Girandoni air rifle

The Girardoni air rifle is a repeating rifle designed by Ladin inventor Bartolomeo Girandoni in Austria circa 1779. It could be used as flintlock or as air gun, called ''Windbüchse'' ("wind rifle" in German). One of the air rifle's more famous associations is its use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Biography

Bartolomeo Girardoni was born 30 May 1744 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, a town populated by Ladins that was part of the County of Tyrol and Austria until after World War I. In 1923 the town and other places were made part of the Province of Belluno. In 2007 the locals voted for assignment to Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol were minority rights are in effect.

In early 1779, Austrian Field Marshal Franz Moritz von Lacy became aware of Girardoni's repeating rifle and wrote a positive report to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. After some tests, Lacy proposed that he should make 1000 flintlock rifles and 500 air guns, to be delivered to Wenzel Joseph von Colloredo. In December 1779, accompanied by his family, his assistant Franz Colli and two workers, Girardoni moved to Penzing near Vienna, where he died 21 March 1799. Having lost his left hand in a gun accident, he made himself an Iron hand prosthesis. In his spare time, he continued to make individual pocket watches, while for rifle production, he had to organize some sort of mass production.

Until 1784, 111 flintlocks and 274 air guns were made, and the army was not satisfied with the output. Relieved of flintlock duties, he focussed on air rifles and the necessary additional equipment, with each worker making specific parts that were assembled by him. Apart from the rifle itself, air reservoirs, air pumps, sealings, valves and other non-standard components parts had to be made, precise enough to be interchangeable.

After Frederick the Great had died, Catherine the Great and the Ottoman Empire in 1787 started another war regarding control of the Crimea, which triggered a war between Austria and Turkey, from 1788 until 1791. At that time, some 1000 air guns had been made, but only 200 complete sets were delivered to the depot at Petrovaradin Fortress, and 500 in April 1788.

History and use

The Lewis and Clark Expedition used the rifle in the demonstrations that they performed for nearly every Native American tribe they encountered on the expedition. Some scholars have argued that the airgun carried by Merriwether Lewis was not a Girardoni, but a Lukens, made by Isaiah Lukens of Philadelphia. However, Colonel Thomas Rodney wrote the following on 8 September 1803: "Visited Captain ewis'sbarge. He howedus his air gun which fired 22 times at one charge." All Lukens's known airguns were single-shot muzzleloaders, not repeaters, making it very likely that Lewis's gun was a Giranroni, the only repeating airgun of the time. Lewis stated in his journals that he purchased the airgun, but it is not known when or where he did so. Lewis fired the airgun at least 16 times to demonstrate it to various Native American tribes. On 24 January 1806, Lewis wrote "My air gun also astonishes them very much, they cannot comprehend it's shooting so often and without powder; and think that it is great medicine."

Design and capabilities

The rifle was long and weighed , about the same size and weight as infantry muskets of the time. It fired a .46 or .51 caliber ball and had a tubular, spring-fed magazine with a capacity of 20 balls. Some of the weapons were also made using a gravity-fed magazine. Unlike its contemporary, muzzle-loading muskets, which required the rifleman to stand up to reload with powder and ball, the shooter could reload a ball from the magazine by pulling a transverse chamber bar out of the breech which allowed a ball to be supplied to it and which then rebounded back to its original position with the aid of a spring, all while lying down.

Contemporary regulations of 1788 required that each rifleman be equipped with the rifle, three compressed air reservoirs (two spare and one attached to the rifle), cleaning stick, hand pump, lead ladle and 100 lead balls, 1 in the chamber, 19 in the magazine built into the rifle and the remaining 80 in four tin tubes. Equipment not carried attached to the rifle was held in a special leather knapsack. It was also necessary to keep the leather gaskets of the reservoir moist to maintain a good seal and prevent leakage.

The air reservoir was in the club-shaped stock. With a full air reservoir, the Girardoni air rifle had the capacity to shoot 30 shots at useful pressure. These balls were effective to approximately on a full air reservoir. The power declined as the air reservoir was emptied.Military writer August Haller claimed in an 1891 treatise ''Die österreichische Militär-Repetier-Windbüchse'' that the first ten shots would be effective to about 150 paces, the next ten shots up to 120–125 paces, the next ten out to 100 paces, and then the remaining air pressure in the reservoir would be too low.

See also

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References

External links

Beeman's History on Austrian Large Bore Airguns




(original 1780 example)

Girardoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark. A National Firearms Museum Treasure Gun.
* {{Commons category-inline, Girandoni air rifle

1779 introductions
air guns
Italian inventions