A Major Order from North America (2)

Joseph was indeed engrossed in working on something new in the laboratory: the Minié Rifle, a new toy he intended to give to Napoleon for his use in Italy.

By this time, rifled rifles already existed. However, these rifled guns were practically useless except for hunting because of their extremely slow loading speed. (The earliest rifled guns used bullets that were slightly thicker than the barrel, so when loading, the user had to use a hammer and a push rod to laboriously push the bullet into the barrel. This process was time-consuming and laborious, so much so that while a regular smoothbore gun would have already fired seven or eight shots, a rifled gun would only be able to fire one.)

But the advent of the Minié Ball changed everything.

In its original history, this bullet was invented around 1849 by the French Army Captain Claude Adilne Migne and Captain Henri - Gustav de Véquinet.

This bullet is slightly smaller than the rifle caliber, thus solving the embarrassing problem of older rifles' muzzle-loading cartridges being too large to fit into the barrel or causing blockages. Minié Ball can be easily pushed into the chamber using a push rod, greatly increasing the rate of fire.

The bullet had threads machined around its body to fit the rifling, with animal oil applied as a lubricant between the threads. (Later, the Britain learned this technology and brought it to India. However, because these bullets were coated with lard or tallow, India soldiers refused to use them, which became the trigger for the India Rebellion.)

The bullet's base is made of cork. During firing, the propellant gases impact the cork, causing it to expand rapidly. Because the bullet is expanded, the chamber can be sealed by the bullet itself at the moment of firing, preventing the leakage of propellant gases and loss of kinetic energy. This solves the chamber sealing problem of older muzzle-loading guns, greatly enhancing the gun's rate of fire, range, and safety (a good seal reduces the risk of propellant residue clogging the barrel and causing a barrel explosion).

Although this bullet was invented decades later, it was technically quite easy to implement at the time. However, the tactical advantages it offered were enormous.

First, it allowed rifled guns to catch up with smoothbore guns in terms of loading speed, leaving smoothbore guns with almost only the advantage of being cheaper as weapons.

A typical smoothbore rifle has an effective range of no more than 100 yards, but a rifled rifle using Minié Ball can effectively engage targets 500 yards away. This significantly extends the firing range of the infantryman's rifle.

Before the use of this type of bullet, both the Britain and Russia believed that "bullets are fools, bayonets are heroes." They were accustomed to advancing to the nearest point on the battlefield under enemy fire, then firing a volley before charging with bayonets to finish the job. However, if their opponents were using Minié Ball, which could be effectively fired from 500 yards away, then this bravery of both the Britain and Russia armies would become a joke. The importance of bayonet fighting would also decline sharply.

In the era of smoothbore muskets, infantry had to form strict ranks to fight due to the threat of cavalry (of course, in addition to this reason, the morale of the army was also a major factor; if morale was low, the skirmishers would simply disappear on the battlefield). However, with the Minié Ball, cavalry charging into infantry was practically suicide. As a result, the status of cavalry declined significantly.

In addition, artillery tactics were also greatly affected. In the era of smoothbore muskets, when artillery used grapeshot or volleyballs, its effective range exceeded that of the rifles carried by infantry. Therefore, artillery could be used as an offensive weapon in the field and placed at the front of the formation.

However, the advent of the Minié Ball suddenly extended the range of infantry weapons beyond that of artillery shot or grapeshot. While solid shot used by artillery had a much greater range than the Minié Ball, its inaccuracy made it ineffective against loosely positioned skirmishers. Therefore, if artillery were still used at the forefront for attack, the gunners would become easy targets for the enemy infantry. Consequently, artillery had to be relegated to a secondary role, and in most cases, used only as support weapons.

Even the Little Melon, which has already changed the course of history, will revert from its current position as a primary weapon to a secondary weapon due to limitations in throwing distance.

However, this weapon has a major flaw: its technology is so simple that anyone who sees it can understand how it works. Therefore, once it's used, the technology will inevitably be acquired by others before long. These individuals could be enemies of France or business rivals of the Bonaparte Family.

Therefore, this weapon could only be put into use before Napoleon invaded Italy. The Bonaparte Family relied on the victories and support brought by this weapon to rise to high political positions and used this position to suppress and defeat their business enemies.

Of course, Joseph, being a time traveler, knew that this weapon would eventually be replaced by the breech-loading bolt-action rifle. He wasn't intentionally being slow to implement it; it's just that some of the prerequisite technologies for the breech-loading bolt-action rifle were still difficult to achieve at present. For example, bolt-action rifles must use steel, not wrought iron, but in this era, the most advanced steelmaking technology in the world was still crucible steelmaking. Its output and efficiency simply could not meet the requirements.

The bullet experiments were actually successful quite early on, but the rifle design held it back. The Minié Ball required propellant gases to inflate the bullet, which meant it needed to use propellant with a faster burning rate. Simply having a faster burning rate wasn't difficult to achieve, but a faster burning rate brought two problems. One was that the chamber pressure rose too quickly, and the other was that the chamber pressure dropped too quickly. The former resulted in a very high peak chamber pressure, which could easily cause a barrel explosion, while the latter resulted in an insufficient average chamber pressure, and the bullet's velocity was not high enough.

To prevent the barrel from exploding, it was necessary to thicken the barrel, which would make the rifle too heavy and consume too much metal, increasing costs. Therefore, Joseph designed the barrel as a frustum shape, thicker at the rear and thinner at the front. However, determining the appropriate thickness and thinness was a matter that could only be solved through experimentation. Thus, these seemingly simple principles actually consumed a significant amount of Joseph's time, even reducing the length of his letters to Fanny.

However, no matter how busy you are, you must pay attention to the balance between work and rest. At least, this is essential for mental workers. Therefore, Joseph stipulated that researchers should have one day off every ten days and work no more than 12 hours a day. As for himself and senior researchers like Lavoisier, they had two days off every ten days and worked no more than six hours a day. As for manual laborers, they were everywhere, and unless their skills were so exceptional that they were irreplaceable, Joseph didn't have time to care about them.

Today wasn't a day off, but Joseph received a letter from Lucien saying that a millionaire wanted to discuss a big deal with him. So Joseph handed over the research institute to Lavoisier and rushed back to Marseille, where he met with Stephen Girard at Marseille estate.

Joseph only had a vague understanding of history; he didn't even know who Saint-Just was in his past life, so naturally he wouldn't know that the bald man before him, speaking fluent Bordeaux French, was a legendary figure in United States history. This Stephen Girard, who made his fortune smuggling arms to the Continental Army during the North America Revolutionary War, was a shipping magnate in North America and the first person in United States history to have personal assets exceeding ten million dollars. However, that all happened later. At this time, his empire was just beginning to take off.

Stephen Girard, a sailor by trade, had a particular interest in all kinds of ships. When he first saw the Black Pearl in New York harbor, he was immediately captivated. After learning a little about the Black Pearl's capabilities, he quickly calculated that if such a ship could carry a load of 500 tons, its efficiency would far surpass that of ordinary sailing ships. Thus, this French- United States with a keen sense of opportunity returned to France with the Black Pearl.

Over the next two days, Joseph and Stephen Girard engaged in arduous negotiations, with each side pleading poverty and offering empty platitudes, claiming that "the negotiations enhanced mutual understanding." Finally, they reached a strategic partnership agreement.

According to the final agreement signed by both parties, Stephen Girard will place a one-time order for seven 500-ton clipper ships from the Bonaparte Institute's shipyard, and will prepay the full purchase price for five of the ships. The remaining balance will be paid upon delivery of the ships.

Bonaparte's shipyard was required to transfer all relevant technologies for building clipper ships to Stephen Girard, and in return, guarantee that Stephen Girard would pay him no less than 1.5 times the salary of his France counterparts, send technical instructors to Stephen Girard's shipyard in New York, and ensure that Girard's shipyard in New York would master the technology for manufacturing clipper ships within two years.

Stephen Girard guaranteed that for the next fifteen years, Girard Shipyard would pay the Bonaparte Institute a technology licensing fee of one dollar per ton of deadweight for every clipper ship it produced.

The Bonaparte Institute guaranteed that it would not sell the technology to other manufacturers during this period. When selling clipper boats to other companies in North America, it would have to compensate Stephen Girard $1.50 per ton of cargo.