Chapter 534: The Huntsman's Divine Weapon
Inside Versailles' luxurious Royal Workshop.
Louis XVI took a rifle, its form strikingly similar to a Charleville 1776, from a wooden rack on the wall and handed it to his son, remarking with a sigh:
"You see, the crafting difficulty is truly immense. It's like installing a dozen clockworks inside the barrel. This thing took me nearly a year to complete. But I dare say, there aren't more than three people in all of Europe who could build it this quickly!"
Joseph thought to himself, 'If it weren't for the birdcage hair ornament you made for Mom as a birthday gift, it would have been finished by early October...'
He carefully took the rifle, then squinted into its barrel, where he saw four distinct spiral grooves neatly arranged on the inner wall.
His father's craftsmanship was as exquisite as ever. It's worth noting that at the end of the 18th century, such rifling was painstakingly carved by hand, using a long-handled hook knife fixed on a slightly inclined frame, slowly pulling it out bit by bit.
The manufacturing process relied entirely on feel; if the spacing between two spiral grooves was even slightly off, the entire barrel would be scrapped.
Consequently, only veteran craftsmen with over a decade of experience dared to undertake such work, leading to rifles costing over ten times more than ordinary flintlock muskets and having extremely long production cycles.
But to maintain secrecy during the development process, Joseph had no choice but to entrust the creation of the new rifle to his father. His Majesty the King indeed lived up to his reputation as France's foremost craftsman, starting as a novice and producing this brand-new rifle in less than a year.
Louis XVI immediately smiled happily, then pointed at the new rifle, looking at Joseph expectantly. "So, how does it significantly increase the rate of fire?"
"With the iron cone you installed in its powder chamber."
Joseph smiled mysteriously, picked up a caliper, and measured the muzzle diameter. He then turned to the craftsman standing by the door and said:
"Monsieur Aymeric, please craft a lead cylinder for me, 17.8 millimeters in diameter and 35 millimeters long, with a hemispherical tip."
"As you wish, Your Highness."
Louis XVI looked somewhat surprised. "What are you making a lead cylinder for?"
"For a bullet," Joseph replied, looking at the various firearms hanging on the wall. "Father, do you have any rifles here?"
"Of course," Louis XVI gestured to his side. "These are all from my collection.
"A rifle modified from a 1763 model by Charleville's master craftsman.
"Look, over there is the Augsburg 1720 model from Bavaria. It has eight grooves!
"And that peculiar invention by the Englishman Ferguson, which I bought for 1,000 pounds sterling from a smuggler..."
"You could practically open a weapons exhibition here," Joseph said, taking down a German rifle. Stemming from the immense demand of wealthy German huntsmen, that region produced the finest rifles in Europe at the time.
For instance, this 1720 model, though only 15 millimeters in caliber, could outperform the 0.72 caliber English and French 18-millimeter flintlock muskets in both range and accuracy.
Of course, the trade-off was a frighteningly high cost and difficult maintenance.
Joseph then picked up a spherical lead bullet from a nearby pouch and gestured to his father with it:
"Besides the difficulty of production, the greatest drawback of rifles is that loading them is time-consuming and arduous."
Louis XVI nodded.
For a bullet to spin due to the rifling, its outer edge must be pressed into the grooves. Therefore, one must select a bullet slightly wider than the barrel's caliber and then use a hammer and an iron rod to pound the bullet into the barrel.
The diameter of the powder chamber at the bottom of the breech is smaller than the barrel, so once the bullet reached the bottom, it couldn't be pounded any further.
Joseph put down the 16-millimeter bullet he was holding and picked up a bullet meant for a standard smoothbore musket nearby:
"If we could use sub-caliber bullets, the rate of fire for rifles could at least double."
So-called "sub-caliber" refers to bullets with a diameter smaller than the barrel's bore. Conversely, bullets with a larger diameter are called "over-caliber."
Louis XVI shook his head. "But in that case, the bullet wouldn't engage the rifling and wouldn't spin."
Joseph smiled faintly:
"We can approach this differently. For example, after a sub-caliber bullet is loaded into the barrel, we could make it expand."
"How is that possible?" Louis XVI said aloud, though his eyes were full of anticipation – his son had shown him miracles time and again.
"The simplest way to do it is like this."
Joseph inserted the sub-caliber bullet into the muzzle of the Augsburg 1720, then forcefully tapped it a few times with the hammer and iron rod typically used for loading over-caliber bullets, and looked at his father. "See? Now the bullet's diameter is larger than the barrel's."
Louis XVI was amused. "If you flatten the bullet, it will severely affect its range and accuracy."
"Indeed," Joseph nodded. "But you must admit, this bullet will definitely spin when fired."
Without waiting for his father to object, he immediately added, "Therefore, we can design the bullet as a cylinder, so a few taps won't flatten it."
"But even then, the bullet body wouldn't engage the rifling."
"This is where the iron cone you installed comes in."
Louis XVI paused for a moment at his words, then his eyes immediately lit up.
"I understand!" he exclaimed. "Under forceful pounding, the iron cone at the bottom of the breech will pierce the base of the cylindrical bullet, expanding its diameter there!
"When fired, the bullet's tail will engage the rifling and create a spin."
"That's right," Joseph nodded emphatically, then winked at his father. "This is the Thouvenin... ah, cough! The Auguste Model 1790 Rifled Musket that we developed together! It will completely change the status of huntsmen and impact battlefields across Europe!"
He nearly blurted out the weapon's original name. In the original timeline, the Thouvenin rifle was a groundbreaking weapon, widely adopted by French huntsmen regiments in the 19th century and subsequently copied by countries like Prussia, Belgium, and Bavaria.
In fact, Joseph had originally intended to have his father develop the Minié ball directly, which was the pinnacle of muzzle-loading rifles and offered greater advantages than the Thouvenin rifle.
However, he only remembered the principle of the Minié ball, while the specific bullet structure, along with the width and depth of the base cavity, would require his father to design and repeatedly test, simultaneously adjusting the rifle's structure to accommodate it.
This would likely take a very long time to complete.
After weighing his options, he chose to develop the Thouvenin-style rifle, which had a lower development difficulty.
The bullet for this rifle was a simple cylinder; illiterate soldiers could even make them in the field with a mold.
Moreover, existing rifle technology could be used and produced with just a few minor modifications – simply by adding a long iron cone to the powder chamber.
Of course, even these "minor modifications" would require his father to undergo extensive prototyping before the specific manufacturing process could be finalized.
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