Sir Joseph Whitworth is quite the famous name in engineering circles, credited with the development of such things as Whitworth threading (the first standardized thread pattern) and engineer’s blue. When he decided to make a rifle, he decided that he could make flat surfaces more precisely than round ones, and chose to design a rifle with a hexagonal bore and mechanically fitted bullets.

Video: [15:19]

https://youtu.be/Hi-S_horZGk?si=

Ian makes a correction to the original video: [7:18]

https://youtu.be/cUd2RQGfL7E?si=

  • FireTower@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    It had a 33 inch barrel, I would consider it to be a full length rifle.

    Carbines when referring to guns of this period are typically shorter in barrel length that rifles or muskets.

    Here’s a video from Ian on the differences:

    https://youtu.be/gQ4dJ-Y2Fb0?si=

    • RubanskiEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      Thank you for your answer! But I was mainly making a joke because of the hexagonal “bee” shape of the barrel :)