Chapter 285 Berlin—Mauser Arsenal
In the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin.
Factory Director Mayne was demonstrating the performance of two rifles to Ernst. On the table were the Prussian Dresser rifles and the Summersail rifles captured on the battlefield.
Mayne picked up the Chasebol rifle and explained to Ernst: "The Chasepleau rifle used by the French borrowed many successful practices from the Dreiser rifle. It also rotated the rear-pull bolt and fired. It is fired by a needle and has paper fixed bullets, but compared to the former, it is slightly better. For example, the locking system of the Dresser rifle has a problem of not being airtight and leaking, which greatly affects the efficiency of the gunpowder and also affects the efficiency of the gunpowder. This in turn affects the muzzle velocity of the bullet. "
"The Xia Sepo rifle has improved on this problem. It changed Dresser's hollow bolt to a solid one and added a rubber seal on the top of the bolt. When the bullet is fired, the high temperature generated by the gunpowder gas expands the rubber, and the sealing of the entire gun chamber is improved. The muzzle velocity is also increased, and the range is also increased. Another example is the primer of the bullet and the Dresser bullet. The primer of the Xiasebo bullet is located in the middle of the bullet, and the firing pin needs to be very thin and long. If it is too short, it cannot be reached. However, the primer of the Xiasebo bullet is located at the tail of the bullet, so the firing pin does not need to be very long and is greatly reduced. Failure rate.”
"The various performances of the Dresser rifle in the war have shown that it has completely fallen behind, so we originally had plans to retire a production line after the war, but all this will have to wait until Prussia confirms the release of a new rifle. Replace them completely," Main said to Ernst, the director of the Berlin Hechingen Arsenal.
"Well, then retire this Dresser production line! You have a new task now, which is to focus on the research and development of new firearms. This time I contacted you for cooperation. " Ernst said directly after hearing this.
Ernst plans to directly move this outdated Dresser rifle production line to East Africa. It is backward, but there is still a market in Africa.
Mayne asked curiously: "I wonder which of our colleagues is the collaborator you are looking for, Your Highness?"
"The Mauser brothers of the Kingdom of Württemberg don't know if you listen. Did you say that?" Ernst asked curiously.
"It turns out it's them! I actually know them, mainly because I had previous interactions with their father, Anders Mauser of the Royal Arsenal of Württemberg in Oberndorf. Anders Mauser is a famous gunmaker. But he has many children," Mayne said. "I heard that his two younger sons have indeed followed the same path as their father, but Your Highness, I don't think two young men can do much. Great achievement, they seem to have just been kicked out by their partners a few days ago. Could it be that they deceived you again?”
This matter also starts with the family of the Mauser brothers, who are from a family of firearms. According to common sense, the Mauser brothers should have had a good life since childhood, but their family was a bit special. Old Mauser had thirteen sons, so his life was very tight.
As teenagers, the Mauser brothers had to work as odd jobs at the Württemberg Arsenal in Ordorf to barely make ends meet. However, the Mauser brothers really dared to think and do. As early as before the Franco-Prussian War, they tried to make some improvements to the Dresser rifle, but the Württemberg Arsenal closed down a few years ago.
The unemployed Mauser brothers were forced to work at the Norris Arsenal. In the Norris Arsenal, there is a "big shot" Samuel Norris, who is the European representative of Remington, a famous American firearms company. At the Norris Arsenal, Samuel and the Mauser brothers "met each other late". Based on the Chassepo rifle, they combined some of the Mauser brothers' improvements to the Dreiser rifle and jointly designed the "Mauser-Norris" Reese's rifle and applied for a U.S. patent. Just when the Mauser brothers finally felt that they were reaching their moment of glory, Samuel tore up the cooperation contract and kicked the Mauser brothers away. The Mauser brothers had to return to their hometown to build a handicraft workshop. .
The Americans did all kinds of bad things, but they also gave Ernst an advantage. Just when the Mauser brothers were in decline, Ernst found them in Ordorf in Württemberg through many inquiries. location of the small workshop and came up with the idea of collaboration.
Of course, the Mauser brothers had no reason to refuse the invitation from a crown prince. They agreed to cooperate with the Hechingen Arsenal, but they also wanted to retain the name of their small workshop "Mauser Arsenal". This was their last insistence. Ernst doesn't care about this. Anyway, the Hechingen Arsenal in Berlin will become the German regional firearms research and development center in the future, so it can be renamed "Berlin-Mauser Arsenal".
As for East Africa, well, there is no R&D capability. To be honest, if the entire Hechingen Arsenal is really moved to East Africa, it will be useless. The production line is okay, it only needs workers to operate. Without Europe's good scientific research environment and talent pool, firearms research and development would be impossible.
So East Africa can at best continue to be a processing factory. As for R&D, it should still be placed in Germany. Only when East African education develops in the future can the R&D function be moved back to East Africa.
At the same time, Ernst could not give up the Prussian arms market, so the new "Berlin-Mauser Arsenal" would continue to produce equipment for the German army.
"Mayne, don't say that. In fact, young people always have their own ideas, and I feel pretty good about the Mauser Brothers' Mauser-Norris. Let them improve it on this basis. I think the new rifle will Very good, now we just need to give two young people a chance," Ernst said, "And we don't have the ability to develop firearms. This is a fact. The Hechingen Arsenal is just a foundry, and the two Mauser brothers are mature. plan, after all, their previous results were almost adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
Before the development of the "Mauser-Norris Rifle", the Dresser rifle improved by the Mauser brothers was once used by the Austrian Empire. The Hungarian War Ministry noticed, but in the end the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not adopt it.
Mayne said: "Okay! Your Highness, if you really think so, I won't object, but firearms research and development is a matter that requires caution. If we go the wrong way, the market will not wait for us."
"Hahaha, don't worry! It doesn't matter even if the market doesn't recognize it. The East African Kingdom can support the new rifle. Even if no other country orders it, we will place the order ourselves." Ernst said.
In fact, the reason why Ernst is confident is that the firearms design of the Mauser brothers has matured. They completed the preliminary design of the previous Mauser M1871 rifle in 1869. Now as long as there is a more advanced and perfect Working environment, you can make final improvements to the Mauser M1871 rifle.
As for the performance of this gun, it is basically certain that it will not be too bad, so after it is developed, East Africa will not be disappointed when placing an order.
"In that case, I won't say anything more, but Your Highness! Do you know anything about firearms?" Mayne asked curiously.
"Of course I don't understand." Ernst said: "I just rely on intuition."
(End of this chapter)