Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye (1821–1880) was a French artillery general of the 19th century, and superintendent of the works at Meudon

Meudon

Meudon is a municipality in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris.-Geography:...

. He was a former ordnance officer for Napoleon III. He also established the gun manufacture in Tarbes

Tarbes

Tarbes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.It is part of the historical region of Gascony. It is the second largest metropolitan area of Midi-Pyrénées, with 110,000 inhabitants....

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Reffye mitrailleuse

De Reffye developed in 1866 the Reffye mitrailleuse

Mitrailleuse

Mitrailleuse is the French word used to describe all rapid-firing weapons of rifle caliber. Therefore the word mitrailleuse, when used in the French language, applies to all machine guns including modern full automatic weapons. However in the English language the word mitrailleuse applies to...

 (named "Canon à balles"), one of the best early machine guns, which was used during the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 of 1870. It was based on the earlier Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse

Montigny mitrailleuse

The Montigny mitrailleuse was an early type of crank-operated machine-gun developed by the Belgian gun works of Joseph Montigny between 1859 and 1870...

 of 1863.

Breech-loading cannons

Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye took a key role in introducing rifled breech loading cannons, a marked improvement over the previous La Hitte system

La Hitte system

The La Hitte system , named after the French general Ducos, Count de La Hitte, was an artillery system designed in March 1858 to implement rifled muzzle-loading guns in the French Army.-Conception:...

 which had been in place since 1858. The La Hitte system used rifled weapons, but they were muzzle-loading, which had the advantage of structural strength, but the disadvantage of slowness in loading.

In 1870, de Reffye developed the Reffye 85mm cannon

Reffye 85mm cannon

The Reffye 85mm cannon was a French artillery piece of the 19th century, developed by the French artillery General Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye, superintendent of the works at Meudon. The weapon was adopted by the French Army from 1870...

, an 85 mm (3.35-inch) rifled breech-loading cannon, equipped with a breech screw, initially made of bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

. The cannon used shell cartridges for ammunition.

De Reffye also developed the Reffye 75mm cannon

Reffye 75mm cannon

The Reffye 75mm cannon was a French artillery piece of the 19th century, developed by the French artillery General Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye, superintendent of the works at Meudon. The weapon was adopted by the French Army from 1873...

 in 1873. His cannons would be soon superseded by the Lahitolle 95mm cannon

Lahitolle 95mm cannon

The Lahitolle 95 mm cannon was a French cannon of the 19th century, developed in 1875 by the artillery commander de Lahitolle. The Lahitolle 90 mm was the first French field cannon made of steel, and one of the first to be equipped with a screw breech...

 and especially the De Bange 90mm cannon

De Bange 90mm cannon

The De Bange 90 mm cannon was a type of field artillery piece developed in France by Colonel Charles Ragon de Bange in 1877, and adopted by the French Army that same year...

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