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Rifling
- Thread starter vanstg
- Start date
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Good question:
I found this...
Rifling as we know it was invented between 1450 and 1500. Rifles were in use in Germany and Italy as early as 1520, but for sporting purposes only. They were expensive - too good for 'common soldiers' - so were not issued to troops until over 150 years later, and then only in small numbers to specialised units. Experiments on the rifling of ordnance prior to the 19th century failed to produce an effective system. In his book New Principles of Gunnery (1742), Benjamin Robins (1707-51) emphasised the advantages to be gained by the nation which developed rifled ordnance. He himself carried out experiments but his findings failed to impress.
In 1789 Joseph Manton (1760-1835), a maker of sporting guns, began to experiment with the rifling of ordnance, and invented a machine for that purpose. The following year the Master General of the Ordnance authorised the issue to him of a SBML 6-pr for preliminary testing. During the course of his experiments he rifled several guns with varying degrees of twist and depth of groove, firing many rounds in shot-for-shot comparison with service smooth-bores. He also invented a wooden cup or 'bottom' for attaching to roundshot, designed to expand when the gun fired, take up windage, and engage the rifling.
The full story can be read here...
http://riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/gun/rifled1.htm
I found this...
Rifling as we know it was invented between 1450 and 1500. Rifles were in use in Germany and Italy as early as 1520, but for sporting purposes only. They were expensive - too good for 'common soldiers' - so were not issued to troops until over 150 years later, and then only in small numbers to specialised units. Experiments on the rifling of ordnance prior to the 19th century failed to produce an effective system. In his book New Principles of Gunnery (1742), Benjamin Robins (1707-51) emphasised the advantages to be gained by the nation which developed rifled ordnance. He himself carried out experiments but his findings failed to impress.
In 1789 Joseph Manton (1760-1835), a maker of sporting guns, began to experiment with the rifling of ordnance, and invented a machine for that purpose. The following year the Master General of the Ordnance authorised the issue to him of a SBML 6-pr for preliminary testing. During the course of his experiments he rifled several guns with varying degrees of twist and depth of groove, firing many rounds in shot-for-shot comparison with service smooth-bores. He also invented a wooden cup or 'bottom' for attaching to roundshot, designed to expand when the gun fired, take up windage, and engage the rifling.
The full story can be read here...
http://riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/gun/rifled1.htm
I don't think anyone will ever know who or when.
From what I've read, it was originally cut to provide a place for the fouling to go while loading the next shot.
Spiral rifling was also tried and appearenty someone noticed it made the gun shoot straighter.
Of interest:
"From the beginning, round balls were used with the rifle, for practical and religious reasons, as the ball was easy to load, and the sphere was associated with the heavenly bodies, and helped to dispel the demonic connotations which became associated with the rifle.
The first explanation of rifling in 1522, by a Bavarian necromancer, was reassuring. The accuracy of the rifle was said to be caused by the fact that no demon could stay astride the spinning bullet, as shown by the sinless rotating heavenly spheres, as compared with the sinful stationary earth.
To settle the matter finally by experiment, the Archbishop of Mainz in 1547, had two members of the shooting club fire at a target 200 paces range. One shooter used lead balls, the other silver balls, deeply marked with the sigh of the cross and blessed by the Clergy. At the conclusion of twenty shots by each man, it was found that the lead balls had given 19 hits, and the silver ones, none!
This lead to the natural conclusion that the demons were actually guiding the spinning bullets.
The manufacture of rifles was henceforth forbidden, and all existing ones confiscated. Non-observance of the Edict was punished by burning at the stake....Der Hexenhammer (The Hammer of Witches, 1487 (?) described the means by which the Devil could be induced to aid markmanship."
Pictorial History of the RIFLE by G.W.P.Swenson pp8-9
From what I've read, it was originally cut to provide a place for the fouling to go while loading the next shot.
Spiral rifling was also tried and appearenty someone noticed it made the gun shoot straighter.
Of interest:
"From the beginning, round balls were used with the rifle, for practical and religious reasons, as the ball was easy to load, and the sphere was associated with the heavenly bodies, and helped to dispel the demonic connotations which became associated with the rifle.
The first explanation of rifling in 1522, by a Bavarian necromancer, was reassuring. The accuracy of the rifle was said to be caused by the fact that no demon could stay astride the spinning bullet, as shown by the sinless rotating heavenly spheres, as compared with the sinful stationary earth.
To settle the matter finally by experiment, the Archbishop of Mainz in 1547, had two members of the shooting club fire at a target 200 paces range. One shooter used lead balls, the other silver balls, deeply marked with the sigh of the cross and blessed by the Clergy. At the conclusion of twenty shots by each man, it was found that the lead balls had given 19 hits, and the silver ones, none!
This lead to the natural conclusion that the demons were actually guiding the spinning bullets.
The manufacture of rifles was henceforth forbidden, and all existing ones confiscated. Non-observance of the Edict was punished by burning at the stake....Der Hexenhammer (The Hammer of Witches, 1487 (?) described the means by which the Devil could be induced to aid markmanship."
Pictorial History of the RIFLE by G.W.P.Swenson pp8-9
