Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye

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T6- d164 - Fig. 132. - Le général de Reffye.png
Reconstruction of a Roman catapult
Reffye Mitraileuse
Canon de 7, shutter

Jean-Baptiste Auguste Philippe Dieudonné Verchère de Reffye (born July 30, 1821 in Strasbourg , † December 3, 1880 in Versailles ) was a French designer of guns . He was also semi-professional in painting and archeology .

Live and act

From November 1, 1841, he attended the École polytechnique , then decided on a career as an officer in the French army and, from November 24, 1843, attended a military academy (l'Ecole d'Application) in Metz . He returned to Strasbourg, where he served from January 20, 1846 in the 15th artillery regiment. In his free time he worked with artist friends such as Félix Haffner , Gustave Brion , Louis Frédéric Schützenberger and Gustave Jundt . After the February Revolution in 1848 de Reffye was sent to Paris , where he met the artists Jean-Léon Gérôme and Auguste Toulmouche . He was also used in the fifth artillery regiment in Strasbourg and the third in Metz. On March 29, 1853, de Reffye was assistant weapons production in Tulle . There he gained valuable experience for his later designs. In 1858 he accepted a teaching position at an artillery school.

De Reffye was interested in antique war machines , of which he made models . These models were used by his friend Brion, who created a painting for Emperor Napoleon III , which depicts the siege of a city by Julius Caesar . At the same time, the models caught the attention of the emperor, for whom archeology was a great passion. The two men began working together in the field in the late 1850s. Brion's paintings and Reffyes models were shown at the Salon de Paris art exhibition in 1861 . Napoleon III suggested Reffye to work in the Museum of Gallo-Roman Antiquities (Musée des antiquités Gallo-Romaines), now the Musée d'Archéologie nationale . In August 1862, Napoleon III appointed de Reffye to his orderly officer . In 1866 de Reffye finished his work on the Roman war machines and handed them over to the museum. De Reffye was a member of the commission for the construction of the museum and remained connected to it until 1870 when the Franco-German War forced him to move. De Reffye also belonged to the Commission de topographie des Gaules for the exploration of Gaul (Roman France). He was particularly interested in Alesia . In 1864 de Reffye published about the weapons found in Alesia. However, his expertise in this area has been questioned.

In the middle of the 19th century there were great advances in weapon technology and artillery was in a state of upheaval. In 1860 Joseph Montigny developed a mitrailleuse , a volley gun ; Napoleon III showed interest in the weapon and commissioned Reffye to work on improvements. This was done in the imperial mechanical workshops of Meudon from 1863 to 1867 . De Reffye, now in charge of Meudon, turned to breech-loading guns . In 1867 he designed a screw lock and the Canon de 7 gun based on it .

On July 19, 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out. The Reffye mitrailleuse used did not perform as expected. The Reffye breech-loading gun, however, had not yet been introduced. This was now produced during the siege of Paris (1870–1871) . Before the enclosure of Paris, De Reffye was sent to Nantes . There he took over the management of the factories and the foundry of Indret in Indre on September 19, 1870 . He managed to produce 400 mitraileuses and 300 guns. When the Germans threatened Nantes, de Reffye had to evacuate again. He fled to Tarbes , which is near the Spanish border. After the war, in 1874, he expanded the factories there. He reequipped the defeated French artillery with an improved Canon de 7, the Canon Reffye de 85 mm . Later a lighter version Canon Reffye de 75 mm (Canon de 5) was added.

For his services he was honored as commander of the Legion of Honor and on January 8, 1878 he was promoted to brigadier general. Already in poor health, he fell off his horse on March 28, 1879 and later died of the consequences.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Le Général Verchère de Reffye in: Revue d'Alsace , Volume 35, Fédération des sociétés d'histoire et d'archéologie d'Alsace, 1884 pp. 502–503 [1]
  2. ^ A b c d Musée d'Archéologie nationale : Jean-Baptiste Auguste Philippe Dieudonné Verchère de Reffye
  3. ^ A b c d e Claude Larronde: L'arsenal de Tarbes , Verlag Société académique des Hautes-Pyrénées, 1991, p. 259, digitized
  4. ↑ a b Le General Reffye in: Revue Militaire Suisse , Volume 25, 1880, p. 529, digitized
  5. ^ Verchère de Reffye , Ministry of Culture and Communication
  6. ↑ André Berthier, André Wartelle: Alesia , publishing Nouvelles Éditions Latines , 1990, ISBN 9782723304139 , p 100, Digitalisat
  7. ↑ Peter Francis: A History of Guns , Verlag Absolute Crime, 2014, ISBN 1-4961-5547-5 , pp. 44-45, digitized
  8. ^ La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France , Volume 56, issues 1–5, Verlag Conseil des musées nationaux , 2006, p. 74, digitized
  9. ^ Richard Wille: Guide to the theory of weapons , Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag , 1874, p. 189, digitized
  10. ↑ a b c d e Les Merveilles de la science , 1891, pp. 156–162, digitized
  11. ↑ Larronde: L'arsenal de Tarbes , p. 17
  12. ↑ Larronde: L'arsenal de Tarbes , p. 17
  13. ↑ Eugène Seinguerlet: Le Général de Reffye in: Revue alsacienne , Volume 4, January 1881, pp 97-106 Digitalisat
personal data
SURNAME Verchère de Reffye, Jean-Baptiste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Verchère de Reffye, Jean-Baptiste Auguste Philippe Dieudonné (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French designer of guns
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH December 3, 1880
Place of death Versailles