Giovanni Cavalli

Lieutenant general Giovanni Cavalli (Novara, 23 July 1808 – Turin, 23 December 1879[1]) was an Italian soldier, artillerist and inventor.

He is credited with the creation of the first successful rifled breech loader gun.

He entered the Royal Academy of Turin in 1818, and graduated from it in 1828 as first of his class, with the rank of lieutenant.

Then-captain Cavalli's first design for a breech-loading gun dated from 1832, but initially it was met with indifference; only in 1843 his proposal sparked some interest, and he was sent to Sweden to oversee the construction of an experimental rifled gun to his specifications.

He fought in the First War of Italian Independence with the rank of major, participating in the siege of Peschiera del Garda; he also served in a similar capacity in the Second Italian War of Independence, as a colonel.