Bill Adams sends along the url for a short feature on Sir Joseph Whitworth, concentrating more on Whitworth’s personality (rather prickly) and inventions (the micrometer, among others). The narrator’s knowledge of firearms and things military is marginal, as where he says that the British Army should have adopted it and that it would have given them victory over the Zulus.
In fact the British Army did adopt the Whitworth briefly for the rifle brigade, but dropped it because of its cost and tendency to foul. Although the Whitworth was a great sharpshooter’s rifle, the Enfield (and the Martini-Henry) were better weapons for the line.
Worth looking at.
From TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog, post Joseph Whitworth video
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