HISTORY OF BULLETS

The history of bullets parallels the history of firearms; advance in one either resulted from or precipitated the advance in the other. But it may come as a surprise to most people to realize that the history of bullets predates the history of firearms. Bullets have been found in some of the ancient ruins around the world. These bullets were not fired from firearms, but were fired from slings and handheld catapults. Some of these bullets were made of stone, others were made of metal. By the 12th century A.D., it was realized that gunpowder could be used to fire projectiles out of the open end of a tube. The earliest firearms were cannons; the earliest authenticated document for the use of cannons in Europe is an order by the council of Florence to employ masters for the making of iron arrows and balls and cannones de metallo on February 11, 1326. In two manuscripts of 1326, by Walter de Milemete, cannons are illustrated although not mentioned in the text. They are shown firing large metal bolts (musket arrows were stocked by European armies until the 1600s). Other early accounts mention cannon being shipped from Ghent (1313), and used against the Scots (1327). However, Angelucci (writing in 1869) cites a document of 1281 mentioning: a big squad of crossbowman and scopettieri lead by Count Guido of Montefeltro. The scopettieri are gun-bearers, and, if correct, this gives us a date for the introduction of firearms earlier than any other. This reference to portable guns so early makes sense if we consider that gun makers would have started making smaller examples first, until they had perfected the techniques for making larger cannon and gained a certain amount of confidence in their abilities. Eventually personal small arms appeared in the mid-fourteenth century. When firearms were first invented many types of projectiles were tried. The first guns were seen as a replacement for bows and crossbows so they fired arrows. Almost undoubtedly the first bullets were much like crossbow quarrels, fired from metal and wooden guns immediately after the introduction of gunpowder in Europe. Then rocks, round stone balls of various substances, and other pieces of metal were all used to varying effect. Large guns and cannon fired stone balls until the mid-15th century when metal balls began to be cast. Early projectiles were stone or metal objects that could fit down the barrel of the firearm, but it was not until lead balls were tried that things began to become effective. Though lead and lead alloys were the preferred materials by early 1500s, it was not until the late 15th century that bullets were starting to be produced by casting metal into balls using molds. The simple round lead ball became the standard projectile for use in individual firearms until the mid-1800s. The growth of the petronel, culverin and harquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles. These were essentially handmade weapons and the user was often the same person who helped build it. None of these weapons were built to any particular standard and hence, each weapon was supplied with its own bullet mold, so that the user could cast their own bullets as needed. Even when weapons like the caliver (which was built with a standard bore size and gave us the English word caliber) were introduced, users were often supplied a set of bullet molds with them. Eventually as firearms were developed, these same items were placed in front of an explosive charge of gun powder at the end of a closed tube. As firearms became more

scientifically advanced, bullets changed very little. They remained simple round (spherical) lead balls, called rounds, differing only in their diameter (Figure 1).

Figure 1. This contains a view of the musket ball in the barrel of a smoothbore musket. The distance between the ball and the barrel is windage. Notice the ball rests directly on the powder. The ball easily slides down the clean barrel and into its place. Bullet is derived from the French word boulette (French boulette, diminutive of boule, ball, from Old French, from Latin bulla) which approximately means little ball. The word bullet is sometimes erroneously used to refer to ammunition generally, or to a cartridge, which is a combination of the bullet, case, powder and primer. Bullets do not normally contain explosives but damage the intended target by impact and penetration. The original musket bullet was a globular lead ball two sizes smaller than the bore, wrapped in a loosely-fitted paper patch which served to hold the bullet in the barrel firmly upon the powder. The loading of muskets was, therefore, easy with the old smooth-bore Brown Bess and similar military muskets. The original muzzle-loading rifle [firearms with rifled barrels (grooves inside of the firearm barrel that impart stabilizing spinning motion to the bullet)], on the other hand, with a closely fitting ball to take the rifling grooves, was loaded with difficulty, particularly when foul, and for this reason was not generally used for military purposes. Benjamin Robins, a British mathematician, developed the ballistic pendulum to measure the velocity of a bullet at the moment of its impact in his famous treatise on New Principles in Gunnery (1742). During his experiments he recognized the military advantages of any nation who could make general issue of a rifle to their armies. The problem was developing one with dexterity in the management of them. This did not happen for another century. He apparently considered the advantages of increasing sectional density and reducing air resistance by the use of an egg shaped projectile. Early Bullets Henri-Gustave Delvigne 1826 invented a new method which greatly simplified the use of rifled guns, and created a rifle known by his name. The first half of the nineteenth century saw a distinct change in the shape and function of the bullet. Henri-Gustave Delvigne, (born 1799, Hamburg [Germany] died Oct. 18, 1876, Toulon, France), a French army officer and inventor who designed innovative rifles and helped introduce the cylindrical bullet. Delvigne revolutionized rifle technology and rendered it proper as a weapon. The Delvigne systems were some of the first attempts to develop a small arms projectile that would fit in the barrel more easily and thereby increase the efficiency of loading and firing of the rifled weapons and still engage the rifling to maintain accuracy. Delvigne started with the round ball and moved on to other systems. In 1826 he introduced the Delvigne rifle, the powder chamber of which was narrower than the bore of the barrel with which it was connected by a spherical surface equal in radius to the ball

used. The powder was poured from the muzzle into the chamber, upon which the ball rested when dropped into the bore. When the rifle ball was dropped down the barrel against the chamber, a few blows of the ramrod expanded the ball to fit the rifled grooves snugly. The bullet would become deformed and flatten, so as to expand in diameter against the inside of the bore, allowing the bullet to press against the rifling grooves. When fired, the bullet would accompany the rifling and spin. According to the artillery historian John Gibbon: Delvigne, by placing a chamber at the bottom of the bore of an ordinary rifle, and making use of it to force the ball, dropped loosely into the bore, did away with the great objection to the use of rifles in war, the difficulty of loading them, and gave an impetus in regard to investigations about the arm, which has created a perfect revolution in the system of arming infantry, by leading to the present efficient weapon. This event led to the adoption, in 1842, in the French Army, of the chambered carbine and rampart rifle-musket firing spherical ball John Gibbon, The Artillerists Manual 1860. Figure 2 contains Delvignes first design using a round ball that us pushed against a lip to deform the ball.

Figure 2 His first attempt (Figure 2) used a simple spherical ball projectile that was forced with a ram rod against the lip of the powder chamber and disfigured the ball. It was this forceful exertion that made the loading of a rifle impractical for the average infantryman. If the ball was not rammed forceful enough, accuracy would be sacrificed. Soldiers needed a more efficient weapon. In an attempt to eliminate the shortcomings of the above system, Pontchara, also a French Army officer used a small patched wooden sabot. This Delvigne-Pontchara system (Figure 3 and 4) eliminated the need for forceful ramming (3X) during loading, but added another problem; it involved the breaking of the sabot during over aggressive ramming. This also damaged the ball and, yet again, decreased accuracy. In an evolution to the first method, the wooden sabot at the bottom of the bullet, would limit the improper deformation of the lead bullet, but still allowing for its radial expansion to fit the rifling grooves. This Delvigne-Pontchara system was issued to the Chasseurs dAfrique in 1838 and it saw active service in Algeria in 1840.

Figure 3. Delvigne-Pontchara system. It involves a round ball and a wooden sabot.

Figure 4. Pontchara ball for use in the Delvigne system.

Figure 5. Augustin System (Austrian Ordnance Chief, General Baron Vincent Augustin) showing the beveled lip derivative of the Delvigne System. In another attempt to refine the rifle, Augustin of Austria (Figure 5), added a beveled edge to the lip. He felt this would help better position the bullet in the center of the barrel. This removed the need for Pontcharas wooded sabot and decreases the disfigurement of the ball. But, this too fell short of the soldiers needs.

Figure 6. Another French officer, Thierry about 1831, had tried some form of elongated projectile (cylindro-spherical) for the Delvigne rifle, but it was not successful.

Figure 7. Delvigne cylindro-conical bullet designed for the Delvigne System. Others attempted variations of bullets for the Delvigne system (Figures 6 and 7), but all were unsuccessful in their attempts to reduce the work and time of loading a rifle. Their work was not in vain. Their experiments would lead the way for the work of Mini and Burton. It was the work of these two individuals that truly impacted on rifled firearms. In all these cases the radial deformation of the ball against the rifling grooves would permit a more efficient spinning of the ball. As a drawback, the very deformation rendered the bullet aerodynamically less efficient. From 1830, Delvigne started to develop cylindro-conical bullets (Figure 8). The stability of the bullet would be further improved by the introduction of the Tamisier ball groovings. However the introduction of ball groovings hampered the expansion of the bullet against the rifling grooves.

Figure 8. Three pictures of a Delvigne bullet from different angles and a drawing from the same angle. The Ring is actually a mark from a rammer. This bullet was found in rural Maryland. Delvignes invention was further improved by another French officer, Thouvenin, who induced the deformation of the bullet by placing a stem inside and at the center of the powder chamber. When hit by the ram, the bullet would expand radially against the rifling grooves and at the same time wrap around the stem, giving it a more efficient and aerodynamic shape. These inventions mark important steps in the improvement of the rifle, and are precursors to the Mini ball, the development of which Delvigne also contributed to. Franois Tamisier 1841 cannelures Franois Tamisier (1809, Lons-le-Saunier, Jura 1880) was French artillery captain of the 19th century. He invented various methods to improve the rifled gun; particularly ball grooves (Figure 11; not to be confused with the Mini ball). Captain Tamisier obtained a patent in 1841 for a method to improve the accuracy of cylindro-conical shot, by cutting three sharp grooves (French: cannelures) on the cylindrical part of the shot. Compared to round shots, which offered a rather inefficient but symmetrical and stable aerodynamic round profile, the aerodynamic stability of the cylindro-conical shot had been an issue in early rifled weapons of the type developed by Delvigne. Through Tamisier method, the resistance of the air behind the center of gravity of the shot was increased, thereby increasing its stability, in a manner similar to that of arrow feathers in an arrow (fletching), or

shuttlecocks. The shot would thus remain stable in flight and increase greatly in efficiency. Tamisier had experimented with the ball developed by Delvigne to discover the effect of aerodynamic resistance on the trajectory of a bullet. The Tamisier grooves greatly improved the efficiency of the cylindro-conical bullet. However they rendered the forcing of the bullet against the grooves of the rifle bore in the Delvigne system rather difficult. To accommodate this difficulty, the stem rifle was developed by Thouvenin. These principles were later incorporated in the design of the Mini ball. Tamisier also developed a method for making rifle grooves, which was original in that the grooves were deeper at the breech and progressively shallower towards the muzzle. This provided for a progressive forcing of the ball as it moved through the barrel, greatly improving its efficiency. Louis-tienne de Thouvenin 1853 invented the Carabine tige (Stem rifle, also Pillar breech rifle), based on a method by which muzzle-loading rifles could be easily and effectively loaded. Louis-tienne de Thouvenin (1791 1882) then a French Army Colonel devised a unique system of using a stem or tige (Figure 9) placed in the center of the breech to answer the problems he had found with the systems of Delvigne, Augustin, and others. This led to the adoption of the carabine tige for the chasseurs in 1853, in which elongated projectiles were early tried (solid at the base and with three grooves), at the suggestion of Delvigne, though the bullets were found to succeed better in this arm than in his, in which they had been tried some years before in Africa. Thouvenins system would force the ball upon an iron stem in the base of the barrel. This action would deform the ball into the grooves in the barrel. The ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel and thus easier and faster to load. This officer, it appears, was the first of recent date, in France, to announce the fact that such bullets, hollowed at the base, were expanded by the action of the gas, and forced into the grooves; though no practical results seem to have flowed from the discovery until sometime in 1847, when Mini suggested his iron culot in the base of the bullet, which was found to force it as well, if not better, than the tige; and soon afterwards the culot was left out altogether, and the projectile was forced on the principle announced as a discovery four years before, by Delvigne. It would appear, therefore, that Mini is not without competitors for the honor of this important invention; for Thiroux claims to have stated the same method for forcing rifle-bullets in 1845; and, in England, Greener, after in vain besieging the ordnance department for a hearing, announced the same thing in 1841, six years before Mini, and two before Delvigne. Mr. Greeners priority of invention has, he says, been admitted both by the Emperor Napoleon, and his own government; though there is no reason to suppose, as Greener does, that Delvigne and Mini copied from him; for the real fact is, that the idea of elongated expansive bullets was no new one in France, or even in England, as mention is made of them in both countries at a much earlier date. Mini, an energetic and observant officer of the chasseurs, was fortunate in making a well-founded suggestion at a time when the firearm and the different elements of a system were in the most favorable condition for deriving benefit from such an idea; and Mini is certainly entitled to all the credit which attaches to the success of his suggestion in the adoption of the now universally denominated Mini bullets.

Figure 9. This is a drawing of a tige system like Thouvenin designed. In the barrel is a Delvigne ball (Figure 10) designed for use in the tige system. The first problem with this system was difficulty cleaning the area of the tige. It would become so fouled that powder would no longer fit in the chamber. Another problem was when the tige became bent and decrease accuracy by throwing off the ball. Lastly, like earlier designs, the accuracy was dependent on proper ramming.

Others tried this system, including Burton, Delvigne and Tamisier, but none perfected it, however, their research would lead to the final success of the Burton ball. This discovery caused the stem to be at once dispensed with as useless, the Mini rifle (i.e., an ordinary rifle of any kind firing a Mini bullet), became the favorite of the new arms, and the smooth-bored musket was, by the simple operation of rifling, transformed into the long-range rifle (fusil-ray) of the French, and is, as in most other armies, rapidly extending itself as the arm of the troops of the line. Pointed Bullets: Conical Expanding Bullets In the 1800s, many people began to realize the advantages of rifling and started to make weapons that included rifled barrels. The problems associated with rifling were that if a bullet was too large, it would be difficult to insert it into a rifle and if it was too small, the gases would escape around the bullet and decrease its range. Captain John Norton 1823 first pointed or conical bullets The first breakthrough was by one Captain Norton of the British Army in 1823, who invented the first pointed or conical expanding bullet. Nortons bullet length being about one and three quarter

times its diameter and had a hollow base which contained the powder charge which upon firing expanded under pressure to engage with a barrels rifling. In 1824 he submitted it to the Select Committee on Firearms who appear to have been most conservative in their views, rejecting it on the grounds that a spherical ball was the only shape of projectile adapted for military purposes; because spherical bullets had been in use for the previous 300 years. William Greener 1836 - Greener bullet He was followed in 1836 by Mr. William Greener, a well-known Birmingham based gun-maker, who invented a compound bullet that could expand as it was fired. Greener designed a bullet that was oblong in form and used an iron plug which more reliably forced the base of the bullet to expand and catch the rifling when the charges was ignited and expanded the bullet into rifling. This was tried and rejected by the English Ordnance authorities and the reasons they rejected these bullets was because they were not spherical balls and because, being two parts, it was judged as being too complicated to produce. It was very similar to Nortons bullet; but tests proved that Greeners bullet was extremely effective. Captain Claude-Etienne Mini 1847 The Mini Ball The rifle was invented long before the development of modern ammunition. As early as the 1500s, the Germans had used rifles, but they suffered from a slow rate of fire due to their cumbersome loading. It was during the US Civil War period that developments made their use practical in everyday infantry. The developments of this period were led by those of many bullet designers, including Greener, Delvigne, Tamisier and others, but it was the Mini ball by Captain ClaudeEtienne Mini that caused revolutionary changes. This simple cylindro-conical projectile with three grooves and conical cavity that changed the way the Civil War would be fought (the original had an iron cup in the cone cavity). Prior to the development of the Mini ball, rifles were not used in combat due to the difficulty in loading. The ammunition used by rifles was the same diameter as the barrel in order for the bullet to engage the groves of the rifled barrel. As a result the ball had to be forced into the barrel. The Mini ball, originally designed by Mini of and improved on by manufacturers in the United States, changed warfare. Since the Mini ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel, it could be loaded quickly by dropping the bullet down the barrel. This conical lead bullet had two or three grooves and a conical cavity in its base. The gases, formed by the burning of powder once the firearm was fired, expanded the base of the bullet so that it engaged the rifling in the barrel. Thus, rifles could be loaded quickly and yet fired accurately.

Figure 12: A classic Mini bullet as designed by Mini. The iron cup in the base would expand the base into the rifling. Mini was not the first to use this system. It was actually first designed by Greener, but he used a pewter wedge (1841). The US version did not have the iron cup. The soft lead Mini ball (Figure 12) was first introduced in 1847 by Claude-tienne Mini, a captain in the French Army. It was nearly identical to the Greener bullet. As designed by Mini, the bullet was conical in shape with a hollow cavity in the rear, which was fitted with a little iron cap instead of a wooden plug. This bullet could be made slightly undersized so it was faster and easier to load in the muzzle-loading rifles of the day. When fired, the iron cap would force itself into the hollow cavity at the rear of the bullet, thereby expanding the sides of the bullet to grip and engage the rifling. This greatly increased accuracy of military rifles of the day, thus allowing soldiers to engage the enemy at much greater distances. The tige system designed by Thouvenin was a rather unique system in which a conical ball similar to the Mini was again rammed into the weapon, but instead of needing the great force, it had a small iron stem in the bottom of the barrel. The bullet was forced upon this stem and deformed to engage the rifling. This was almost what was needed, but it suffered from increased fouling of the barrel and decreased accuracy. Mini was not satisfied with any of the above systems and set out to find a better solution that worked better. The Mini type bullet is shown above (Figure 12 and 13). It was a refinement that improved accuracy by improving the center of gravity of the ball and adding grooves. This bullet allowed a soldier to easily drop the projectile into the barrel without the difficulty of having to use all his weight with a ram rod to push a musket ball down the barrel of a rifle in the hope that it would engage the rifling. Instead, the base would expand to engage the rifling. This bullet also had a better accuracy, range, and penetration. Now, the accuracy of the rifle was truly in the hands of the common infantryman.

Figure 13: From Burtons drawings, to the left is a Mini ball and to the right is a tige ball. At the bottom is a drawing of the iron cup that was inserted in the base of the true Mini ball. Notice the similarities between these balls and a Burton ball used by forces in the US Civil War. The Mini system had much strength. It added a ball and wedge system with a bullet smaller than the barrel diameter. This increased the efficiency of loading a weapon. Loading was quicker, the weapon was more accurate (the ball was not deformed), and the weapons were easier to clean without the hard to reach places of the tige system. The problems it created were it was complex to make with the iron insert, required more powder to fire, had a tendency to fire the iron cup through the lead leaving the bullet in the barrel, and was hazardous to fire over the heads of nearby friendly troops (The iron cup had a tendency to separate after 50 yards of flight.). In 1855, the British adopted the Mini ball for their Enfield rifles. The Mini ball first saw widespread use in the American Civil War. Roughly 90% of the battlefield casualties in this war were caused by Mini balls fired from rifles. Between 1854 and 1857, Sir Joseph Whitworth conducted a long series of rifle experiments, and proved, among other points, the advantages of a smaller bore and, in particular, of an elongated bullet. The Whitworth bullet was made to fit the grooves of the rifle mechanically. The Whitworth rifle was never adopted by the government, although it was used extensively for match purposes and target practice between 1857 and 1866, when it was gradually superseded by Metfords. James H. Burton 1849 - Burton ball Burtons contribution to bullets and small arms ammunition is immeasurable. James H. Burton was born in Shenandoah Spring, Virginia, on August 17, 1823. He was educated at the Westchester Academy in Pennsylvania. Burton began his working career in a Baltimore machine shop at age 16. Later, he worked in the ordinance field at the Harpers Ferry Armory as a machinist. In 1849, Burton began experimenting with improvements to the design for the Mini bullet at Harpers Ferry. The Mini bullet, which was first introduced in 1848 by Frenchmen Captain Claude Etienne Mini, was a cone shaped slug of lead with a hollow base which expanded when the rifle was fired. This

prevented leakage of the powder gases and served to expand the base of the bullet into the riflings inside the gun barrel. It had an extended range of over 100 yards.

Figure 14. Harpers Ferry type ball. This is the type designed by Burton. This scan is of the original Burton drawing. Although it was pretty much an adaptation of something invented elsewhere, it retained the best features of its European counterpart; it did have several ingenious additions. The American version had an increased barrel length and gunpowder charge which further increased its range. Notice the similarities between these balls, Figure 13 and a Burton ball (Figure 14) used by forces in the US Civil War. Although, the Mini ball is called by the Frenchmans name, it is truely a different animal than the classic design he started with. The Mini, as many have said, may be more appropriately called a Burton ball. William Ellis Metford 1865 light rifling with increasing spiral, and a hardened bullet About 1862 and later, W. E. Metford, an English civil engineer, carried out an exhaustive series of experiments on bullets and rifling. In 1865, he patented the important system of light barrel rifling with increasing spiral (gain twist; progressive rifling where the twist gradually tightens as the rifling approaches the muzzle) to accommodate the hard-alloy paper patched bullet. He helped perfect the .30 calibre jacketed bullet and the combined result was that in December 1888, the LeeMetford small-bore (0.303, 7.70 mm) rifle, Mark I, was finally adopted for the British army. Major Eduard Rubin 1882 invented the copper jacketed bullet The next important change in the history of the rifle bullet occurred in 1882, when Major Eduard Rubin of the Swiss Federal Ammunition Factory and Research Center in Thun, Switzerland, invented the copper jacketed bullet, an elongated bullet with a lead core in a copper jacket. It was also small bore (7.5mm and 8mm) and it is the precursor of the 8mm Lebel bullet which was adopted for the

smokeless powder ammunition of the Lebel rifle. His solution was to make a thin outer layer of copper which would be filled on the inside with lead. Since copper melts at a higher temperature than lead, is harder than pure lead and has a specific heat capacity higher than lead, the outer layer prevents the bullet from getting deformed too much. The inner layer of lead adds to the weight of the bullet. Such a bullet is called a jacketed bullet. The jacket may extend throughout the front and sides of the bullet, in which case it is called a full-metal jacket (FMJ), or it may only extend around the parts that fit tightly around the barrel and the tip may be of softer material, in which case it is called a soft-point bullet. The final advancement in bullet shape occurred with the development of the boat tail which is a streamlined base for spitzer bullets. A vacuum is created when air strata moving at high speed passes over the end of a bullet slows the projectile. The streamlined boat tail design aims to eliminate this drag-inducing vacuum by allowing the air to flow alongside the surface of the tapering end, thus eliminating the need for air to turn around the 90-degree angle normally formed by the end of shaped bullets. The resulting aerodynamic advantage is currently seen as the optimum shape for rifle technology. The first combination spitzer and boat-tail bullet, named Balle D from its inventor Dsaleux, was introduced as standard military ammunition in 1901, for the French Fusil dInfanterie Modle 1886 Lebel rifle. Captain Dsaleux 1898 modern spitzer bullet design In January of 1898 a new cartridge was adopted for service, developed at Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (APX) near Paris by a French Artillery officer named Dsaleux; called Cartouche Modle 1886 Balle D, commonly called Balle D, which featured a 12.8 g (198 grains) solid lathe turned 90/100 brass, spitzer, boat-tailed bullet, replacing the older Cartouche Balle Ordinaire Modle 1886 M [15.0 g (232 grains) cupro-nickel jacketed lead-cored flat nosed wadcutter-style bullet ("Balle M") which had been designed by lieutenant colonel Nicolas Lebel; it was propelled by the first practical smokeless, nitrocellulose based, (Poudre B) gunpowder as developed by Paul Vieille in 1884] for the Fusil dInfanterie Modle 1886 Lebel rifle. This was to improve the ballistic performance of the existing French service cartridge (Balle M, which used a 232-grain flat nose bullet at 2,060 fps. In contrast, Dsaleuxs new Balle D, achieved a muzzle velocity of 2,297 fps, providing a somewhat flatter trajectory and a greatly improved maximum effective range. Shortly after, the Germans copied the same idea in 1905 and called their bullets Spitzgeschoss. The name spitzer is an anglicized form of the German word Spitzgeschoss, literally meaning pointy bullet or pointed bullet. This gave rise to the term spitzer bullet, which is the generic English term for any bullet with a pointed tip. A spitzer bullet is an aerodynamic bullet design used in most intermediate and high-powered rifle cartridges. These improved aerodynamic characteristics of the bullet increased its range, is more accurate and carried more energy with them. Arthur Gleinich 1903 A new spitzgeschoss (aerodynamic) bullet In 1904, after reviewing the French success with the Balle D cartridge, German ordnance authorities decided to revise the Armys 8x57J cartridge and its round-nose bullet design. A new

spitzgeschoss (aerodynamic) bullet, credited to Arthur Gleinich, was selected. He is unknown in Anglo-American and even the German literature, but it was well-known that the high velocity of a projectile could cause explosion-like effect even when the bullet is definitely non-expanding. The bullet was designed by a German independent ballistician Gleinich in 1903; officially adopted in 1905 by Germans, in 1906 by United States and in 1908 by Russians. The final design, was adopted in 1905 by the German Army and Navy as the 8x57JS cartridge, used a relatively lightweight 154grain bullet with a slightly increased diameter of 0.323 along with a new smokeless powder loading, which delivered a greatly improved muzzle velocity of 2,850 fps. The combination of increased velocity and improved bullet aerodynamics provided a much flatter bullet trajectory, which increased the probability of hitting an individual target at most typical combat distances. In 1906, United States ordnance authorities arranged to purchase the production license for the spitzgeschoss bullet design from Gleinich. Now referred to as a spitzer design, the new bullet was incorporated into the 30-06 Springfield cartridge adopted by U.S. armed forces in 1906. The next nation to adopt the pointed bullet design was Imperial Russia, which introduced its L 147-grain bullet for the Russian 7.62mm cartridge in 1908. Britain officially adopted the .303 Mark VII cartridges with a spitzer bullet in 1914, just before or soon after the outbreak of World War I. Projectiles in general have come a long way over the last several centuries. The lowly bullet has evolved over the last century into a highly specialized piece of ballistic machinery. What started out as crude rocks and pebbles have steadily evolved into bullets born from very advanced engineering. The modern bullet can be manufactured through casting, swaging, milling, plating, stamping or compression processes. Bullets are usually made of a single metal alloy or a layered combination of various materials to include lead, copper, brass, bronze, steel, and aluminum. These layered bullets are referred to as jacketed bullets. The materials used in the manufacture of a bullet effect its performance both in flight and when they reach their target.