The sustainable firing rate of the Reffye mitrailleuse was 100 rounds per minute. With the rotation of a crank, the 25 rounds were discharged in rapid succession. A steel block containing twenty-five 13 mm (.51 caliber) center-fire cartridges was locked against the breech before firing. This happened during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. It became the first rapid-firing weapon deployed as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict. Then the French 25 barrel " Canon à Balles", better known as the Reffye mitrailleuse, was adopted in great secrecy in 1866. It was followed by the Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse in 1863. The earliest true mitrailleuse was invented in 1851 by Belgian Army Captain Fafschamps, 10 years before the advent of the Gatling gun. However in the English language the word mitrailleuse applies to volley guns with multiple barrels of rifle caliber. Therefore the word mitrailleuse, when used in the French language, applies to all machine guns including modern full automatic weapons. Mitrailleuse (, grapeshot shooter) is the French word used to describe all mounted rapid-firing weapons of rifle caliber.
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