Martin von Wahrendorff (1789 – 1861) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. His father Anders von Wahrendorff was the owner of the gun foundry at Åker. Wahrendorff was Grand Master of Ceremonies at the

Royal Court of Sweden The Royal Court of Sweden ( sv, Kungliga Hovstaterna) is the official name for the organisation ( royal households) that supports the monarch, and the royal house. The incumbent monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf, is head of the Royal Court. The Royal ...

from 1828 to 1831 In 1837 Wahrendorff applied for patent on a new breech mechanism, later known as the Wahrendorff breech. The first breech loaded Wahrendorff gun was manufactured at Åker in 1840. In the 1840s the

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

n major

Giovanni Cavalli Lieutenant general Giovanni Cavalli (Novara, 23 July 1808 – Turin, 23 December 1879) was an Italian soldier, artillerist and inventor. He is credited with the creation of the first successful rifled breech loader gun. Biography He entered the ...

was sent to the Åker foundry to inspect guns that the Sardinian government had ordered. The two then started experimenting with pointed elongated lead-coated

projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found i ...

s fired from rifled, breech loading, guns of Wahrendorff's design. In 1854 the Swedish Army adopted three different types of smooth bored breech loaded Wahrendorff guns, in calibers from 155 to 226 mm. Wahrendorff died in 1861.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahrendorff, Martin Von 1789 births 1861 deaths Weapon designers 19th-century Swedish businesspeople Swedish diplomats 19th-century Swedish inventors Swedish nobility