Education
He studied the subject of rifling between 1840 and 1852.
He studied the subject of rifling between 1840 and 1852.
Following a request by Napoleon III in 1854 to develop such a weapon, the de Beaulieu system was adopted by the French Army. lieutenant consisted in cutting six grooves inside the bore of a muzzle-loading cannon, and to use shells equipped with six lugs which would engage the grooves. This development was paralleled by that of the Armstrong gun in Great Britain (adopted in 1858 by the British Army).
These developments led to the introduction of the Louisiana Hitte system in 1858, a fully integrated system of muzzle-loading rifled guns.
The Beaulieu 4-pounder rifled field-gun was adopted by the French Army in 1858, where it replaced the canon-obusier de 12, a smoothbore cannon using shells which was much less accurate and shorter-ranged. The Beaulieu rifled artillery was first used in Algeria, and then in the Franco-Austrian War in Italy in 1859.