Dreyse needle gun
The Dreyse needle-gun was a military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the main infantry weapon of the Prussians, who accepted it for service in 1841 as the "leichtes Perkussionsgewehr Model 1841", with the name chosen to hide the revolutionary nature of the new weapon. The name "Zündnadelgewehr"/"needle-gun" comes from its needle-like firing pin, which passed through the paper cartridge case to strike a percussion cap at the bullet base. The Dreyse rifle was also the first breech-loading rifle to use the bolt action to open and close the chamber, executed by turning and pulling a bolt handle. It has a rate of fire of about 6 rounds per minute.
The rifle was the invention of the gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse who, beginning in 1824, had conducted multiple experiments and in 1836 produced the complete needle-gun. Dreyse was ennobled in 1864.
Usage and history
The first types of needle-gun made by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse were muzzle-loading, with the novelty of the weapon lying in the long needle driven by a coiled conchoidal spring which fired the internal percussion cap on the base of the sabot. It was his adoption of the bolt-action breechloading principle combined with this igniter system which gave the rifle its military potential, allowing, as it did, a much faster rate of fire.After successful testing in 1840, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered 60,000 of the new rifles. Dreyse set up the Dreyse-Zündnadel factory in Sömmerda with the help of state loans to ramp up production. It was accepted for service in 1841 as the leichtes Perkussionsgewehr Model 1841, but only 45,000 had been produced by 1848. It was used in combat for the first time during the German revolutions of 1848–49 and proved its combat superiority in street fighting during the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. Many German states subsequently adopted the weapon. The Sömmerda factory could not meet demand and produced only 30,000 rifles a year. Most of the Prussian infantry in the 1850s was still equipped with the obsolete 1839 Model caplock Potsdam musket, whose ballistic performance was clearly inferior to the French Minié rifle and the Austrian Lorenz rifle. The Prussian Army's low level of funding resulted in just 90 battalions being equipped with the weapon in 1855. Dreyse consented to state manufacture of the rifle to increase production. The Royal Prussian Rifle Factory at the Spandau Arsenal began production in 1853, followed by Danzig, Saarn and Erfurt. At first, the Spandau factory produced 12,000 Dreyse needle guns a year, rising to 48,000 in 1867.
The British Army evaluated the Dreyse needle gun in 1849–51. In the British trials, the Dreyse was shown to be capable of six rounds per minute, and to maintain accuracy to. The trials suggested that the Dreyse was "too complicated and delicate" for service use. The French carabine à tige muzzle-loading rifle was judged to be a better weapon, and an improved version was adopted as the Pattern 1851 Minié-type muzzle-loading rifle.
After the Prussian army received a 25% increase in funding and was reformed by Wilhelm I, Albrecht von Roon and Helmuth von Moltke the Elder from 1859 to 1863, the Dreyse needle gun played an important role in the Austro-Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864. The introduction of cast steel barrels made industrial mass production of the weapon a reality in the early 1860s. The new 1862 model and the enhanced M/55 ammunition type expedited the use and widespread adoption of the weapon in the 1860s. The success of German private industry in delivering the necessary amount of armaments for the army marked the definite end of government-owned army workshops. The Prussian Army infantry was fully equipped with and could boast of 270,000 Dreyse needle guns by the outbreak of the decisive Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The employment of the needle-gun radically changed military tactics in the 19th century, as a Prussian soldier could fire five shots, even while lying on the ground, in the time that it took his Austrian muzzle-loading counterpart to reload while standing. Production was ramped up after the war against Austria and when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, the Prussian Army had 1,150,000 needle guns in its inventory. The success of the design spurred subsequent developments in firearms technology and, before the start of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French introduced the Chassepot rifle. The Prussians won the war but the Chassepot proved superior to the needle-gun in every way.
In 1877, Romania purchased 20,000 rifles and 11,000 carbines from the Prussian government. These were used to great effect in the Romanian War of Independence.
Sometime in the late 1860s, Japan acquired an unknown number of Model 1862 rifles and bayonets. These were marked with the imperial chrysanthemum stamp. China also acquired Dreyse rifles for the modernisation of their armed forces.
Ammunition and mechanism
The cartridge used with this rifle consisted of the paper case, the bullet, the percussion cap and the black powder charge. The 15.4 mm bullet was shaped like an acorn, with the broader end forming a point, and the primer attached to its base. The bullet was held in a paper case known as a sabot, which separated from the bullet as it exited the muzzle. Between this inner lining and the outer case was the powder charge, consisting of 4.8 g of black powder.The upper end of the paper case is rolled up and tied. Upon release of the trigger, the point of the needle pierces the rear of the cartridge, passes through the powder and hits the primer fixed to the base of the sabot. Thus the burn-front in the black powder charge passes from the front to the rear. This front-to-rear burn pattern minimizes the effect seen in rear-igniting cartridges where a portion of the powder at the front of the charge is forced down and out of the barrel to burn wastefully in the air as muzzle flash. It also ensures that the whole charge burns under the highest possible pressure, theoretically minimising unburnt residues. Consequently, a smaller charge can be used to obtain the same velocity as a rear-ignited charge of the same bullet calibre and weight. It also increases the handling security of the cartridge, since it is virtually impossible to set the primer off accidentally.
There was also a blank cartridge developed for the needle-gun. It was shorter and lighter than the live round, since it lacked the projectile, but was otherwise similar in construction and powder load.
Limitations
British trials in 1849–51 showed that:- The spring that drove the needle was delicate.
- When the needle was dirty, the rifle tended to misfire. Colonel Hawker considered that a new needle was required every 12 shots.
- When the gun was heated and foul, operating the bolt required much strength.
- The barrel tended to wear at the junction with the cylinder.
- The escape of gas at the breech got worse as firing continued.
The placement of the primer directly behind the bullet meant the firing needle was enclosed in black powder when the gun was fired, causing stress to the pin, which could break over time and render the rifle useless until it could be replaced. Soldiers were provided with two replacement needles for that purpose. The needle could be replaced quite easily, even in the field, in under 30 seconds. Because the rifle used black powder, residue accumulated at the back of the barrel, making cleaning necessary after about 60–80 shots. This was not a large problem because the individual soldier carried fewer cartridges than that and Dreyse created an "air chamber" by having a protruding needle tube. A soldier trained well before the war of 1866 had to finish field cleaning in less than 10 minutes.
Comparison with contemporary rifles
| Rifle | Dreyse | Kammerlader M1849/55 | Pattern 1851 Minié rifle | Fusil modèle 1866 Chassepot rifle |
| Effective range | ||||
| Sighted to | ||||
| Rate of fire | 6 rounds/minute | 6 to 8 rounds/minute | 2 rounds/minute | 5 rounds/minute 6 to 7 rounds/minute |
| Calibre | ||||
| Muzzle velocity | ||||
| Barrel length | ||||
| Total length | ||||
| Loaded weight |
Appearances in popular media
The Prussian Needle gun appears in Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires III in the hands of "Needle Gunners", who act as German skirmisher units.Prominent Austrians frequently betray a subtle and often humorous obsession with the Prussian needle gun in Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.