A diagram of a needle-gun cartridge, showing the paper cartridge case, the sabot, and acorn-shaped bullet. It was designed in Prussia by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse for the Prussian army and was a revolutionary step in the development of firearms. Though these rifles had an advantage in terms of range and muzzle velocity over the Dreyse, their low rate of fire (average of 3 shots per minute) gave the Dreyse the advantage, able to fire over 10 shots per minute. The Dreyse rifle was an example of a caseless ammunition rifle in the sense that it was designed so that the soldier had to load the rifle, but not expel the fired case. Therefore it became common practice for the user to change the needle in mid-combat. The first types of needle-gun made by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse were muzzle-loading, the novelty lying in the long needle driven by a coiled conchoidal spring which fired the internal percussion cap on the base of the sabot. The Dreyse Needle gun was among the first firearms to feature a firing pin, developing upon the invention of the percussion rifle. The employment of the needle-gun radically changed military tactics in the 19th century. Soldiers were provided with two replacement needles for that purpose. The success of the Dreyse needle gun spurred subsequent developments in firearms technology and, before the start of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the French introduced the Chassepot rifle. The second innovation that made the Dreyse effectively a caseless ammunition rifle was that the primer was physically connected to the bullet, so it left the rifle together with it. The only contemporary rifle which it can be compared to is the Norwegian Kammerlader—the only other breech loader adopted for service in the 1840s. However the Dreyse Needle gun, for all its innovations, had a significant number of flaws. One observer proclaimed, "the needle-gun is the king.". The Dreyse Needle gun, named the Zündnadelgewehr (Needle Ignition Rifle) in German, was a breechloading rifle which, unlike the percussion rifles of the time, used a firing pin (shaped like a needle) to pierce the paper cartridge and strike the percussion cap within it. The Dreyse's success on the field helped Prussia to unify Germany by 1871 and led to the observation by some of "the needle-gun is king". It was designed in Prussia by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse for the Prussian army and was a revolutionary step in the development of firearms. Because the breech-loader made it possible for a Prussian soldier to fire five (or more) shots, even while lying on the ground, in the time that it took his Austrian muzzle-loading counterpart to reload while standing, it was seen as allowing the Prussians to sweep the field. The breech would fail to close entirely after several shots due to the lack of an effective obturation seal. A close-up shot of the bolt-action system on the Dreyse Needle gun. Although being accepted for service in 1841 it wasn't introduced into service in Prussia until 1848, then later into the mil… It was also the first breechloading rifle to use bolt action to open and close the chamber. The Dreyse also benefitted from allowing the user to lay on the ground when reloading, meaning less of the soldier was exposed during reloading and operation. The cartridge used with this rifle consisted of the paper case, the bullet, the percussion cap and the black powder charge. Prominent Austrians frequently betray a subtle and often humorous obsession with the Prussian Needle gun in Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities. The Dreyse Needle gun was also classed as a caseless ammunition rifle, with the paper cartridge being completely burned in the firing process. Diagram of the paper cartridge for the Dreyse Needle gun. Consequently a smaller charge can be used to obtain the same velocity as a rear-ignited charge of the same bullet calibre and weight. With the subsequent unification of Germany the Dreyse needle-gun was replaced by the Mauser Model 1871 rifle in German service. The Prussian Needle gun appears in Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires III in the hands of "Needle Gunners", who act as German skirmisher units. Upon release of the trigger, the point of the needle pierces the rear of the cartridge, passes through the powder and hits the primer fixed to the base of the sabot. Its effective range was very short compared to that of the muzzle-loading rifles of the day, and conspicuously so as against the Chassepot. Dreyse was ennobled in 1864. It was shorter and lighter than the live round, since it lacked the projectile, but was otherwise similar in construction and powder load. 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