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Jacob Smith Jarmann (30 May 1816 – 29 March 1894) was a 
The Jarmann rifle - Part 1 - Background historyThe Jarmann rifle - Part 2 - Shooting
1816 births 1894 deaths People from Nord-Fron Firearm designers Norwegian designers Norwegian inventors Recipients of the Order of Vasa Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal {{Norway-engineer-stub
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
firearms designer and inventor of the Jarmann rifle.
Biography
Jarmann was born in the parish ofNord-Fron
Nord-Fron is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vinstra. Other population centers in Nord-Fron include the village ...
in Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The c ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. He was raised at the farm Øien in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdalen
Gudbrandsdalen (; en, Gudbrand Valley) is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer and the lake of Mjøsa, extending towa ...
.
He developed an interest in firearms at an early age, and he designed his first rifle—a breech loading
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle).
Modern firearms are generally bre ...
rifle firing cardboard cartridges—in 1838, but this was turned down by the armed forces at the time. The logic was that a rifle capable of firing 13 shots a minute would be impossible to supply with enough ammunition.
In the 1870s he stepped down from the daily running of his workshop to develop his newly invented 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-actio ...
rifle. This rifle, the Jarmann, was adopted by the Norwegian Army
The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...
in 1884. The weapon was produced at the Kongsberg Weapon Factory (''Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk'').
Jarmann was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. Olav and made a member of the Order of Vasa
The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was u ...
. He died in 1894, the same year his rifle was phased out of the service and replaced with the Krag–Jørgensen
The Krag–Jørgensen is a repeating bolt-action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Norway, Denmark, and the United States. About 300 we ...
. After the Jarmann rifle was phased out of military use, some of the weapons were converted for use as the Jarmann harpoon rifle.
References
Other sources
*Hanevik, Karl Egil (1998) ''Norske militærgeværer etter 1867'' (Hanevik våpen) *Hanevik, Karl Egil ''Kongsberg-Colten'' (Hanevik våpen)Related reading
*Flatnes, Oyvind (2014) ''From Musket to Metallic Cartridge'' (Crowood Press)External links
The Jarmann rifle - Part 1 - Background history
1816 births 1894 deaths People from Nord-Fron Firearm designers Norwegian designers Norwegian inventors Recipients of the Order of Vasa Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal {{Norway-engineer-stub