I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1165 The Minervails Have Arrived

The fact that it could penetrate a 4-centimeter-thick wooden board at a distance of 25 meters indicates that the revolver had excellent gas tightness; otherwise, it would not have been able to have such power.

Keep in mind that a normal single-shot pistol has roughly this much power.

Applause erupted at the firing range, and those around exclaimed in admiration, "This is truly a magnificent invention unlike anything we've ever seen before!"

"His Majesty's hands are truly blessed by God."

"The rate of fire of this gun is simply unbelievable!"

"Only His Majesty the King could create such a miraculous weapon..."

Louis XVI corrected him in a low voice: "This gun was made by me and the Dauphin."

Joseph smiled and said, "It's mainly thanks to you, Father. Hmm, what do you plan to name it? How about 'August 1797 Pistol'?"

“No, I already have the naming rights to two new guns, and you were the one who first conceived them.” Louis XVI seemed to have already thought it through and immediately said, “I have decided to name this gun the ‘Joseph 1797 Pistol’.”

Joseph didn't stand on ceremony with his father, smiling and nodding, "It's my honor, dear father."

Seeing that Emeric had reloaded his gun, Louis XVI excitedly went to the breastwork himself, pulled back the bolt, and aimed ahead.

Six shots were fired in quick succession. He held the pistol up to his eyes and examined it closely; there was no deformation, indicating that the workmanship was very reliable.

Immediately, a continuous series of gunshots rang out from the firing range.

Joseph had finally waited for his father to finish his fun, and was about to load the pistol when two palace guards rushed over, followed by a richly dressed maid.

Upon seeing the King and Crown Prince, the two guards bowed respectfully: "Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Queen sent me to check if anything has happened. Please forgive us, but we've heard heavy gunfire coming from Versailles."

The firing range is located south of Versailles Palace and is part of the Royal Arsenal. It's quite a distance from Versailles, but even in the quiet night, the sound of gunfire could still be heard.

Based on the intensity of the gunfire, Queen Mary's captain of the guard told her that there were probably 10 to 12 people firing the shots.

Yes, judging from the rate of fire of the flintlock musket, his judgment was indeed correct.

Joseph explained the situation to them and told them to go back and tell the Queen that everything was fine, and that they were just testing the gun.

Louis XVI then hurriedly ordered his revolver to be put away, and took his son back to Versailles Palace—if he didn't go back soon, the Queen would probably nag him all day tomorrow.

The next morning, Joseph got out of bed with huge dark circles under his eyes—he had been up at the shooting range until 1:30 a.m. the night before, but thankfully his mother sent someone to rescue him.

Joseph ate breakfast listlessly and went straight to the Royal Engineering Institute to plan the breech-loading cannon project.

When they arrived at the entrance of the engineering design institute, he first let Emman go in to confirm that his father hadn't come, before continuing to walk inside.

It's best not to let Dad know about the breech-loading cannon for now—given his addiction to new weapons, I really can't stand it.

After hearing the Crown Prince's request, Lazar Kano, the director of the engineering design institute, quickly recommended several highly capable experts, mainly in casting and mechanical design.

Finally, the dean pointed somewhat awkwardly to himself: "Your Highness, actually, I also have some experience in artillery design."

Joseph knew that Carnot was a renowned mathematician and engineer with considerable achievements in mathematical analysis and analytic geometry, making him very suitable to lead the design of the breech-loading gun. So that afternoon, Joseph, along with Carnot and five other experts from the engineering design institute, as well as three senior technicians from the Royal Ordnance Factory, began discussing the design scheme for the breech-loading gun.

As Joseph predicted, cannons are far more difficult to manufacture than firearms. For example, there is currently no ready-made casting solution for cannon barrels that are open at both ends.

As for complex structures such as breechblocks and firing mechanisms, even more design and testing work is required.

By the time night fell, Joseph returned wearily to Versailles Palace, the breech-loading gun project team hadn't even finished assigning tasks to personnel.

It seemed unlikely that any new artillery technology would yield results in the short term. He felt the cool night breeze and began to ponder other, simpler new weapons.

Buccaneer rifle?

This thing looks simple, but it's actually more difficult to develop than a breech-loading cannon.

Cannons can use a complex breechblock and bolt system to achieve gas tightness, while rifles can only rely on a simple bolt to achieve very high gas tightness.

This is still difficult to achieve with current manufacturing precision. Historically, around 1820, Americans developed a breech-loading gun, which was nicknamed the "burning pistol" by soldiers because of its severe gas leakage.

At the same time, breech-loading guns are also heavily reliant on fixed cartridges, which are cartridges that integrate the bullet, propellant, and percussion cap.

This is more troublesome than developing the gun itself.

Forget about copper cartridge cases; they require precision stamping machines to manufacture.

Take paper-cased bullets, for example. The manufacturing process is quite difficult. Even a slight deviation in size can prevent the airtight effect from being achieved, or even make it impossible to fire.

Skilled craftsmen could indeed produce them by hand, but the output was far from meeting the needs of the front lines—a large-scale battle required hundreds of thousands of rounds to be consumed in a single day, which would take thousands of craftsmen more than a month to complete.

Therefore, historically, until the mid-19th century, European countries preferred to continue using muzzle-loading Minié rifles rather than equipping themselves with breech-loading rifles that had already been developed. This continued until the invention of the stamping press.

Joseph suddenly paused, thinking of the Minervail. How could he have forgotten about this amazing weapon?

Compared to the currently equipped Tuvinan rifled gun, using Minié cartridges can speed up the loading process and eliminates the need for the long iron spike in the chamber, making it more reliable and durable.

Most importantly, the current Twennan rifle can be easily modified to fire Minié rounds, so the military will hardly feel the impact of the change.

The reason why Minié bullets were not used in the past was that they were quite difficult to manufacture – it was hard to guarantee accuracy by hand, and the production volume was also very low.

But now, with precision machining equipment, all the obstacles to the industrial-scale mass production of Minié bombs have disappeared.

Joseph recalled watching documentaries about firearms before, and how Minié bullets were produced using a "mold extrusion" process.

The basic idea is to first create a high-precision steel mold—which can be machined using a high-precision milling machine—with dozens or even hundreds of small pits shaped like Minerjees on it.

During production, molten lead was poured onto it, and then a machine was used to pressurize and squeeze out the excess lead—this was where my father's forging machine came in handy. Even though the power was still small, it was enough to press lead bullets.

Finally, demold and polish with a grinder.

Tens of thousands of rounds can be produced per day.

(End of this chapter)