However, this limits the firing rate of the weapon, because
opening and closing the chamber needs to be done at a certain
speed so that the old case can eject out of the port before the
chamber closes. This means the magazine spring and the bolt
return spring have to be designed and manufactured so that this
happens correctly. It was reasoned then that if the case could
be eliminated from the cartridge, there would be no need to go
through this ejection cycle. We've actually seen a weapon
already where there is no need to pull out the old casing after
the weapon is fired. Matter of fact, it was invented in the
early 1820s and perfected in 1836 and was one of the first
widely-used breech-loading military rifles. We're talking about
the Dreyse Needle Gun and its Needle Gun Cartridge. The needle
gun cartridge was made of paper, but it was also coated with a
greasy substance that provided lubrication to the weapon. When
the gun was fired, the gunpowder would burn and shoot the bullet
out of the tube. Since the pr