named after its inventor, emile berthier, a french civilian engineer in the algerian railways, the berthier's three-shot vertical-feed mannlicher-type en bloc magazine could be loaded by clips, greatly increasing reloading speed, a particular convenience for cavalry and other mounted troops. a spring-loaded arm fed cartridges to the breech, and when all cartridges had been loaded, the empty clip fell out by gravity through an opening in the bottom of the magazine. the small 3-shot magazine capacity was adopted after field testing, where the cavalry expressed a preference for a non-protruding magazine that did not interfere with the balance or handling of the rifle. the berthier carbine was adopted by the french army on march 14, 1890, and a short rifle version of the berthier rifle was adopted in 1907. french records indicate that in excess of two million berthier rifles and carbines were manufactured by the french state manufactures supplemented by civilian industries. like the mle 1886 lebel, the berthier lacked a mechanical safety; french training protocols called for soldiers to carry their rifle with loaded magazine but without a round in the chamber until ordered to load rifles by an nco or officer in charge. france employed large numbers of colonial troops with limited technological experience, and since colonial combat conditions in north africa and indochina were extremely hard on service weapons, carrying with an empty chamber was considered superior to reliance on a mechanical safety, since a rifle with no round in the chamber could never go off, unlike a rifle whose safety was not properly engaged or had malfunctioned due to grit or wear.