Making the Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket

Explores the transition from hand-crafted to mechanized production of military firearms, focusing on the French Model 1777 and Russian Model 1808 muskets.

The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket embodies a number of revolutionary milestones for Britain; it, and the carbines and short rifles derived from it, were the first rifled firearms to be issued universally to all troops; its design owed more to the French 1777 musket than to its English forbears; it was the first firearm to be produced en masse extensively by machinery; in 1857 it became the first firearm in Britain to be made fully interchangeable.

The nature of this new rifle presented a number of challenges for the private contractors who traditionally had supplied military firearms and some unique contract documents specifying standards are shown. Their failure to meet contractual obligations led to the formation of the Select Committee on Small Arms in 1854 to examine its manufacture and procurement. However, its outcome was pre-empted - in that same year the Committee on the Machinery of the United States, was sent to America to examine the machinery used in gun manufacture and given authority to purchase appropriate machines for use at Enfield.

Aspects of its manufacture at Enfield are covered in a small number of contemporary accounts. These vary in the detail provided and contain errors which have been noted and corrected.

Access to a wealth of specimens, drawings and documents not previously studied or published, has allowed the manufacture of this iconic rifle using these new technologies to be presented in unprecedented detail.

Peter G Smithurst graduated in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1968 spending several years as a research chemist before pursuing his passion for industrial and technological history, moving in to museum work.

Peter was appointed Assistant Curator of the Industry and Technology section of Sheffield City Museums in 1975 including the planning and opening of the Kelham Island Industrial Museum in 1982 leading to a promotion to Principal Keeper, Industry and Technology. In 1994 Peter was appointed Assistant Curator of Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum at Fort Nelson before transferring to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for its opening in 1996.

In 2001, Peter became the Executive Director at the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont housed in the Robbins & Lawrence factory where much of the technology for the mechanised manufacture of firearms, including the Enfield 1853 rifle, had been developed before finally returning to the Royal Armouries in 2002 retiring in 2009 as Senior Curator of Firearms. At that time, he also became the first to be appointed Curator Emeritus and continues that role today. Just prior to retirement Peter was appointed Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield resulting in a PhD from the School of Engineering and Computing in 2020 for a study of the manufacture of the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle-Musket and was subsequently elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2021.

Peter has published extensively on a variety of topics including cutlery manufacture and steelmaking but particularly on arms and armour, These have been both books on specific weapons, such as the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle and the Gatling Gun, but also numerous articles relating to historical and technological aspects of ballistics, artillery, firearms, ammunition, edged weapons and arms manufacture.