The Whitworth Rifle

[ResearchPress]

During the 1850s and 1860s the British service rifle calibre was .577, both for the muzzle-loading Enfield rifle and its breech-loading successor the Snider (a conversion of the Enfield). Early manufacture of the Enfield relied on much hand labour and consequently lead to problems of inconsistent performance, non-interchangeability of parts and slow supply. Joseph Whitworth was approached in 1854 to provide assistance with regards to the design of appropriate machinery for its manufacture.

Whitworth was the foremost manufacturer of machine tools of his time. Not content with considering the machinery for the manufacture of the rifle, he determined that a more appropriate course of action would be to establish that the proposed rifle was of optimum design before considering its mass production. The only design criteria Whitworth had was restriction to the service charge of 70 grains with a 530 grain weight bullet. The conclusion of his experiments was that the optimum bore for the charge and weight bullet specified would be .45 cal with a 1 in 20” twist to the rifling.

Despite rifle trials which resulted in Whitworth’s favour his rifle design was never adopted by the British army. While Whitworth may have missed out on a lucrative military contract, other events in the UK were to create a new market for his rifles.

During the late 1850’s there was growing apprehension as to the prospects of French invasion of Great Britain. This culminated in 1859 with the Government issuing a circular authorising Lords Lieutenant to raise Volunteer corps (akin to the US National Guard). There was an immediate rush of Volunteering, but it was not expected to last. Measures to secure the long-term prospects for the Volunteers were, however, put in place late in 1859 with the formation of the National Rifle Association (NRA), its aims including “the encouragement of Volunteer Rifle Corps and the promotion of rifle shooting throughout Great Britain.”

Queen Victoria fired the inauguarl shot at the first NRA Annual Rifle Meeting from a Whitworth muzzle-loading rifle placed in a mechanical rest. It had been aligned with a target at a distance of 400 yards. Joseph Whitworth handed a silken cord attached to the trigger to Her Majesty and the rifle was discharged by a slight pull on the cord. The adjustment was so accurate that the bullet struck the target within 1.25 inches from the centre.

Following the principles established by Whitworth, gun makers developed a special class of ‘small-bore’ target rifle. The majority of these rifles were around .451 calibre, and the term ‘small-bore’ was used to distinguish them from the ‘large-bore’ service rifle of .577 calibre. Captain Heaton, in his 1864 ‘Notes on Rifle Shooting’ describes a number of small-bore rifles: Baker, Beasley, Bissell, Crockart, Edge, Henry, Kerr, Lancaster, Newton, Parsons, Rigby, Turner and Whitworth. These are just a few of the gunmakers connected with the history of the small-bore rifle.

With the successful introduction of the Gibbs-Metford rifle in 1865, the period to c1870 marked the demise of the Whitworth rifle. Its deeply rifled hexagonal bore and mechanically fitting bullet was to be supplanted by the Metford and later Rigby rifles, with their shallow groove rifling and hardened lead bullets.

Whitworth did not patent the hexagonally bored rifle, rather a complete polygonal system for barrels and projectiles and method by which it could be made. From a system lacking in uniformity and based on ‘rule of thumb’ Whitworth created a system using precision engineering that would guarantee an accurate shot and stimulated the British gun trade into a period of experimentation and development.

The above is abridged from my: The Whitworth Rifle: A Brief Introduction.

If Whitworth and his rifle is of further interest I have a number of articles on-line on / by him. See: Joseph Whitworth, Manchester, England.

I also have a bibliography of material relating to Whitworth that is in my library.

David

[dromia]

Timely David, I'm just getting my kit ready for shooting my PH Whitworth the morrow. Cast up, lubed and sized some 451114AWs yesterday, I've also done some more 457121PHs but I've never got them to perform as well as the 451114AWS.

The 451114AWs also shoot better than the Hexagonal bullets, go figure.

[ResearchPress]

I'll be shooting my Whitworth again in a couple of weeks. Have some paper patched and GG bullets to try. Still working on loads and I don't shoot it very often.

David

[dromia]

None of the three hexagonal moulds I have drop small enough for me to paper patch, what I could do with is one of those hexagonal sizers i think it was Krannen that did them, don't suppose you know of a source for one?

[ResearchPress]

You could maybe try Pete Starley at www.black-powder.co.uk

David

[dromia]

Tried him a year ago and he didn't have one then.