M1819 Hall Rifles
Hall's contract for 1,000 rifles was completed in 1825. When a three-man committee deployed by the US Ordnance Department to verify Hall’s process in fulfilling his rifle contract visited Harpers Ferry, they were floored by his results, and especially the machines. They lauded Hall’s “system, in the manufacture of small arms, entirely novel,” and one which could yield “the most beneficial results to the Country, especially, if carried into effect on a large scale”.
A trial was devised to test the rate of fire of Hall's breech-loading rifles in comparison to muzzle loading rifles and Army-issue muzzle loading muskets. A company of 38 men were given 10 minutes to load and fire at targets 100 yards distant. The company scored 164 hits (33% of the 464 shots fired) with conventional muzzle-loading rifles, and 208 hits (25% of the 845 shots fired) with the faster loading, but less accurate, army-issue smooth-bore muskets, in comparison to 430 hits (36% of the 1198 shots fired) with Hall's rifles.
Hall's rifle works design worked so well as to undergo minimal change through the end of the Model 1819’s run in 1853. By 1842, 23,500 rifles and 13,682 Hall-North carbines had been produced, most at Harper's ferry, earning Hall nearly $40,000 in royalty and patent-licensing fees. Despite a significant increase in rate of fire over muzzle-loading rifles and muskets, Hall's rifle design suffered from a gas leak around the interface of the removable chamber and the bore, resulting in the necessity of a heavier powder charge that still produced much less muzzle velocity than its muzzle-loading competition. No serious efforts were made to develop a seal to reduce the loss of gas from the breech. The penetrating ability of its .52-caliber ball for the rifle was only one-third of that of the muzzle-loaders, and the muzzle velocity of the carbine was 25 percent lower than that of the Jenks carbine despite having similar barrel lengths and identical 70-grain powder charges.
Read more about this topic: John H. Hall (soldier)
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