General Basile Gras (2 January 1836 – 14 April 1901) created the
Gras rifle
The Fusil Modèle 1874 or Gras was the French Army's primary service rifle from 1874 to 1886. Designed by Colonel Basile Gras, the Gras was a metallic cartridge adaptation of the single-shot, breech-loading, black powder Chassepot rifle. It was ...
for the
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
in 1874 by converting the Mle 1866
Chassepot rifle to fire metallic cartridges. Gras, who was a colonel at the time, played a very important role in the formulation and industrial production of the
Lebel rifle
The Lebel Model 1886 rifle (French: ''Fusil Modèle 1886 dit "Fusil Lebel"'') also known as the ''"Fusil Mle 1886 M93"'', after a bolt modification was added in 1893, is an 8 mm bolt-action infantry rifle that entered service in the French A ...
. He was an alumnus of
Ecole Polytechnique, then a shooting instructor at l'École Normale de Tir at Châlons. Eventually he supervised the three weapon manufacturing facilities at St Etienne, Châtellerault and Tulle. Finally he became Secretary of War for France.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gras, Basile
19th-century French inventors
French generals
Firearm designers
1836 births
1901 deaths
École Polytechnique alumni