Thread 64159278

The year is 1767. Ben Franklin returns to his property to find mysterious crates containing 200 Chassepot 1866 rifles and 10,000 of black powder ammunition for them.

Would he, or anyone he knew be able to reverse engineer the rifles and ammunition to put what they find to any practical use? While the Chassepots are more advanced than the arms of his time, they are only one hundred years more so. Would people of the 1760s, being shown an example of a centerfire primed ammunition be able to create their own? (I have no idea if fulminated mercury was known to them, for example). Would they by able to replicate the basics of a single shot breechloader?

chassepots didnt exist in 1767, retard

They could probably manage to figure out percussion caps, but the metallurgy and machinery required to mass produce something like a late 19th century firearm wouldn't exist until the mid 19th century, and that's not something you can figure out from a finished product.

Gunsmiths at the time probably could have made copies of them, but nobody would have been able to mass produce them and fulminates hadn't been discovered yet so ammo would be out of the question.

>>64159278 (OP)
>Would they by able to replicate the basics of a single shot breechloader
ferugson already did it. its not viable without self containing brass cartridges

>>64159278 (OP)
They could replicate them, sure, but mass production would be impossible.
If you really tried you could probably make some automatic open bolt black powder abomination with tech of that era. Maybe even something better than that. But again, you're looking at one-offs or custom jobs at best.

>>64159327
Mercury fulminate was actually discovered in the 17th century.
Even if they didn't recognize the exact compound, they could figure out the general idea of a primer.

Fun fact: The very first high explosive ever discovered was fulminating gold. When it explodes it creates gold nanoparticles, creating that signature purple smoke.

>>64159423
>automatic open bolt black powder
are you retarded?

>>64159278 (OP)
we already had semi semi auto rifles in 1776 and an offical standard issue breach loading rifle in 1819. it wasnt viable to mass produce during that time.

belton repeatIng rifle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u2SzxLnxNg&t=824s

1819 hall rifle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmpdp4-y-U

>>64159427
problem?

>>64159479
yes retard you need a complete seal with black powder

>>64159311
this, you would be better off giving ben franklin advanced tooling and forging techniques or something. people can figure out barrel rifling after that

>>64159506
you think we didnt have rifled barrels in the 1760s? are you retarded?

>>64159278 (OP)
>Would he, or anyone he knew be able to reverse engineer the rifles and ammunition to put what they find to any practical use?
Nope.

>While the Chassepots are more advanced than the arms of his time, they are only one hundred years more so. Would people of the 1760s, being shown an example of a centerfire primed ammunition be able to create their own? (I have no idea if fulminated mercury was known to them, for example).
Nope.

>Would they by able to replicate the basics of a single shot breechloader?
Those have existed since the middle ages, usually in cannon of some flavor.

On top of the lack of fulminates, one of the reasons that cartridge rifles took as long to show up as they did was because mass producing all of the fiddly steel bits needed for breech-loading or repeating firearms was somewhere between miserable and impossible until powered machine tools came around. It would be like going back to 1930 and showing Jack Northrup an F-16.