, and artil- lery, dimensions of forts, &c., were all deter- mined upon that basis. It is evident that the great increase of range due to the present style of breech-loading weapons must materially in- crease the distances at which the fire of hostile bodies of infantry becomes deadly, and must therefore involve a radical change in tactics. This change is now a subject of discussion among the most accomplished soldiers, but has not yet been determined. See Robins, " New Principles of Gunnery " (London, 1742) ; Thi- roux, Instruction theorique et pratique cCartil- lerie (Paris, 1842); Roret, Manuel de Varmu- rier (1852) ; Chesney, " Observations on Fire- arms" (London, 1852); Wilcox, "Rifles and Rifle Practice" (New York, 1859); L'Haridou, Catalogue du musee d'artillerie (Paris, 1864); Greener, "Modern Breech-loaders" (London, 1870) ; Fave, Etudes sur le paste et Tavenir de Vartilleric (Paris, 1871); Mattenheimer, Die Ruckladungsgewehre (Darmstadt and Leipsic, 1872); andWingate, "Manual for Rifle Prac- tice " (New York, 1875). (For rifled cannon, see ABTILLKKY, and CANNON.) RIGA, a city of Russia, capital of Livonia, on the right bank of the I >una, about 8 in. from the gulf of Riga, and 300 m. S. W. of St. Peters- burg ; pop. in 1867, 102,048, of whom 47,000 were Germans, 25,000 Russians, and the rest chiefly Letts. It is the seat of the authorities of the Baltic provinces, and next to St. Peters- burg and Odessa the greatest commercial em- porium of Russia. The walls of the city were in 1857 converted into promenades; the cita- del was razed in 1867, and no fortifications remain excepting Fort Dunamunde for the protection of the harbor. There are three suburbs: the Moscow suburb, inhabited chief- ly by Russians; the St. Petersburg, by Ger- mans ; and the Mitau suburb. St. Peter's, the principal of the nine Lutheran churches, has a tower 470 ft. high, and there are four Greek and several other churches and a syna- gogue. There are two gymnasiums, a new polytechnic institute and school of navigation, and various other schools, and a conservatory of music was established in 1875. One of the finest public buildings is the exchange. The arrivals of vessels in 1873 were 3,177, and the departures 3,181. The imports amounted to 19,611,660 rubles, including coal, salt, iron, and miscellaneous articles ; the exports to 20,- 153,453 rubles, consisting chiefly of flax, hemp, timber, grain, and tobacco. The registered shipping is about 100 vessels, about one fourth