Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye

Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye (30 July 1821 – 6 December 1880) was a French artillery general of the 19th century, and superintendent of the works at Meudon.

Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye took a key role in introducing rifled breech loading cannons, a marked improvement over the previous La Hitte system which had been in place since 1858.

The La Hitte system used rifled weapons, but they were muzzle-loading, which had the advantage of structural strength, but the disadvantage of slowness in loading.

In 1870, de Reffye developed the Reffye 85mm cannon, an 85 mm (3.35-inch) rifled breech-loading cannon, equipped with a breech screw, initially made of bronze.

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