Mitrailleuse
The first "mitrailleuse" was a manually fired 50-barrel volley gun originally developed in Belgium in 1851 by the Belgian Army Captain Fafschamps, who made a rough prototype and drawings of his invention. The system was improved during the 1850s by Louis Christophe and the Belgian engineer Joseph Montigny, with the completion of the 37-barrel Montigny mitrailleuse in 1863. From 1859, Joseph Montigny proposed his design to Napoleon III, which led to the development of the French Reffye mitrailleuse, designed by Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye with the collaboration of Montigny, and which was adopted by the French Army in 1865. Initially kept under wraps as a secret weapon, it was widely used in battle by French artillery during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). Smaller numbers of other designs, including the Gatling gun, were also purchased by the French government during the latter part of that conflict. The Reffye model had initially been built in small numbers and in secrecy: only about 200 were available at the beginning of the conflict. This also kept regular French field artillery in a neglected position in the eyes of French emperor Napoleon III, with dire consequences during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.
History of weapons
As well as these advances in firearms and artillery technology, new repeating firearms began to emerge on the battlefield. As soon as matchlocks appeared, there were attempts to create non-muzzleloading firearms. Early attempts such as the Ferguson rifle proved to be too complicated for regular soldiers. By 1836 a German gunsmith Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse invented the Dreyse needle rifle, the first bolt-action rifle, which the Prussian Army adopted for service in 1848. In 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War after the decisive Prussian victory at the Battle of Königgrätz it was obvious that muzzle-loading rifles were ineffective in battle. Soon after, nations all around Europe began adopting breech-loaders and converting their existing service rifles to breech-loaders. Such rifles include the British Snider Rifle and the French Chassepot Rifle. These new rifles, along with the invention of the revolver (patented in 1836) and the advent of machine in the 1860s, displayed the need for the way battles were fought to change. However, it was only until the First World War that military leaders around the world adapted new tactics to employ these weapons.