Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1259: 1164: The Arrival of Minié Bullets

Chapter 1259: Chapter 1164: The Arrival of Minié Bullets

And able to penetrate a 4-centimeter-thick wooden board from 25 meters away, indicates the revolver’s excellent airtightness; otherwise, it couldn’t have such power.

It’s important to know that a normal single-shot pistol has just about this level of power.

Applause immediately broke out on the shooting range, and people around expressed their admiration, “This is truly an unprecedented great invention!”

“The hands of His Majesty the King have truly been blessed by Jesus.”

“The firing rate of this gun is simply astonishing!”

“Only His Majesty the King could create such a magical weapon…”

Louis XVI quietly corrected, “This gun was made by me and the Crown Prince together.”

Joseph smiled and said, “Primarily your credit. Hmm, what do you plan to name it, how about ‘Auguste Model 1797 Pistol’?”

“No, I already have the naming rights for two new guns, and they were actually your initial ideas.” Louis XVI seemed to have thought it through already and immediately said, “I have decided to name this gun the ‘Joseph Model 1797 Pistol.’

Joseph didn’t get polite with the old man either and nodded with a smile, “It is my honor, dear father.”

Seeing Emmerich beside him reload the bullets, Louis XVI excitedly came to the breastwork himself, pulled back the bolt, and aimed forward.

He fired six shots in a row, then held the pistol in front of his eyes to examine it carefully. There was no deformation, making the craftsmanship very reliable.

Soon, the shooting range was filled with a continuous “bang bang” sound of gunfire.

It was only after Joseph reluctantly let his old man have enough fun that he took the pistol and was about to reload, when he saw two court guards hurriedly running over, followed by a lavishly dressed maid.

Seeing both the King and the Crown Prince there, the two guards quickly bowed and saluted, “Your Majesty, Queen Mary sent me to see if anything happened here. Please forgive us, but the Palace of Versailles heard the dense gunfire.”

The shooting range, located south of the Palace of Versailles, is an annex of the Royal Armory. It was already far enough from the Palace of Versailles, but in the silent night, the sound of gunfire still carried over.

The Guard Captain told Queen Mary, based on the density of gunfire, that there should be 10 to 12 shooters.

Yes, judging by the rate of fire of a flintlock gun, his judgment was indeed correct.

Joseph briefly explained the situation to them and asked them to go back to tell the Queen that everything was fine, they were just testing the gun.

Then, Louis XVI also hurried to have the revolver put away and dragged his son back to the Palace of Versailles. If they didn’t return soon, the Queen would probably nag him the whole day.

The next morning, Joseph got up with two big dark circles under his eyes—last night they were fooling around at the shooting range until one-thirty, luckily his mom sent someone to rescue him.

Joseph, looking dispirited, ate breakfast and went straight to the Royal Engineering Design Institute to start planning matters regarding breech-loading cannons.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the Engineering Design Institute, he first let Eman go in to confirm that the old man was not there, and then continued walking inside.

It’s best not to let the old man know about the breech-loading cannons for now, given his addiction to new weapons, it’s really unbearable.

After listening to the Crown Prince’s requests, the head of the Engineering Design Institute, Lazarus Cano, quickly recommended several very capable experts to him, primarily in casting and mechanical design.

Finally, the Institute Director somewhat hesitantly pointed to himself, “Your Highness, actually, I have some experience in artillery design as well.”

Joseph knew that Cano was a famous mathematician and engineer, with considerable achievements in mathematical analysis and analytic geometry, making him very suitable to preside over the design of breech-loading cannons.

So, starting that afternoon, Joseph began discussing the design plan for breech-loading cannons with Cano and five experts from the Engineering Design Institute, as well as three senior technicians from the Royal Armory.

Indeed, as Joseph expected, the difficulty of cannon manufacturing far exceeded that of firearms; for example, there was currently no ready-made casting solution for a barrel open at both ends.

As for the structurally complex breechblock and firing mechanism, a great deal of design and testing work is required.

Until nightfall, Joseph returned tiredly to the Palace of Versailles, and the personnel division of the breech-loading cannon project team was still incomplete.

It seems that the new cannons are difficult to achieve results in a short period of time. He pondered other relatively simpler new weapons while blowing in the cool night breeze.

A breech-loading rifle?

This thing seems simple, but its research and development difficulty is actually greater than that of a breech-loading cannon.

A cannon can use a complex breechblock and bolt model to seal, while a rifle can only rely on a simple bolt, which needs to achieve very high airtightness.

This is difficult to achieve with the current machining precision. Historically, the Americans developed a breech-loading gun around 1820, which was humorously nicknamed the “hand-burning gun” by soldiers due to severe leakage.

At the same time, breech-loading guns are also heavily dependent on fixed ammunition, which consists of a bullet, propellant, and percussion cap.

This is more troublesome to develop than the gun itself.

Forget about copper shells; producing them requires precision stamping machines.

Even paper cartridges have a fairly high degree of craftsmanship, and a slight deviation in size can fail to achieve the sealing effect and might even be impossible to fire.

Skilled craftsmen can indeed make them by hand, but the output can barely meet front-line demand—a large-scale battle consumes hundreds of thousands of rounds a day, taking thousands of craftsmen over a month to produce.

Thus, historically, until the mid-nineteenth century, European countries preferred using muzzle-loading Minie ball rifles over equipping already-developed breech-loading guns, until the appearance of stamping machines.

Thinking of the Minie ball, Joseph suddenly realized, how could he forget this magical thing?

Compared to the currently equipped Tuvenan rifled gun, using the Minie ball can speed up the loading process and eliminate the long iron spike in the chamber, making it more reliable and durable.

The most important part is that the current Tuvenan rifle only needs slight modification to fire the Minie ball, and the army would scarcely feel the impact of the changeover.

The reason it wasn’t used before was because manufacturing the Minie ball was difficult, with accuracy that’s hard to ensure through handcrafting, and production couldn’t be guaranteed.

But now with fine machining equipment, the obstacles to the industrial mass production of Minie balls have all vanished.

Joseph recalled a documentary about firearms he had previously watched; Minie ball production utilized a “mold extrusion method” technique.

Essentially, a fine steel mold is made first—this can be manufactured with a high-precision milling machine—which has dozens to hundreds of small pits shaped like Minie balls on it.

During production, molten lead is poured onto it, and then compressed with a machine to squeeze out the excess lead—the forging machine his father created fits perfectly for this job. Even though its power is still very small, it’s sufficient for pressing lead bullets.

Finally, it undergoes demolding and grinding with a milling machine.

Tens of thousands of rounds can be produced in one day.