William Greener

GREENER, WILLIAM (1806-1869), gunmaker and in ventor, was born at Felling near Newcastle-on-Tyne in 18o6 and began business in Newcastle in 1829. In 1844 he removed to Birmingham. His most important invention, the first expansive rifle bullet, consisted of an oval ball a diameter and a half in length, with a flat end, perforated, in which a cast metallic taper plug was inserted. (See AMMUNITION.) In 1843 he patented a process with W. E. Stait for the manufacture of pencils from the hard graphite carbon deposited in the interior of gas retorts. (See LIGHTING.) Other valuable inventions followed, the most impor tant being the cape rifle. (See RIFLE.) His son William Wellington Greener (1834-1921) invented the treble-wedgefast mechanism of modern shotguns in 1865—per fected in 1873.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

See W. Greener, The Gun (1834) ; The Science of Bibliography. See W. Greener, The Gun (1834) ; The Science of Gunnery (1841) ; W. W. Greener, The Breechloader and How to Use it (1892 and IC subsequent editions) ; Sharpshooting for Sport and War (1900) ; G. T. Teasdale-Buckell, Experts on Guns and Gunnery (1900).