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William Ellis Metford

Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 140, 1900

He soon resumed his old hobby - experiment in rifle work. As early as 1852 Mr Metford had carried out experiments at the long distance of 1,200 yards. About the end of that year he suggested a hollow-based bullet for the Enfield Rifle which was brought to the notice of the Committee on Small Arms in 1853 by Mr Pritchett, and adopted by them. Both at this time and afterwards, he made many experiments on alloys of lead, tin and antimony and on the changes in hardness which take place in them with time.

In 1854 he investigated the disturbance of the barrel by the shock of the explosion, which affects the line of flight of the bullet, a difficulty which has led to much misunderstanding. About this time he designed a form of telescopic sight which he afterwards used a great deal and which was a decided improvement on existing patterns.

He gave much attention to the problem of making an explosive rifle bullet and in 1857 sent in his invention to the Select Committee who found it the best of those offered to them. It was not adopted however until 1863, when it had successfully competed against Colonel Boxer's and General Jacob's shells. It was very cheap and easy to manufacture, the explosive being a mixture of sulphur and chlorate of potash, and the hollow a simple one at the nose of the bullet. The Convention of St Petersburg in 1868 put an end to the use of explosive rifle bullets; but the superior accuracy of the hollow-fronted bullet led to its retention for the Service rifle.

The Volunteer movement of 1859-60 had led to a great revival of interest in rifle work, and at the Wimbledon Meeting of 1862 Mr Metford made the acquaintance of Sir Henry Halford, hence-forward his friend and assistant in his experiments. Together they competed, with rifles specially designed by Mr Metford, for the prizes given by the National Rifle Association in 1864-5 for shooting at 2,000 yards. In both these years Mr Metford's rifles were successful. He now made many experiments to determine the velocity of the bullet at different points in its passage along the barrel and was able to lay down a curve for such a spiral as would give the bullet equal increments of rotation in equal times - the only scientific basis for an increasing spiral. This invention, though it proved to be less important than was at first supposed, formed the subject of a patent. A new form of ballistic pendulum, with double suspension, suggested partly by Mr Froude, was of great help to Mr Metford in his experiments.

Mr Metford's chief distinction in rifle progress however is that he was a pioneer of the substitution of very shallow grooving and a hardened cylindrical bullet expanding into it, for deep grooving and bullets made of soft lead. No one before him had realised that the expansion of a bullet under the blow of the powder was ample and instantaneous and that deep grooving served to accumulate fouling, while soft lead created unnecessary friction. The Whitworth system of polygonal grooving gave far more grip on the bullet than was needed to give it proper spin. Mr Metford found that a bullet could be spun with rifling only 0.0005 inch deep, and that a depth of 0.004 inch was ample for all practical purposes. In 1865 his first match-rifle appeared, having five shallow grooves and shooting a hardened bullet of special design. It immediately achieved prominence in the hands of Sir Henry Halford, and in a very few years Mr Metford's rifles, and those made on the same principles, had left all others far behind.

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