Lebel Model 1886 Rifle

The Lebel Model 1886 rifle is a bolt-action infantry rifle developed for the French army and formally entering French service in 1887, notable above all as the first military rifle of any nation to be designed around smokeless powder ammunition, made possible by Poudre B, a nitrocellulose-based smokeless propellant invented in 1884 by the French chemist Paul Vieille. Chambered for an 8mm cartridge and fed from an eight-round tube magazine running beneath the barrel, the Lebel could reportedly be fired at a rate of around 43 rounds per minute, dramatically outpacing the roughly 26 rounds per minute achievable with contemporary black-powder rifles such as the German Mauser M71/84, and its smokeless powder eliminated the thick clouds of white smoke that had previously revealed a rifleman's position after every shot, an advance that alarmed other European militaries into hastily developing their own smokeless-powder rifles. Roughly 3.45 million Lebel rifles were manufactured in total, and the design remained in French service through both World Wars, with limited use continuing in various conflicts well into the twentieth century.