rifle: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos

bolt-action rifle

Labeled diagram of an M16 automatic rifle showing its main components, including the stock, receiver, trigger, magazine, handguard, barrel, and front sight, with each part identified for educational purposes.

British Enfield Pattern 1851 (top), a percussion-ignition, Minié-type muzzle-loader, and German 1898 Mauser (bottom), a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeater.

Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle

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Topics

assault rifle AK-47 P/51 rifle Avtomat Fyodorova chassepot rifle Cookson repeating rifle Enfield rifle Kentucky rifle Martini-Henry breechloader Remington Rolling Block Rifle machine gun Ghost gun pistol shotgun musket harquebus handgun blunderbuss

Key People

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William Greener

gunmaker and inventor

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Henri-Gustave Delvigne

French officer and inventor

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Patrick Ferguson

Scottish soldier and inventor

North, Simeon

Simeon North

American manufacturer

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Ferdinand, knight von Mannlicher

Austrian arms designer

James Watt as a young man, c1769. Scottish engineer and instrument maker. Invented the modern steam engine which became the main source of power in Britain's textile mills. His engine had a separate condenser in which steam from the cylinder; (see notes)

Weaponry, Energy, and Power Systems Quiz