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 List of Attack on Titan characters, character in ''Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military po ...

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 Sömmerda () is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the Sömmerda (district), district of Sömmerda. History Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncove ...

(then ruled by the

Archbishopric of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz ( or '; ), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Archbishop-Elec ...

), 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, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

ian gun factory of Jean-Samuel Pauly, a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

who designed several experimental

breech-loading A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...

military rifles. After returning to Sömmerda in 1814, he founded a company to manufacture

percussion cap The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, 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. Its invention gave ...

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 Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

, 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 cartridge (firearms), metallic cartridge. These cartridges consisted of a paper cylinder or cone containing the bullet, gunpowder, and in some case ...

s holding the bullet into a sabot. 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 (; or German Danish War), 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. The war began on 1 Februar ...

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...

, and the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

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

Chassepot The Chassepot (pronounced ; ), officially known as , 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 replaced an assortment of muzzleloading ...

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, when they were replaced with Schmidt–Rubin rifles. Modified Vetterlis were also used by the Italian Army. The Swiss Vetterli rifles combined the Americ ...

, 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 71 or 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 and Wilhelm Mauser of the M ...

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

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