noveltune Chapter 81: The Basic Design of Guns Now and in the Future
Chapter 81: The Basic Design of Guns Now and in the Future
Chapter 81: The Basic Design of Guns Now and in the Future
Liu Yulong held the rifle designed by Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng, examining it over and over for a long time before finally praising it with great appreciation: "This is really well made. It uses a typical breech-loading design and references the structure of a breech-loading machine gun."
"This rotating bolt-action mechanism combines closing and loading into one unit."
"The copper tube expansion seal is an excellent idea that basically solves the sealing problem of breech-loading rifles."
"This idea deserves at least half the credit."
"This shows that more exchanges between different research departments are very beneficial, and there may be some unexpected gains."
Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng both clasped their hands in a cheerful gesture and said very modestly, "We dare not accept such praise; it is all what we should do."
"Your Majesty flatters me—"
Liu Yulong took a deep breath and placed the rifle on the table: "Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng, I'm giving you two an extra three months' salary now. Of course, this isn't the full reward."
"Because this gun still needs some improvements, I will formally reward you after you have finished it."
The two quickly expressed their gratitude together: "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty. Please give your orders—"
Liu Yulong picked up a ruler and pen and began to draw some simple design diagrams: "Write down everything I am about to say carefully."
"First of all, the bullets. Since it's a breech-loading gun, we don't need to consider the difficulty of loading the bullets."
"Neither traditional round bullets nor base-expanding bullets are suitable anymore."
"The bullet's shape needs to be redesigned, making it a tapered, egg-shaped bullet."
"The front end is relatively thin and long, the back end is relatively short and thick, and the thickest part is located in the middle two-thirds of the way back."
"Then the percussion cap was also rolled into the cardboard fixed ammunition."
"Prepare ammunition that integrates the percussion cap, gunpowder, and bullet in advance, and then insert the entire assembly into the chamber when needed."
"We will conduct further tests to confirm the appropriate propellant charge and range."
Liu Yulong paused briefly at this point, instructing the three people present to take note of his arrangements.
Upon hearing this, Qin Yang couldn't help but ask a question: "Your Majesty, if the percussion cap is also inserted into the chamber, it will likely leave residue after firing, which might require cleaning the chamber after each shot, thus reducing the rate of fire, right?"
Liu Yulong casually explained, "You can try it; there shouldn't be any major problems."
"The burst of the percussion cap will first propel it forward, and the gunpowder gas will also create a shock wave inside the barrel."
"Most of the cardboard, percussion cap, and other residues should have been ejected from the muzzle like a whirlwind during the combustion and explosion of the gunpowder."
"If the percussion cap doesn't fly out, tilt the barrel slightly downwards after firing, and it will fall out."
"A small amount of residue should not affect its use; cleaning it once after each battle should be sufficient."
"That should be the theory, but we'll have to do it to determine the specifics."
Qin Yang listened to Liu Yulong's reasonable and well-founded explanation, and quickly memorized it, preparing to conduct experiments upon returning: "Your Majesty, I understand. I've written it down—"
Liu Yulong continued, "Then there's the hammer and the ignition port, which are still positioned above or to the side of the barrel. The design that rotates with the barrel is too unstable."
"It can be placed in the center of the back of the barrel, so that the ignition port will not move when the barrel rotates."
"After the fire cap is built in, the shape of the hammer also needs to be changed."
"There should be a firing mechanism with a sharp, short pin, and the trigger should be connected to the back by a spring."
"The goal is to make the spring, which carries the short needle forward when the trigger is pulled, piercing the percussion cap and igniting the gunpowder."
"When you pull the barrel back with the handle, it also causes the firing pin and trigger to return to their original positions."
After Liu Yulong finished speaking, he also finished drawing a simple diagram, which made the overall design more like a bolt-action rifle.
The small hammer on top of a traditional firing pistol has been replaced by the firing pin at the front of the bolt of a bolt-action rifle.
This gun is only one step away from being a bolt-action rifle, but it doesn't have the sealing problems of early bolt-action rifles.
The world was about to enter the era of bolt-action rifles. The Prussian Dreiser M1841 can be considered the world's earliest bolt-action rifle in a broad sense, and the ancestor of all forms of "bolt-action" rifles.
1841 is the year it was commissioned into service, but in fact, most of the design was completed in 1836, and it entered the state of secret mass production preparation.
The most creative part of Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng's design for this rifle was the copper tube.
Based on historical experience, the ultimate solution to the sealing problem of breech-loading guns is to use copper-cased cartridges.
Modern rifle bullets are mostly made of copper casings, with a few made of specially processed soft steel casings.
The propellant in a bullet burns and expands, causing the copper casing to expand by more than 10%.
The cartridge case and the chamber fit together tightly during this process, giving the rifle an excellent seal.
The sealing performance of breech-loading rifles with copper-cased bullets is basically the same as that of muzzle-loading rifles.
Qin Yang's rifle design essentially involved fixing a copper casing to the bolt, with the propellant charge serving as a reloading mechanism for bullets.
Although it does not yet have copper-cased fixed ammunition, it has a similar sealing effect.
When Liu Yulong thought about this again, he couldn't help but assess in his mind: "Is it possible to produce basically usable copper-cased fixed bullets and a basically mature bolt-action rifle now?"
It's not a big problem if we can't be sure; we can have the Institute of Geology send someone to try.
With this in mind, Liu Yulong continued drawing while issuing new orders: "The new gun you designed, along with the improvement ideas I just mentioned, will be the main research and development target."
"After producing the prototype, we will have the military test it. If the military finds it useful after testing, we will prepare it as the future standard rifle for the military and start mass production as soon as possible."
"Based on this, we will try to design a new bullet and a new matching rifle."
"Replace the cardboard shell with a copper tube, embed the bullet and percussion cap at both ends of the copper tube, and fill the middle with granulated black powder."
"It's like taking the copper tube out of your gun barrel, pre-loading it with fixed gunpowder and primer, and then reinstalling it into the barrel when you need to use it."
"It's like preparing many sub-systems for a single breechblock, allowing you to directly replace the sub-systems instead of reloading on-site."
"This way, the chamber and bolt don't need any complicated structures; just locking and firing are enough."
"Design a magazine under the barrel that can hold four to six bullets at the same time."
"It's like giving a Franco aircraft a few more sub-systems."
While explaining verbally, Liu Yulong drew a schematic diagram of a typical copper-cased fixed rifle bullet and a schematic diagram of a bolt-action rifle similar to the Mauser M1871 that uses copper-cased fixed black powder bullets.
Liu Yulong didn't know many details about this rifle, but he knew roughly how it worked.
Drawings indicate the principles and directions, allowing craftsmen to fill in the details.
Liu Yulong felt that with the current level of metallurgical processing in the Han Dynasty, it should not be difficult to produce a basically mature copper-cased bullet and a relatively reliable bolt-action rifle.
After all, craftsmen could hand-mold steam turbine blades and shafts, and the bolt mechanism of a bolt-action rifle could not be more precise than that of a steam turbine.
Early bolt-action rifles and copper-cased bullets could barely be considered as technology of the present era.
The Francois produced a copper-cased bullet in 1836, Prussia adopted early bolt-action rifles in 1841, and the United States produced a complete copper-cased bullet in 1851.
The mature bolt-action rifle has a very simple structure, even simpler than the traditional breech-loading rifles of the past, because after the development of copper-cased fixed cartridges, the cartridge has become the core of the firearm.
In extreme cases, a bullet can be fired by holding it in pliers and poking the primer with a screwdriver, but the accuracy cannot be controlled.
The gun itself has actually become a bullet launching support, a "user interface" that enables various personalized functions.
The most extreme and simplified rifle design could be a steel pipe with a clip and a small hammer.
It may take a long time for the Han Dynasty to mass-produce mature bolt-action rifles, but having the craftsmen hand-make a few prototypes should be able to do so quickly.
The key issue is that the Han Dynasty itself was already short of copper, and it also needed to use copper to mint coins, cables, generators, and so on.
Furthermore, the scale of industrialization in the Han Dynasty is not yet extensive enough, and the number of metal processing facilities is insufficient, making it impossible to mass-produce copper-cased bullets in the short term.
However, starting the design in advance is fine; it can be considered as pre-research for the next generation of standard rifles, and then gradually accumulating the number of processing machines and ammunition.
The initial small-scale production can also be used as special operations weapons for hunters, or as self-defense weapons.
With this in mind, Liu Yulong picked up his pen and paper again and drew a diagram of a copper-cased cartridge for a pistol, as well as a diagram of a revolver that uses copper-cased cartridges.
A revolver using copper-cased cartridges was probably the most convenient small self-defense weapon to carry in this era.
Liu Yulong handed the several completed diagrams to Qin Yang and assigned the work directly: "Send more people to work on it separately and get it done as soon as possible."
"First determine if it is feasible, and then optimize the details and other issues."
"These firearms and bullets are currently kept secret from the public, and we will find a separate workshop to process and test them."
"In particular, bullets with metal casings must not be handled by unauthorized personnel."
Zheng Fuguang, Qin Yang, and Cao Shanfeng all agreed and immediately organized a team to start work upon returning to the Gewu Institute.
The emperor wanted to complete the verification as soon as possible while keeping it as secret as possible. Qin Yang transferred four senior craftsmen of the fourth rank, plus himself, for a total of five people, to design and process the product in a separate small workshop.
The basic technical principles have been determined, and the processing itself is not a problem.
The first to complete the verification was the copper-cased fixed bullet.
Dahan's rolling mills can roll seamless steel pipes and rails, and rolling copper pipes with better ductility is even easier.
Several usable samples were produced in just three days.
Qin Yang went to the firing range himself and used a copper pipe of suitable size and a hammer to simply verify the firing effect.
Ten days later, the breech-loading rifle sealed with a copper tube completed the improvements requested by Liu Yulong.
After switching to integrated ammunition, the rate of fire increased to eight rounds per minute.
Liu Yulong's new bullet design, combined with the highest possible propellant charge, further improved the rifle's performance.
At a distance of around 400 meters, it still possesses considerable accuracy and lethality.
It still has a certain degree of accuracy at a distance of 800 meters, and can predict roughly where the bullet will fly.
It can even fly as far as 1,200 meters.
As for the cardboard and percussion cap residue, just as Liu Yulong said, they would not accumulate inside the gun barrel.
The first few shots left a bit more residue, but the residue decreased as the number of shots increased.
This effect is actually the "self-cleaning effect" of cardboard-cased ammunition.
The paper scraps would continue to burn into ash, and under the suction effect created by the gunpowder propelling the bullet, they would fly out along with the remnants of the used percussion cap.
However, black powder residue remains, so the number of shots is so high that the barrel needs to be cleaned regularly.
However, this cleaning can be done during the rest period and will not affect the battle.
Such performance is more than sufficient for this era; the next step is to assess the failure rate and ease of production and maintenance.
After confirming the performance of the brass-tube rifle, Liu Yulong arranged for small-batch production for practical testing. This thing will most likely become the standard-issue rifle.
Finally, it took twenty-five days to produce two usable prototypes of bolt-action rifles and revolvers using copper-cased cartridges.
Bolt-action rifles using copper-cased bullets are even more powerful, to the point that the actual firing distance is difficult to determine with the naked eye.
Its effective range has exceeded 600 meters, and its maximum range is estimated to exceed 1,600 meters.
The key is that the theoretical rate of fire has been further improved, to at least twelve rounds per minute.
Due to limited ammunition and frequent malfunctions during testing, accurate data could not be obtained immediately, so they had to go back and continue debugging.
The revolver test went very smoothly, and misfires did not affect the next shot.
Liu Yulong was very satisfied with the result and promoted both Qin Yang and Cao Shanfeng by one level in craftsmanship.
Qin Yang was instructed to continue optimizing these new rifles and bullets, and, referencing the rifle production line that Hall was organizing and debugging, to establish a new test production line with the goal of mass production and deployment.
Over the past two months, Hall and Colt have adapted to Chinese-made equipment and units.
The Chinese-made equipment was more sophisticated than their previous equipment, and the Chinese units were more scientific and easier to calculate and design than the British system.
Subsequently, a test production line was gradually organized within the Institute of Physics.
According to Qin Yang's observation, Hall's rifle production line plan did indeed have many merits.
Many useful management experiences, feasible processes, and operating methods have been accumulated by engineers over many years.
It is difficult to quickly grasp similar knowledge on one's own, but one can quickly learn from the mature experience of others.
Qin Yang organized personnel to cooperate with Hall to build a formal production line in Tongzhou.
At the same time, his experience was summarized and organized, and a separate production line was built in the Shenzhou arsenal to test the effects separately.
Hall did not forget his other task, and based on his M1833 carbine, he designed several new rifles with different characteristics.
Following Qin Yang's instructions to Liu Yulong, the main focus was placed on improving sealing performance.
However, before the advent of copper-cased fixed cartridges, there was no optimal solution for sealing breech-loading guns.
A good seal will significantly reduce the firing rate; a higher firing rate usually results in a poor seal.
Qin Yang would not intentionally leak Cao Shanfeng's idea, and neither Hall nor Colt had thought of making a "bolt-action" rifle.
The results of the new rifles were not ideal; they were either slow in rate of fire or had poor performance.
Liu Yulong paid close attention to the design and testing of the new rifle in two aspects, and felt in his heart that Hall's design was probably unworkable.
The official "Hanchang Second Year Rifle," the first standard military rifle of the Han Dynasty's breech-loading era, would most likely have adopted the copper-tube sealed firing pin gun designed by Qin Yang.
Hall and Colt probably won't be able to become the "designers of the standard rifle for the 20 million militiamen of the Great Han Dynasty".