The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-07 00:00:00

The Inventor of the Needle Gun.

(From a Correspondent of the Times)

On entering Sommerda, a small town near
Erfurt, the traveller has no difficulty in finding out
the residence of the most renowned individual in it.
Herr von Dreyse, the inventor of the needle-gun,
lives in a mansion of modest yet substantial:appear-
ance. Over the gateway is an inscription, accord-
ing to the old German custom. " Bete and arbeite"
is the significant motto by the carver of his own
fortune.
Not many weeks since the writer waited upon the
master of the mansion, with letters of introduction
from eminent gentlemen in Berlin. Our conversa-
tion became animated. My reception was so ex-
tremely friendly that I was soon encouraged to hint
at the object of my visit.
" There is scarcely an ency clopredia," I said, "which
dees not contain either a short notice of the inventor or a
long descriptionOf the invention ; still, none of those who
write about you, though perhaps living within a few miles,
have as yet taken the trouble to make your personal ac-
quaintance. In a word, Sir, it is with you, as with many
other discoverers—in astonishment at the invention the
inventor is forgbtten."
" Oh ! that is a matter of very little consequence," he
said, "if only my invention is rightly appreciated."
" But surely you can have no misgivings upon that score?"

".On the contrary, more is made of it than it deserves.
All the newspapers are profuse in their praise of our guns ;
but when I read down the list of killed and wounded 1
cannot help thinking that the weapon has not done its duty
as it ought, or, indeed, anything like what might have been
expected of it." _ _ .

" Indeed ! you surprise me," said I, "you are the first
whom I have heard hint a word against the needle gun
since the campaign in Bohemia. Has it not then answered
your expectations ?"
" The list of our slain and wounded is far too numerous.
The needle gun cannot have been so effective as I meant
it should be, more especially when we tako into considera-
tion the experienced hands that wielded it. It is true, I
have never yet been able to form an accurate conception of
the appearance made by an army of 200,000 men in the
field, spread over many miles of ground with our
needle gun in full operation. I must, therefore,
confine myself to numbers, and I cannot but own to you,
that notwithstanding the satisfaction 1 feel at having my
work, after many a hard struggle, rightly appreciated at
last, these very numbers greatly moderate my exultation
and make me sad. I have, too, an especial cause for being
so," he continued with a sigh, as he pointed to a little girl
who at that moment entered the room, dressed in deep
mourning, " This is my daughter's child, her father fell at
lioniggratz at the head of his regiment. Yes, sir, we have
fought battles in which the Austrians counted no more
dead and wounded than we did, and though we may partly
attribute this to the position occupied by the enemy yet still
such things ought not to be reported of the needle-gun."

The conversation then turned on the latest events
of the day, and while communicating my own im-
pressions on the subject, I asked him if he had ever
seen a battle-field immediately after a battle had
been fought.
" Once, and once only," he replied, " that of Jena; it is a
long, long time ago, and it was while contemplating it the
dea first forced itself upon me, that the Prussian firearms
required improvement, if Prussia ever intended be coming
a first-rate military Power. At that time I was a journey-
man locksmith, and with my knapsack on my back was
travelling through Germany on my way to France, the
only country where in those troublous times anything
could be learnt in my trade. I arrived in Jena Oct. 15,
1806, and saw the heaps of slain on the battle-field, and
their pigtails strewed in all directions. I cannot tell you
what a horrible impression it made upon me. I took up
a gun and examined it closely. I do not know whether
the expression um die Ecke sehiessen (to shoot round
the corner) then existed or not, but it could only have re-
ferred to the Prussian musket of that period. I tell you, I
never saw anything like it in my life. It was the very
worst weapon you can imagine; while the French flint
gun, made from the model known in 1799, was the most
successful and perfect thing of the kind then in use. But,
pray tell me if I weary you. I can quite imagine that to
the uninitiated all this must be somewhat tedious."

"On the contrary, I am greatly interested. Besides, lam
not quite such a novice as you take me for. And from that
moment you were seized with a desire to improve the Prus-
sian gun 2"

" Yes, from that day forward; but you can easily con-
ceive how vague and indistinct was the idea in the head of
the young journeyman locksmith."
" Did you reach Paris 2"
" That I did, and I may say I there laid the foundation
of whatever knowledge or skill has enabled me to do for
the improvement of firearms. I was frequently employed by
the most celebrated officer in that line—you may possibly
have heard his name Col. Pauli, a Wurtemburg officer,
who with his Sovereign had joined the Emperor Napo-
leon), and under his guidance I learnt very much."
"And the idea of improving the Prussian firearms was
still busy in your brain 2" _ _

"Always, 1 thought of it constantly day and night, and
made some trifling experiments, but nothing succeeded, for
I only imitated the model gun of 1799. An actual step in
the right direction, and indeed, I may say a giant stride,
'vas when Pauli, for whom I had been at work, but for what
purpose the weapons were to bo employed I had no idea.
It was in the year 1809—confided to me that he had been
commissioned by the Emperor to construct a breech-load-
ing musket." _ _ _ _

" Where could Napoleon have got this idea from ? Was
it the produce of his own brain or had it existed previously
and been. suggested to him ? The first breech-loading
muskets were constructed two centuries ago. Old speci-
Mens are to be found in many German arsenals."
" I know not ; but it seemed to let in a new light upon
me. I felt better than I could understand how that it was
the right idea, because it was the most simple (children's
guns are loaded in this manner), and for months so great
was my impatience to know the success of the gun Pauli
was constructing, I could scarcely sleep at night. This gun
was a complete failure--that is to say, so extremely com-
plicated that, though in expert hands not without some
solid worth, yet for soldiers in the field it was perfectly
useless. Notwithstanding this, Pauli received from Napo-
leon a present of 1,000 Napoleon d'ors, the Cross of the
Legion of Honour, and a ten years' patent for the inven-
tion. Pauli's courage failed him after this first rebuff, and
he gave up the idea, but it was firmly rooted in my mind,
feeling thoroughly convinced it would furnish me with a
clue to the reconstruction of the Prussian firearms."
"It certainly must have cost you much thought and
anxiety to carry out this idea ?"
" You cannot have the remotest conception of the trouble
it caused me. You must have read somewhere or other of
those torments and sufferings which have ever fallen to the
lot of the inventor. With the exception of bodily torture,
which does not belong to our day, I may say I have gone
through everything it was possible to endure, and that for
30 long years. When at last I gave out my new igniting
material accompanied by the needle gun, imagine the revo-
lutionit,,Had caused. I was looked upon as a madman."
youto encounter any special enemy ?"
One I
had who opposed me with such obstinate perse-
verance that I was often on the
in ryverge of despair,
whom even now, after the
Bohemia,Routi I have
not yet succeeded in vanquishing- That is
is a bitter enemy, I can assure you, sir, and as oftneeaShe
the uniform of a general as the jacket of a soldier, or wears
the
coat of a Minister of War, and woo be to him who has to
contend against her. I could talk to you by the hour toge_
ther what I have gone through, but all would be as mere
dust in the balance if my invention had not likewise had
calumny, derision, and mocking insult to put up with.
You said a while ago that my name was in everybody's
mouth, at least all suck as interest themselves in the mili-
tary glory of Prussia; but do you suppose that those who
assisted me in wrestling with that infernal spirit Routine
do not deserve equally honourable mention. Without their
aid I certainly should never have been successful.'
" Would you have any objection to mention the names
of these men?"
" The then Captain,. now Lieut.-General, von Priem,
and the late General von Witzleben, aide-de-camp to his
Majesty Frederick William 111. I had a manufacture of
percussion caps here in Sommerda, at that time first in
Prussia, and supplied Government with the article. It was
while preparing the igniting material that I discovered the
secret of the undspiegel.f General Priem, who was thenlin
garrison
here, witnessed
my first experiments, and did not
rest till he had convinced General 'von Witzleben of its
importance, Then began a struggle indeed. All I
asked for was a fair trial, but the answer invariably re-
ceived was, it was sheer nonsense. The General men-
tioned the subject to the King in the most urgent
manner, and orders
should undergo scrutinwere issued that my invention
yo:f
thel was given to understand that
the whole constructiongun was totally at variance
with the theory of Colonel Braun, then the greatest autho-
rity on the subject in Prosei„:asvtehll as in Europe ; that
after the tenth shot, on account of
the
oantity of tinder in
it, which would of .course Collect at°
barrel, the gun would explode of itself. In
explained to lowerl end of the
nshort, it was
save that I was an
so clearly rnd technically
arrant fool for my pains that Ally One
myselfwould
verily have believed it. My scientific knowledge
low an ebb that I could not demonstrate NV
s
theory was at fault. My simple ans xer to every char g:
was, Only give it a trial.'"
"And, at length, you had the satisfaction of seeing this

done ?" •
"Stop, stop, not so fast. My greatest fear was that some
unforeseen accident might postpone the long-desired ex-
periments to an indefinite period. General Witzleben, one
morning addressing me, as he often did, as the 'Reformer of
the gun,' said You will have, like Luther, to pass through
a Worms ! The essay was to come off in the Hasenhaide,

* Ora et labora.
This is the name of the bit of pastboard placed at the
bottom of the Prussian cartridge, which on being pierced
by the needle ignites the powder.
liareheath, near Berlin, where the soldiers exercise.