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takeoff_speed:continuity_of_progress:effects_of_breech_loading_rifles_on_historic_trends_in_firearm_progress [2022/09/21 07:37] (current)
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| | ====== Effects of breech loading rifles on historic trends in firearm progress ====== |
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| | // Published 22 December, 2019; last updated 08 March, 2021 // |
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| | <p>We do not know if breech loading rifles represented a discontinuity in military strength. They probably did not represent a discontinuity in fire rate.</p> |
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| | ===== Details ===== |
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| | <p>This case study is part of AI Impacts’ <a href="/doku.php?id=ai_timelines:discontinuous_progress_investigation">discontinuous progress investigation</a>.</p> |
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| | <p>We have not investigated this topic in depth. What follows are our initial impressions.</p> |
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| | ==== Background ==== |
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| | <p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breechloader">Wikipedia</a><span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-1-1370"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-1-1370" title='<br><br>“Breechloader.” In <em>Wikipedia</em>, May 14, 2019. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breechloader&amp;oldid=897060135">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breechloader&amp;oldid=897060135</a>. '><sup>1</sup></a></span>:</p> |
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| | <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> |
| | <p>A <strong>breechloader</strong><sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breechloader#cite_note-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breechloader#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm">firearm</a> in which the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartridge_(firearms)">cartridge</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_(projectile)">shell</a> is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_barrel">barrel</a>.</p> |
| | <p>Modern <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_production">mass production</a> firearms are breech-loading (though <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortar_(weapon)">mortars</a> are generally muzzle-loaded), except those which are intended specifically by design to be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzleloader">muzzle-loaders</a>, in order to be legal for certain types of hunting. Early firearms, on the other hand, were almost entirely muzzle-loading. The main advantage of breech-loading is a reduction in reloading time – it is much quicker to load the projectile and the charge into the breech of a gun or cannon than to try to force them down a long tube, especially when the bullet fit is tight and the tube has spiral ridges from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling">rifling</a>. In field artillery, the advantages were similar: the crew no longer had to force powder and shot down a long barrel with rammers, and the shot could now tightly fit the bore (increasing accuracy greatly), without being impossible to ram home with a fouled barrel. </p> |
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| | ==== Trends ==== |
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| | <p>Breech loading rifles were suggested to us as a potential discontinuity in some measure of army strength, due to high fire rate and ability to be used while lying down. We did not have time to investigate this extensively, and have not looked for evidence for or against discontinuities in military strength overall. That said, the reading we have done does not suggest any such discontinuities.</p> |
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| | <p>We briefly looked for evidence of discontinuity in firing rate, since firing rate seemed to be a key factor of any advantage in military strength.</p> |
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| | === Firing rate === |
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| | <p>Upon brief review it seems unlikely to us that breech loading rifles represented a discontinuity in firing rate alone. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver">Revolvers</a> developed in parallel with breech-loading rifles, and appear to have had similar or higher rates of fire. This includes revolver rifles, which (being rifles) appear to be long-ranged enough to be comparable to muskets and breech-loading rifles.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-2-1370"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-2-1370" title='For an example of a revolver rifle in use at roughly the same time as the Dreyse needle gun, the first breech-loading rifle to get widespread uptake, see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt%27s_New_Model_Revolving_rifle ">Colt New Model Revolving Rifle</a>. Quote: &#8220;Revolving rifles were an attempt to increase the rate of fire of rifles by combining them with the revolving firing mechanism that had been developed earlier for revolving pistols. Colt began experimenting with revolving rifles in the early 19th century, making them in a variety of calibers and barrel lengths.&#8221; &#8220;Colt&#8217;s New Model Revolving Rifle.&#8221; Wikipedia. April 16, 2019. Accessed April 19, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt&#8217;s_New_Model_Revolving_rifle.'><sup>2</sup></a></span><br/></p> |
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| | <p>The best candidate we found for a breech loading rifle constituting a discontinuity in firing rate is the Ferguson Rifle, first used in 1777 in the American Revolutionary War.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-3-1370"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-3-1370" title='&#8220;The <strong>Ferguson rifle</strong>&nbsp;was one of the first&nbsp;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breech-loading_weapon">breech-loading rifles</a>&nbsp;to be put into service by the British military. It fired a standard British carbine ball of .615&#8243; calibre and was used by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army">British Army</a>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_War_of_Independence">American War of Independence</a>&nbsp;at the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saratoga">Battle of Saratoga</a>&nbsp;in 1777, and possibly at the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Charleston">Siege of Charleston</a>&nbsp;in 1780.<sup><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_rifle#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup>&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Ferguson Rifle.&#8221; Wikipedia. March 09, 2019. Accessed April 29, 2019. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_rifle.'><sup>3</sup></a></span> It was expensive and fragile, so it did not see widespread use;<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-4-1370"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-4-1370" title="&#8220;The two main reasons that Ferguson rifles were not used by the rest of the army: The gun was difficult and expensive to produce using the small, decentralized gunsmith and subcontractor system in use to supply the Ordnance in early Industrial Revolution Britain. The guns broke down easily in combat, especially in the wood of the stock around the lock mortise. The lock mechanism and breech were larger than the stock could withstand with rough use. All surviving military Fergusons feature a horseshoe-shaped iron repair under the lock to hold the stock together where it repeatedly broke around the weak, over-drilled out mortise.&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Ferguson Rifle.&#8221; Wikipedia. March 09, 2019. Accessed April 29, 2019. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_rifle."><sup>4</sup></a></span> breech-loading rifles did not become standard in any army until the Prussian “Needle gun” in 1841 and the Norwegian “Kammerlader” in 1842.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-5-1370"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-5-1370" title='&#8220;The <em><strong>Kammerlader</strong></em>, or &#8220;chamber loader&#8221;, was the first Norwegian&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breech-loading_weapon">breech-loading</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle">rifle</a>, and among the very first breech loaders adopted for use by an armed force anywhere in the world.&#8221; &#8220; |
