Jean Baptiste Auguste Verchere de Reffye

Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye (; 30 July 1821 – 6 December 1880) was a French artillery general of the 19th century, and superintendent of the works at

Meudon Meudon () is a French Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, on the left bank of the Seine. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of P ...

. He was a former ordnance officer for

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

. He also established the gun manufacture in

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of southwestern France. It is ...

Reffye mitrailleuse

De Reffye developed in 1866 the Reffye mitrailleuse (named "Canon à balles"), one of the best early machine guns, which was used during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

of 1870. It was based on the earlier Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse of 1863.

Breech-loading cannons

Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye took a key role in introducing rifled

breech loading Breech may refer to: * Breech (firearms), the opening at the rear of a gun barrel where the cartridge is inserted in a breech-loading weapon * breech, the lower part of a pulley block * breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leave ...

cannons, a marked improvement over the previous La Hitte system which had been in place since 1858. The La Hitte system used rifled weapons, but they were muzzle-loading, which had the advantage of structural strength, but the disadvantage of slowness in loading. In 1870, de Reffye developed the Reffye 85mm cannon, an 85 mm (3.35-inch) rifled

breech-loading A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...

cannon, equipped with a breech screw, initially made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

. The cannon used shell cartridges for ammunition.''Age of Great Guns: Cannon Kings and Cannoneers'' page 30 by Frank E. Comparat

/ref> De Reffye also developed the Reffye 75mm cannon in 1873. His cannons would be soon superseded by the Lahitolle 95mm cannon and especially the De Bange 90mm cannon.

Notes

French generals 1821 births 1880 deaths Military personnel from Strasbourg Deaths by horse-riding accident in France {{france-mil-bio-stub