They say that around our planet there is an information and energy field, which the famous "sleeping prophet" John Casey called akashik. It is there that all the souls of the departed go and stay there, being united into a kind of Supermind, which sees everything, knows everything, can do everything, but is very reluctant to make contacts with ordinary people. Hence, by the way, all the mysterious phenomena of movement in a dream, superpowers, the ability to foresee events, but “asking an akashik” to help you with something is very difficult. But you can … However, this is not at all about this, but just about the abilities that are manifested from childhood.
The bolt and bolt handle of the Li-Navey rifle, Model 1895. The original bolt locking device is clearly visible using a figured cutout in the receiver protrusion, which includes the reloading handle.
For example, "Finger of Destiny" in childhood clearly touched a certain James Paris Lee - and this is undoubtedly! He was born in Scotland, in the city of Hawick, in 1831, but when he was five years old, his parents took him to Canada. And it was there, at the age of 12, that he made his first pistol, using for this … an old pistol barrel, a homemade walnut stock and a powder shelf made of coins! It didn’t matter, but Jace liked it and defined his whole life - he became a gunsmith designer. In 1858, together with his family, he moved to the United States, and already in 1861 he figured out how to convert the Springfield primer rifle into a breech-loading rifle chambered for a unitary cartridge. Gradually, Lee gained a whole bunch of inventions. For example, he proposed a pistol with a breaking loading mechanism not in a vertical, but in a horizontal plane, and the same rifle - very simple and reliable. Then he was interested in the Peabody bolt, with a lever under the stock, and he came up with his own version. So, if you look at the Martini-Henry rifle (there was already material about it on the VO), then it is easy to notice that the lever, combined with the trigger bracket, is offset to the stock. That is, the hand had to be moved down to reload. And he proposed a mechanism where this movement was not required!
James Paris Lee
Finally, he figured out how to control the Peabody bolt (apparently, he really liked it!) With … just one trigger! We press on it forward - the shutter opens. Back - closes. Even further back - cocked! True, even though from a technical point of view it was a witty decision, in reality the proposal "did not go". The mainspring is directly under the bolt! But a lever … it is still a lever. And here the "shoulder of force" was quite small, that is, it would be difficult to work with such a shutter. Perhaps it was good for a pistol, but not for a rifle.
And here, namely in 1879, Lee received a patent for his most significant invention, which determined the appearance of small arms for … the rest of the time up to the present day. He invented the middle vertical store! Before him, the stores were tubular and were located either in the butt or under the barrel. And he suggested a store in the form of a rectangular box, inserted immediately behind the trigger bracket.
Rifle "Li-Neyvi" Model 1895
The store could be loaded both one at a time and with the help of a clip. Its capacity could be changed by a simple extension. Of course, Lee's idea did not immediately find adherents, and his proposal to supply soldiers with pre-equipped stores seemed to be the height of extravagance. But then his box store became the most widespread in the whole world.
Drawing of Lee's store from the patent description of 1879.
But Lee was not a little shop invented by him and he swung at an equally original rifle, and it was here that he surpassed all the gunsmiths of that time. Its prototype is the “Lee” rifle. The 1879 model was the first bolt-action rifle of his system and, in addition, also with a magazine of his design. Almost everyone was surprised at her, and there was a reason. The fact is that all the magazine rifles that were then in service with different countries were similar as twin brothers. Their trunks were locked with a cylindrical bolt, in the front part there were usually two protrusions (called combat), which, when the bolt was turned 90 degrees, went beyond the corresponding supporting surfaces on the breech of the barrel. That is, to reload, the bolt had to be turned up, but the Lee rifle acted in a completely different way.
The device of the shutter and store.
To reload it, the shooter had to pull the bolt handle back. She turned in a curly cutout on the receiver and lifted the back of the bolt. At the same time, its only combat protrusion, located on the underside of the rectangular bolt (which was already surprising in itself!), Came out from behind the supporting surface of the receiver. Then the bolt had to be pulled back, and it was pushed back and up and threw out the sleeve.
Rifle "Li-Neyvi" mod. 1895 with an open breech and a pack of clips with cartridges.
When the shooter pushed him forward, everything happened in the opposite order. Moreover, the trigger mechanism was designed in such a way that it excluded a shot when the shutter was not fully closed, and also self-opening of the shutter until the moment of the shot. Moreover, Lee provided for the shutter to stop in the rear position when the magazine runs out of cartridges. So now even the most dumb soldier simply physically could not be left with an unloaded rifle at the most intense moment of the battle!
The bolt and the cartridge clip with cartridges.
But that was not all. At that time, magazine rifles were equipped with either a pack or a clip. Loading with a pack was more convenient, but a hole was needed through which the pack could be removed (Mannlicher system), and on the earliest samples, the shooter also had to remove it himself!
The disadvantage of the pack loading was the large weight of the pack itself, and the possibility of clogging the rifle magazine through the window to remove the packs, and the complete impossibility of equipping the magazine with one cartridge at a time. When firing without packs, such a rifle turned, in fact, into a single-shot, and the shooter also had to send cartridges into the barrel himself. Loading with clips only came into fashion and was free of these shortcomings, but there were only two such rifles in service: the Belgian Mauser model of 1889 and our Russian Mosin rifle, so it was impossible to say exactly which option was more effective and … Lee came up with an original clip pack.
Clip pack Lee
Just as in the case of batch loading into a Lee rifle, the cartridges had to be put into the store along with a pack-clip, which fell out of it immediately after the second or third cartridge was rammed into the barrel. But his magazine could even be loaded with one cartridge, and, in fact, the rifle was six-round, since five cartridges were in the store, and the sixth could be placed in the barrel in advance.
Finally, the rifle was made for the smallest caliber cartridges that existed then - 6 mm. He considered and, as it turned out, was also right in the fact that the power of rifles in 7, 6 and 8 mm calibers is completely redundant. As a result, he got a rifle that had the largest ammunition load with the minimum weight of the display. In addition, the new cartridges had good penetrating power: at a distance of 30 m, its bullet pierced an 11 mm sheet of boiler iron.
Rifle "Li-Navi" in section
The Model 1879, dubbed the Li-Navy, was adopted by the Chinese Army and the US Navy, as well as two later models, the Remington-Lee M1885 and the Winchester-Lee, the Li-Navy M1895. In the end, the only drawback that was blamed for this rifle at the time of creation was the quick - after 2000 shots, barrel wear. Then it was believed that this was to blame for the excess power of the cartridge, but, most likely, the reason was the rifling of the barrel according to the William Metford system. The "Lee-Metford" rifle had the same shortcoming. Interestingly, this rifle, for some unknown reason, did not interest the American army, but it was liked by the American sailors, who adopted it for the Marine Corps service. It is with the rifle "Li-Neyvi" arr. In 1895, US Marines defended the Embassy Quarter in Beijing from rebel "boxers" and fought in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. In total, the fleet received 14,658 James Lee rifles at a price of $ 14 60 cents apiece.
Two versions of.236 caliber cartridges, that is, 6-mm Yu. S. Navey early flanged and flangeless - civilian version with a clip.
What prevented the spread of the Lee rifle is its caliber - in the army, its own, in the navy - is it not too luxurious and troublesome? That is why, with the adoption of the Springfield rifle in 1903, the Americans abandoned two calibers and, just like the Krag-Jorgensen, sold all the Linewie to private hands at a price of $ 32, and a thousand cartridges for it cost $ 50. By American standards, it was expensive, and this rifle did not find much popularity as a hunting weapon, and the production of cartridges for it was discontinued in 1935.
Rifle "Lee-Metford" Mk. II.
Meanwhile, in England in 1887, the Lee Spide rifle was first tested and, although it was not accepted into service, it was noticed that both the bolt and the James Lee system store deserve the most serious attention. This "attention" in 1888 was embodied in the "Lee-Metford" rifle. After being upgraded at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Anfield, it became the famous Lee Enfield, which was in service with the British army for many decades. Well, James Paris Lee died in Branford, Connecticut on February 24, 1904, and today fewer and fewer people can remember exactly what he was famous for.
