Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval

Gribeauval, Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de (1715-89), French artillery general and gun designer. Gribeauval joined the French army in 1732 and was commissioned in 1735. During the Seven Years War he was attached to the Austrian army. In 1765 he began reforming the French artillery after experience in the war. He achieved greater mobility by building lighter gun carriages, and having the guns and limbers drawn by paired horses rather than in tandem, as they had been before. The Gribeauval guns also had better ammunition, tangenet scales, and elevating screws, improving accuracy and rate of fire. He also standardized on 4-, 8- and 12-pounders. British iron-smelting processes, introduced to France in 1782, also improved the quality of barrels. Efficiency was also improved by having the field guns manned by soldiers—not hired civilians, as had been the case before. In 1776 he was made inspector of artillery, and was responsible for training artillery officers, including one Napoleon Bonaparte. Gribeauval's technical improvements to artillery were the single most important change to weapon design in the 18th century (apart, perhaps, from the introduction of the socket bayonet at the very beginning). Gribeauval's improvements to lethality and accuracy made artillery the biggest killer on the battlefield.

— Christopher Bellamy