Dreyse
JOHANN NIKOLAUS VON (dri'ze), a German inventor; born in Sömmerda, near Erfurt, in Prussia, in 1787. He worked as a locksmith in Germany, and in a musket factory in Paris from 1809 to 1814. He then founded an ironware factory in Sömmerda, and began the manufacture of percussion-caps under a patent in 1824. In 1827 he invented a muzzle-loading, and in 1836 a breech-loading needle-gun, which was adopted in the Prussian army in 1840.
In 1864 Dreyse was ennobled. He died Dec. 9, 1867.