Chapter 624: Chapter 533: The Rifleman’s Divine Artifact
In the luxurious Royal Workshop of the Palace of Versailles.
Louis XVI took down a rifle resembling the Charleville 1776 from the wooden rack on the wall and handed it to his son, feeling rather emotional, he said,
“You see, the manufacturing difficulty is really very high, it’s almost as if a dozen clocks were installed inside the barrel. This thing has taken me nearly a year. But I bet that in all of Europe, no more than three people could produce it so quickly!”
Joseph thought to himself, if it weren’t for that birdcage hairpiece birthday gift you made for mother, it could have been completed by early October…
He carefully took the gun, first squinted into the barrel, and saw four helical grooves neatly arranged on the inner walls of the barrel.
His father’s craftsmanship was indeed as exquisite as ever. It’s known that at the end of the 18th century, these rifling grooves were handmade with a long hook-shaped cutter, fixed on a slightly tilted frame, and drawn out bit by bit.
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The manufacturing process relied entirely on touch, and if the spacing between two spirals was even slightly off, the whole barrel had to be discarded.
That’s why only veteran craftsmen with more than a decade of experience dare take on this work, which resulted in the cost of rifled guns being more than ten times that of a common flintlock, and with an exceedingly long production cycle.
But for the secrecy of the research process, Joseph could only entrust the production of the new gun to his father. And indeed, His Majesty did not fail his reputation as France’s foremost craftsman, starting as a novice, in less than a year he produced this brand-new rifled gun.
“You really have the most dexterous hands in France, my dear father, and the sharpest mind.”
Louis XVI immediately beamed with happiness, and then pointed at the new gun, looking expectantly at Joseph, “So, how does it greatly increase the rate of fire?”
“With that iron spike you’ve installed in its chamber.”
Joseph gave a mysterious smile, picked up the caliper beside him to measure the muzzle size, and said to the craftsman standing by the door, “Mr. Emmerich, please help me create a lead cylinder 17.8mm in diameter and 35mm in length, with a hemispherical head.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
Louis XVI looked somewhat surprised, “What do you need the lead cylinder for?”
“For bullets.” Joseph looked at the various firearms hanging on the wall and asked, “Father, do you have any rifled guns here?”
“Of course.” Louis XVI gestured to his side, “These are all my collections.
“The chief craftsman of the Charleville factory modified this rifled gun from the 1763 model.
“Look, that one over there is the Bavarian Augsburg 1720 model. It has eight grooves!
“And there’s the peculiar thing invented by the British, Ferguson. I paid a thousand British Pounds for it from a smuggler…”
“You could practically hold a weapons exhibit here.” Joseph said as he took down the German-style rifled gun. Stemming from the huge demand of wealthy hunters in Germany, it produced the best rifled guns in Europe at the time.
For example, this 1720 model, though the caliber was only 15mm, its range and precision could surpass the British and French .72, which is the 18mm flintlock.
Of course, the cost was frighteningly high, and it was difficult to maintain.
Joseph picked up a spherical lead bullet from the side pouch and gestured to his father,
“Besides production difficulties, the biggest flaw of rifled guns is the time and effort it takes to load.”
Louis XVI nodded.
For the bullet to spin under the effect of the rifling, its outer edge had to be embedded into the grooves. Therefore, it’s necessary to choose a bullet diameter slightly larger than the barrel caliber, then use a hammer and ramrod to pound the bullet into the barrel.
And since the powder chamber at the bottom of the barrel is smaller in diameter than the barrel, once the bullet touches the bottom, it can’t be driven further.
Joseph put down the 16mm bullet in his hand and picked up an ordinary smoothbore gun bullet:
“If sub-caliber bullets could be used, the rate of fire of the rifled guns could at least double.”
“Sub-caliber” here means bullets with a diameter smaller than the barrel caliber. Conversely, bullets with a larger diameter are called “over-caliber.”
Louis XVI shook his head, “But in that case, the bullet won’t be able to embed into the grooves and won’t spin.”
Joseph smiled faintly:
“We could think in a different way. For example, after the sub-caliber bullet is loaded into the barrel, make it enlarge somehow.”
“How could that be possible?” Louis XVI said it was impossible, yet his eyes were filled with anticipation—his son had shown him miracles time and again.
“The simplest way is like this.”
Joseph shoved the sub-caliber bullet into the muzzle of the Augsburg 1720, then hammered it several times with a hammer and ramrod used for over-caliber bullets, then looked at his father, “You see, now the bullet diameter is larger than the barrel.”
Louis XVI chuckled, “You’ve flattened the bullet, which will severely affect the range and accuracy.”
“Indeed.” Joseph nodded, “But you have to admit, the bullet will definitely spin when fired.”
He did not wait for his father to object and immediately added, “So, we could design the bullet as a cylindrical body, this way it won’t flatten when hammered.”
“But that still wouldn’t make the bullet embed into the grooves.”
“That’s when your iron spike comes into play.”
Upon hearing this, Louis XVI was momentarily stunned, then his eyes lit up.
“I get it! Under the force of the hammering, the iron spike at the bottom of the barrel will pierce into the bottom of the cylindrical bullet, enlarging its diameter there!
“During firing, the tail of the bullet will embed into the grooves, creating a spiral.”
“That’s right.” Joseph nodded vigorously, and winked at his father, “This is the Auguste 1790-style rifled gun we’ve developed together! It will change the status of the riflemen completely, affecting battlefields all over Europe!”
He almost blurted out the name of the weapon inadvertently. Historically, the Tulane rifle was a revolutionary weapon widely equipped by the French Army riflemen in the 19th century, and copied by countries like Prussia, Belgium, and Bavaria.
In fact, Joseph had originally intended to have his father develop the Minie ball directly, which was the pinnacle of muzzle-loading rifled guns, with more advantages than the Tulane rifle.
However, he only remembered the principle of the Minie ball; specific bullet structure, as well as the width and depth of the opening at the bottom—all these needed his father to design and repeatedly verify, while also adjusting the structure of the gun itself to match.
This would likely take a long time.
So, after weighing his options, he chose to develop the Tulane-style rifled gun, which was less challenging.
The bullet for this kind of gun is just a simple cylinder that even illiterate soldiers could produce in the field using a mold.
Moreover, existing rifled gun technology could be used, requiring only minor modifications for production—just adding a long iron spike in the chamber would be enough.
Of course, even a “minor modification” required a lot of trial production by his father to finalize the specifics of the process.