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The 12-pdr rifle was designed in the early 1850s by British manufacturer Joseph Whitworth, who had recently been contracted to improve the Pattern 1853 Enfield.During his experiments with the Enfield, Whitworth was inspired to begin experimenting with a hexagonally-rifled barrel; Whitworth would later apply these principles to his field guns.
The Whitworth rifle was an English-made percussion rifle used in the latter half of the 19th century. A single-shot muzzleloader with excellent long-range accuracy for its era, especially when used with a telescopic sight , the Whitworth rifle was widely regarded as the world's first sniper rifle .
The Whitworth, designed by Joseph Whitworth and manufactured in England, was a rare gun during the war but an interesting precursor to modern artillery in that it was loaded from the breech and had exceptional accuracy over great distance. An engineering magazine wrote in 1864 that, "At 1600 yards [1500 m] the Whitworth gun fired 10 shots with ...
The gun used polygonal rifling, a principle invented by Whitworth in 1853.The concept was to use the hexagon to impart a very rapid spin to the projectile. The method of manufacturing the rifling was thus described by the Report of the Armstrong & Whitworth Committee of the British War Office (1866):
The 3-pdr rifle was designed by British manufacturer Joseph Whitworth in the early 1850s. Along with Whitworth's 12-pdr rifle, the artillery piece was considered for adoption by the British government's Board of Ordnance, eventually losing out to the Armstrong gun. [1]
Whitworth rifle This page was last edited on 15 April 2024, at 19:14 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License ...
The QF 12-pounder 12-cwt gun (Quick-Firing) (abbreviated as Q.F. 12-pdr. [12-cwt.]) was a common, versatile 3-inch (76.2 mm) calibre naval gun introduced in 1894 and used until the middle of the 20th century. [4] It was produced by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick and used on Royal Navy warships, exported to allied countries, and used for land ...
The Whitworth rifle proved to be an accurate and deadly instrument. Its most remembered act was on May 9, 1864, at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, where Union General John Sedgwick urged his men to leave a ditch in which they lay in order to cover from the Confederate snipers hidden 800 to 1000 yards away.