AHC: The Girandoni Air Rifle is mass produced

http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-girandoni-air-rifle/

At the very same time that the Austrian army was struggling to keep the Girandonis in repair, an American inventor, Eli Whitney (1765-1825) was trying to manufacture muskets with moving parts machined so precisely that they would be “interchangeable” between weapons of the same type. It was a revolutionary idea in a world where every complex mechanism was individually filed and ground to fit. The development of precision machine tools and gauges in the early 19th century had not progressed far enough to make Whitney’s dream a reality until after his death. If Girandoni’s brilliant design had connected with Whitney’s interchangeable parts, armies equipped with mass-produced smokeless magazine rifles would have been quickly forced to adapt their tactics and doctrine, and subsequent history might have taken a very different path.

MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
 
It's merely a matter of completely removing the powerful aristocracy and kick-starting the Industrial Revolution in Austria. :rolleyes:

Austria was one of the leaders of Europe early on in the Industrial Revolution. And the aristocracy wasn't hostile to industry and innovation by nature.

Austria's trouble with industrializing has more to do with the severe financial strains of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and the political views that constantly getting beaten up by the French provoked in the court.

It is a fun idea for a PoD though. No idea how to make it happen.

BTW, The problem in manufacturing the Girandoni rifle wasn't so much with the rifle itself, but rather with flask for the compressed air.

fasquardon
 
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