Gribeauval
| Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval | |
|---|---|
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval
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|
| Born | 15 September 1715 Amiens, France |
| Died | 9 May 1789 (aged 73) |
| Allegiance |
 France |
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval (15 September 1715 – 9 May 1789) was a French artillery officer and engineer who revolutionized French cannon, creating a new production system that allowed lighter, more uniform guns without sacrificing range. His Gribeauval system superseded the de Vallière system. These guns proved essential to French military victories during the Napoleonic wars. Gribeauval is credited as the earliest known advocate for interchangeability of gun parts. He is thus one of the principal influences on the later development (over many decades by many people) of interchangeable manufacture.
Jean-Baptiste was born in Amiens, the son of a magistrate. He entered the French royal artillery in 1732 as a volunteer, and became an officer in 1735. For nearly twenty years regimental duty and scientific work occupied him, and in 1752 he became captain of a company of miners. In 1755, he was employed in a military mission in Prussia.
In 1757, being then a lieutenant colonel, he was lent to the Austrian army on the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, and established the Austrian sapper corps. He led the sapping operations at the Siege of Glatz and the defence of Schweidnitz. At Schweidnitz, his 1748 design of fortification gun was tested and significantly improved by Master Carpenter Richter.
In 1762, he reported back to the Paris authorities on the Austrian artillery system compared with the existing French de Vallière guns. While with the Austrian army he also worked on the continued development of the "globes of compression" (shrapnel shells) of French engineer Bernard Forest de Belidor.
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