The Farquhar–Hill rifle, a British design by Moubray G. Farquhar and Arthur H. Hill, was one of the first
semi-automatic rifles designed in the early 20th century.
Description
The Farquhar-Hill is a long recoil operated semi-automatic rifle with rotary bolt locking. It was
.303 British
The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
caliber and fed from a 19-round drum magazine. Magazine variations included a 10-round truncated cone and a 65-round drum. It has a
muzzle velocity of and is sighted to .
The Farquhar-Hill was first patented in the UK in 1908 and in the United States in 1909. The key feature was an intermediate 'action' spring which stored recoil energy. Upon discharge, the barrel recoiled while still locked with the bolt, compressing the intermediate spring on recoil. Upon return of the barrel to the forward position, the energy stored in the intermediate spring cycled the bolt back and forth, extracting and ejecting the spent case and feeding a fresh round into the now stationary barrel. The main goal was to achieve smooth and reliable cycling, but the design was very complicated and thus badly suited for a military firearm. By 1911, Farquhar and Hill revised their rifle, changing its source of energy from barrel recoil to more convenient gas operated action. The new weapon also used an intermediate spring as a source of energy for cycling of the bolt with a stationary barrel, simplifying design and making it potentially more accurate and reliable. The design was refined and then tested by British Army on several occasions. This rifle was initially chambered for the new ".303 rimless" round, designed by necking up the
7.65x53mm Belgian Mauser case and loading it with British-issue Mk.VII bullet of .303 caliber. Later on this experimental loading was discarded in favor of the standard issue
.303 British
The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
ammunition.
After several trials, including troop trials at the Front, and some use by observers in aircraft, in 1918 the Farquhar–Hill rifle was found to be suitable for military use and an official request was issued for procurement of as many as 100,000 Farquhar–Hill rifles. Official nomenclature assigned to the military Farquhar–Hill rifle in August 1918 was "Rifle. .303 inch, Pattern 1918". However, the war ended before production facilities were allocated, and manufacture of Farquhar–Hill rifles was cancelled in 1919.
Further development
During the 1920s and early 1930s Farquhar redesigned this rifle into a lightweight machine-gun fed from top-mounted pan magazines. On several occasions the British Army tested this machine gun, known as the Beardmore-Farquhar but ultimately rejected it for a variety of reasons.
See also
*
Fedorov Avtomat
The Fedorov Avtomat (also anglicized as Federov, ) or FA is a select-fire infantry rifle and also one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and ...
*
Cei-Rigotti
The Cei-Rigotti (also known as the Cei gas rifle) is an early automatic rifle created in the final years of the 19th century by Amerigo Cei-Rigotti, an officer in the Royal Italian Army. Although the rifle was never officially adopted by any milit ...
*
Winchester Model 1907
The Winchester Model 1907 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1907 with production ending in 1957. It fired a cartridge of intermediate power, cycled through a semi-automati ...
*
Mondragón rifle
The Mondragón rifle refers to one of two rifle designs developed by Mexican artillery officer General Manuel Mondragón. These designs include the straight-pull bolt-action M1893 and M1894 rifles, and Mexico's first self-loading rifle, the M190 ...
*
Remington Model 8
The Remington Model 8 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by John Browning and produced by Remington Arms, introduced as the ''Remington Autoloading Rifle'' in 1905, though the name was changed to the ''Remington Model 8'' in 1911.
History
On Octo ...
*
RSC M1917
External links
*http://www.forgottenweapons.com/early-semiauto-rifles/farquhar-hill/
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXpgJ4JydN4&context=C3e909ffUDOEgsToPDskLEvZCzQCJx5v1XwnvdmwOe
*https://web.archive.org/web/20130527062140/http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/the-galleries/america-ascending/case-58-world-war-i-diorama/farquhar-hill-model-1909-experimental-semi-automatic-rifle.aspx
*https://archive.today/20130710182500/http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/collections_view.aspx?id=151
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farquhar-Hill rifle
.303 British rifles
Semi-automatic rifles
Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom
Rifles of the United Kingdom