Salvatore Carcano ( Robbiate, 11 October 1827 -

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, 1903) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

inventor renowned for designing the Carcano bolt-action rifle, adopted by the Italian

Regio Esercito The Royal Italian Army ( it, Regio Esercito, , Royal Army) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfr ...

throughout

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Biography

He was born near the industrialized city of

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

in the then-

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Lombardo-Veneto, in a family of modest income. He enlisted as a volunteer in the Lombard artillery in April 1848 during the First Italian War of Independence, after the Austrian victory he fled to

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and was admitted into the Sardinian artillery as "Cadet gunsmith". When his enlistment expired in 1852 he was immediately employed by the Royal Arms Factory in Turin, quickly rising through the ranks. His work (including machinery designed by him for precision working of rifle parts), contributing to Piedmontese effort to prepare for the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, earned him a medal and a diploma in 1858. After travelling in

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and Switzerland from 1862 to 1863 to acquire and inspect machinery, in 1868 he was involved in the design of a new breech-loading rifle for the Regio Esercito, who was looking to convert its existing stocks of the muzzle-loader Fucile Mod. 1860 into a

needle gun A needle gun (or needle rifle for varieties with rifling) is a firearm that has a needle-like firing pin, which can pass through the paper cartridge case to strike a percussion cap at the bullet base. Types Pauly A diagram of a needle-gun ...

, being unable to design and build from scratch a new gun due to financial reasons; Carcano applied to the Doersch-Baumgarten bolt the security of the Dreyse, with satisfying results. The resulting Fucile Mod. 1867 was thus adopted by the Italian army, till its substitution with the

M1870 Italian Vetterli The M1870 Vetterli was the Italian service rifle from 1870-1891. In 1887, it would be modified into the repeating M1870/87 Italian Vetterli-Vitali variant. The Vetterli rifle used the 10.4mm Vetterli centrefire cartridge, at first loaded with b ...

. Most notably, he gave the decisive contribution for the realization of the Fucile Modello 1891 ("the ninety-one", as commonly known in Italy); he coupled his own bolt design, derived from that of the ''Mod. 1867'', to the Mannlicher-type charger clip. His accomplishment earned him a sum of money and the title of knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. He retired in 1896, and died in Turin in 1903.

Bibliography

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External links

Biography of Salvatore CarcanoSalvatore Carcano in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carcano, Salvatore 19th-century Italian inventors 1827 births 1903 deaths People from Varese