[jeff sarge]

did the confedarates really normally have scopes on their whitworth's? seems like it would take to much maintinance

[All-Around-Shooter]

I don't think so, Whitworth rifles themselves were rare. I think they mostly had target sights.

I have been told that many personally owned scoped target riles were used.

[4v50 Gary]

Not all Whitworth rifles were equipped with the Davidson Telescope Sight. We don't know how many Whitworths were acquired by the Confederacy nor how many of them were "globe sight" guns that did not have the detachable Davidson. There's a couple of researchers in England trying to figure that out. However, they would also have to figure out whether the ship made it through the blockade too.

[Ky Larry]

Were the Whitworth rifles produced by the same company that devised the Whitworth standardized machine, screw, and tool size system? Just curious.

[jeff sarge]

I would think they would be produced by the same company

[dbm]

Joseph Whitworth was the foremost manufacturer of machine tools of his time. That is why he was approached by the War Office to provide assistance with regards to the design of appropriate machinery for the manufacure of the Enfield rifle.

Not content with considering the machinery for the manufacture of the rifle, he determined that a more appropriate course of action would be to establish that the proposed rifle was of optimum design before considering its mass production.

It is from his subsequent experiments that his .45 cal hexagonaly bored rifle evolved. It should be noted that the polygonal rifling was not an original idea, having been previously considered by that great engineer, I.K.Brunel.

David