Dreyse needle gun

The name "ignition needle rifle" (German: Zündnadelgewehr) was based on its firing pin, since it passed like a needle through the paper cartridge to strike a percussion cap at the base of the bullet. However, to conceal the revolutionary nature of the design, the rifle entered military service in 1841 as the leichtes Perkussionsgewehr Modell 1841 (transl. Light Percussion Rifle Model 1841). It had a rate of fire of about six rounds per minute.

Early versions of the needle gun made by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse were muzzle-loading. They used a long, needle-shaped firing pin powered by a coiled spring. When the trigger was pulled, the needle pierced the cartridge and struck a percussion cap on the base of the sabot, igniting the charge. Dreyse later combined this ignition system with a bolt-action breech-loading design. This allowed the rifle to be loaded from the rear rather than the muzzle, significantly increasing its rate of fire and making it more practical for military use.

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 units had been produced by 1848.

The needle gun 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, however, the Sömmerda factory could not meet demand and produced only 30,000 rifles a year. Most of the Prussian infantry in the 1850s were still equipped with the obsolete 1839 Model Potsdam musket, a smoothbore weapon whose range and accuracy was far inferior to the French Minié and 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 1849–1851. In the British trials, the Dreyse was shown to be capable of six rounds per minute, and to maintain accuracy at 800–1,200 yards (730–1,100 m). The trials suggested that the Dreyse was "too complicated and delicate" for service use. The royal armed forces developed their own Enfield prototype of the early bolt-action rifle. 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.

Between 1859 and 1863, the Prussian army received a 25% increase in funding and was reformed by Wilhelm I, Albrecht von Roon and Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. The Dreyse needle gun played an important role in the Austro-Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, though the Prussian line infantry — then largely inexperienced with the Dreyse — often wasted ammunition during the initial phases of the battle, forcing officers to quickly rush in fresh reserves to replace soldiers that emptied their ammunition pouches and leading to criticism from General Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, who considered Moltke's new fire tactics as "uncontrollable" and "dishonorable", while the Austrian General Adolf Schönfeld wrote in early 1866 that during the war in Denmark he "repeatedly overheard Prussian officers worrying about the inability of their men to conserve ammunition for the second, decisive phase of the battle". In the early 1860s, the introduction of cast steel barrels made industrial mass production of the weapon possible. The new 1862 model and the enhanced M/55 ammunition further accelerated the weapon's widespread adoption. 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. By the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Prussian Army infantry had 270,000 Dreyse needle guns. While the Dreyse had the advantage of superior rate of fire over the muzzleloading Lorenz — which could fire 1–2 rounds per minute — the Austrians use of inadequate tactics also contributed to their defeat, heavily relying on bayonet charges that effectively negated the superior range and accuracy of the Lorenz, resulting in heavy casualties. According to military historian Geoffrey Wawro, the French Emperor Napoleon III refrained from intervening into the war after the Battle of Königgrätz since his army at the time was also armed with muzzleloaders and used the same shock tactics as the Austrians; consequently the French rushed to adopt new tactics and a breeechloader of their own, the Chassepot.

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. In 1867, 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. Nikolaus's son, Franz, tried to modernize the Dreyse needle gun by designing a system that allowed for automatic cocking when the bolt was opened. This was patented in 1874 with the rifles entering production in 1875. The only government adoption of the 1874 rifle was with the Baden border guards, though commercial rifles were produced until around 1900.

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 (0.61 in) 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 (74 grains) 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 wasted, as it is forced down and out of the barrel and burns 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.

British trials in 1849–1851 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. Its effective range was less than that of the Chassepot, against which it was fielded during the Franco-Prussian War. This was mainly because a sizable amount of gas escaped at the breech when the rifle was fired with a paper cartridge. An improved model, giving greater muzzle velocity and increased speed in loading, was introduced later, but it was replaced shortly thereafter by the Mauser Model 1871 rifle. 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 easily replaced in under 30 seconds, even in the field. 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. The Chassepot also had this, but it was more likely to jam after fewer shots because its chamber had a smaller diameter. A soldier trained before the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 had to finish field cleaning in less than 10 minutes.