Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (20 November 1787 – 9 December 1867) was a German firearms inventor and manufacturer. He is most famous for submitting the

Dreyse needle gun Dreyse may refer to: * Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), German firearms inventor * Hitch Dreyse, a fictional character in ''Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military police. * Dreyse needle gun, a German ...

in 1836 to the Prussian army, which was adopted for service in December 1840 as the ''Leichte Perkussions-Gewehr M 1841'' – a name deliberately chosen to mislead about the rifle's mechanism – later renamed Zündnadelgewehr M 1841 in 1855.

Biography

Dreyse was born in Sömmerda (then ruled by the Archbishopric of Mainz), the son of a locksmith. Dreyse worked from 1809 to 1814 in the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

ian gun factory of Jean-Samuel Pauly, a Swiss who designed several experimental breech-loading military rifles. After returning to Sömmerda in 1824, he founded a company to manufacture

percussion cap The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise ...

s. It was there that he designed the needle rifle. While the gun is thought of by some to be the first

bolt-action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-action ...

rifle, in reality it bears little resemblance to modern bolt-action rifles, except for the bolt principle itself which was applied to close the breech. Ammunition for the Dreyse rifle was made up of

paper cartridge A paper cartridge is one of various types of small arms ammunition used before the advent of the metallic cartridge. These cartridges consisted of a paper cylinder or cone containing the bullet, gunpowder, and in some cases, a primer or a lub ...

s holding the bullet into a

sabot Sabot may refer to: * Sabot (firearms), disposable supportive device used in gunpowder ammunitions to fit/patch around a sub-caliber projectile * Sabot (shoe), a type of wooden shoe People * Dick Sabot (1944–2005), American economist and busi ...

. The gun's needle penetrated the paper cartridge before igniting the black powder charge. The Dreyse's simple construction made it relatively easy to keep clean and in operation. For instance, worn needles could be quickly replaced without dismantling the bolt mechanism. The Dreyse rifle was a significant ordnance improvement for its time, since it permitted a much faster rate of fire than the muzzle-loading rifled muskets which were the standard of world's armies until the mid-1860s. It also enabled riflemen to reload without standing and exposing themselves to fire.Dyer, ''War''? The Dreyse rifle was used by the Prussians during the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. ...

, Austro-Prussian War, at the

Battle of Königgrätz The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königg ...

, and the Franco-Prussian War. By that time, the gun was fast becoming obsolete, and was outclassed by the French bolt-action ''Mle'' 1866

Chassepot The Chassepot (pronounced ''SHAS-poh''), officially known as ''Fusil modèle 1866'', was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It repla ...

rifle. Other bolt-action rifle designs had emerged in other countries. For example, in 1869 Switzerland adopted the bolt-action

Vetterli rifle The Vetterli rifles were a series of Swiss army service rifles in use from 1869 to 1889,Barnes, p.196, "10.4x38R Swiss Vetterli M69/81". when they were replaced with Schmidt–Rubin rifles. Modified Vetterlis were also used by the Italian Army. ...

, which was a tube-magazine rimfire metallic cartridge repeater. The French transformed the 11mm Chassepot into a metallic-cartridge bolt-action rifle, the ''Mle'' 1874 Gras. Germany had also switched earlier to an 11mm metallic cartridge with the entirely new

Mauser Model 1871 The Mauser Model 1871 adopted as the ''Gewehr'' 71 or ''Infanterie-Gewehr'' 71, or "Infantry Rifle 71" ("I.G.Mod.71" was stamped on the rifles themselves) was the first rifle model in a distinguished line designed and manufactured by Paul Mauser ...

bolt-action rifle. Great Britain and the U.S. evolved from muzzle-loaders to metallic-cartridge breech-loaders, but with systems other than bolt action, during that same period. There remains some ambiguity about the activities of von Dreyse after he created the needle-gun, as he seems to have dropped the ''Johann'' part of his name and was known as ''Nikolaus von Dreyse''.

Gallery

File:Soemmerda Dreyse Muehle.jpg, Dreyse mill in Sömmerda File:Needle Gun.jpg, Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr/Prussian Model 1841 File:soemmerda-dreyse02.jpg, Unveiling of the Dreyse Memorial in Sömmerda, 1909

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreyse, Johann Nikolaus von 1787 births 1867 deaths People from Sömmerda 19th-century German inventors Prussian Army People from the Electorate of Mainz