Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse

Who was Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse?

Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse was a German firearms inventor and manufacturer. He is most famous for submitting the "Dreyse needle gun" in 1836 to the Prussian army, which was adopted for service in December 1840 as the Leichte Perscussions-Gewehr M 1841—a name deliberately chosen to mislead about the rifle's mechanism— later renamed Zündnadelgewehr M 1841 in 1855.

Dreyse was born in Sömmerda, the son of a locksmith. Dreyse worked from 1809 to 1814 in the Parisian gun factory of Jean-Samuel Pauly, a Swiss who designed several experimental breech-loading military rifles. Returning to Sömmerda, he in 1824 founded a company to manufacture percussion caps. It was there that he designed the needle rifle.

While the gun is thought of by some to be the first bolt-action rifle, 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 cartridges 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.