Chapter 355: Doomed to Obsolescence
Berengar had been dreadfully busy with work over the past month, particularly in overseeing the beginning phases of his industrialization process, so much so that he had even begun to forsake his duties as a husband and father.
At this moment, he was sitting in his study, overseeing the expense reports for the initial startup costs of constructing a railroad. It was well within his expectations, and as such, he quickly signed his approval on the document with his fountain pen.
At this moment, he heard a knock on his door; as such, he instinctively called out to the person behind it.
"It's open."
After saying this, the door creaked open to reveal his newlywed wife, who was standing before him with a platter filled with food and a mug of beer. Before Berengar realized it, noon had approached, and lunchtime had arrived with it.
After seeing his beautiful young bride standing before him holding a plate filled with sausage, käsespätzle, and schnitzel Berengar's fatigue began to wash away as he stood up from his seat and greeted his woman.
"Adela, is it lunchtime already? I'm sorry I should have met you in the dining hall; I have just been so busy with work."
Adela laid the food tray down upon Berengar's desk and forced herself upon his lap. As she did so, she placed a finger on Berengar's lips silencing him from speaking. She looked into his deep sapphire eyes that she herself had in common before telling the thoughts on her mind.
"I understand you have been busy managing the realm; there is no need to apologize. Without you, I fear to think what Austria would have become. At the very least, allow me to assist you in any way I can. After all, your work is necessary, but skipping meals is bad for your health."
Berengar smiled as Adela lifted the liter mug of beer and brought it to his lips, in doing so forcing him to drink from the hearty lager contained within. After he did so, he began to continue his work while Adela continued to feed him from the plate of food. He was careful not to damage the documents with the fine Austrian cuisine residue.
As he continued to focus on his work while taking short breaks to eat Adela's food, his young wife noticed the documents on the table and the amount of Guldens Berengar was spending on the process of industrializing his nation as such, her mouth gaped in shock before asking the question on her mind.
"Can we afford such expenditures?"
Berengar chuckled before assuring the young woman that they could indeed afford the expense.
"Not to worry, my love, with the assets we have seized from Italy during our War for Independence and the income we receive from all of our businesses, the Austrian Crown can easily afford the expenditure. Besides, this is an investment into the future of our realm. These railways will provide significant economic and tactical advantages over our rivals."
Adela relaxed when she heard Berengar's assurance, and after doing so, fed him a spoon filled with the delicious cheesy dish known as käsespätzle; after doing so, she helped her husband wash it down with a sip of beer.
After finishing approving the distribution of funds to the construction of the railroad, Berengar began to take a look at the metallic cartridge design that Ludwig had struggled to create. The base material for the cartridge was copper, and the older man had attempted to embed a percussion cap in the rear.
Berengar instantly saw the faults with such a design and quickly began to draw the necessary modifications to make a proper metallic cartridge for use in firearms. Though Berengar could introduce smokeless powder, it would take some time to begin producing such a thing, and he currently had a massive stockpile of black powder built up.
With this in mind, Berengar began to redesign the cartridge around a reliable and proven black powder cartridge from his previous life. He began to draft the dimensions based upon the .45-70 govt used by the American armed forces in the latter half of the 19th century.
The bullet itself was a solid piece of lead and its diameter was .458 in or 11.6 mm. The cartridge itself was made of brass, which was more reliable than the copper cartridge that Ludwig had designed. The casing's neck was .480 in or 12.2mm in diameter, with a base diameter of 5.05 inches or 12.8mm.
The rim at the bottom of the cartridge was .608 in or 15.4mm in diameter as for the thickness of the edge; it was 0.70 in or 1.8mm; as for the length of the casing, it was 2.105 in or 53.5mm. For a rifle to properly stabilize the flight of this projectile, it would need a 1-20 rifling, which meant that for every complete revolution that the bullet twisted within the barrel, 20 inches were required to achieve it.
Adela watched in shock as Berengar was hard at work. Before her very eyes, he began utterly overhauling the rudimentary metallic cartridge that Ludwig had devised. Finally, he began to create the most critical point of a functioning metallic cartridge from memory as if it were second nature.
When Berengar began to create the centerfire primer seemingly from scratch, he lamented that he had no idea how to create a more modern Lead Styphnate explosive compound, which was required to make non-corrosive primers. He substituted the mixture with the far more primitive and cheaper to produce mercury fulminate that his chemists had already created and utilized in the current percussion cap production.
A centerfire primer was something that took decades for Europeans to discover in Berengar's previous life. Still, because Berengar was an engineer and a firearms fanatic in his earlier life, he was well aware of how to manufacture such a thing.
The centerfire primer he designed was a small cup embedded within the cartridge's rear. It utilized mercury fulminate as the charge to ignite the black powder contained in the casing. This effect was achieved by using a firing pin to strike the primer, which would cause the mercury fulminate to spark, thus igniting the black powder and propelling the projectile through the barrel of the rifle and downrange into the target.
After Berengar had finished designing a reliable and functional cartridge, he sat back in his seat and reflected on his previous life with a smile. His family was far from wealthy in his earlier life, and as such, they tended to utilize any firearm they could get their hands on for cheap. One of these rifles was an old Springfield trapdoor rifle.
His father in his past life had purchased the firearm for a few hundred bucks at a pawn shop and had taken Julian hunting with the rifle numerous times. They even hand-loaded their cartridges to use in the gun; as such, Berengar was familiar with all the details needed to make the cartridge reliable and functional.
Adela immediately inquired about the designs she had seen Berengar design out of thin air, based solely on a plan given to him; she had no idea how Berengar had taken a rudimentary concept and improved it effortlessly as if such a thing was natural.
"Berengar, what is this I am looking at right now?"
Berengar looked over at Adela with an awkward smile; he had been so immersed in recreating the .45-70 that he had utterly forgotten his wife was sitting on his lap watching him work. As such, he began to pet her pretty head before revealing his thoughts on the matter.
"This is the invention that will allow our Kingdom to reign supreme over our rivals for centuries. Now all I need to do is design a rifle capable of utilizing it. Of course, I will do such a thing at a later date. It is a pity..."
Adela instantly looked up at Berengar with confusion as she heard the last part of Berengar's explanation.
"What is?"
A smug smile appeared on Berengar's face as he began to explain his thought process.
"Ludwig did an exceptional job creating the needle rifle, and I fear it will only see two conflicts before it is ultimately replaced by a superior design of my own making. It is such a waste..."
In response to this, Adela giggled innocently. She found it cute how Berengar thought so seriously upon such a meaningless topic and began to console her man over his regrets.
"Well, if it helped you win two wars, then it wasn't a waste, was it?"
Berengar smiled bitterly as he heard this; it would appear the needle rifle was doomed to rapid obsolescence in both of his lives. Though it had served as the primary weapon of the Prussian Army for a few decades, in his past life, it was ultimately replaced by the superior Mauser 1871 and its metallic cartridge not long after it had helped win a major war. It would appear that such a fate awaited his needle rifle in this timeline.
Berengar figured he would not be able to mass-produce the new cartridge or the rifle he would have to design around it before his Army intervened in Granada. The Schmidt Needle Rifle would only serve in partial capacity towards the Austrian War for Independence and total capacity in the Austrian Intervention in the Reconquista.
With this in mind, Berengar sat up from his chair and began to stretch his legs, forcing Adela off of his lap as he did so. After moving around for a bit, he kissed Adela on the lips while hugging her. As he did so, he thanked her for her assistance.
"Thank you, Adela, for bringing me food; without it, I likely would have worked until I starved."
Adela smiled graciously as she accepted Berengar's thanks
"No thanks is required; I am your wife; it is my job to look after you."
After saying this, Adela grabbed ahold of the food tray and followed Berengar out of his study. Berengar needed a break from work after putting in so much effort, and he intended to entertain himself with his new wife.
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