Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol 3, No 1 (2010)

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, the manufacture of military small arms (rifles and pistols) cannot stay out of the progress of the Industrial Revolution. It is therefore, quite logically, to be a process of mechanization, which is also a human adventure. In fact, from 1850 to 1870, is almost the Second Empire, which actually marks the entry of France into the modern era, the military and political leaders face a double challenge: to equip the army of a modern rifle, as we were in a period of intense technological innovation, and move from a largely manual production, provided by qualified gunsmiths, a mechanized production, in which the systematic use of machine tools enable real interchangeability of parts. This is the mark of a modern industrial manufacturing.