Franklin Weston Mann (July 24, 1856 – November 14, 1916) was an American physician and inventor remembered as author of the pioneering ballistics text entitled The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target: The Internal and External Ballistics of Small Arms; a Study of Rifle Shooting with the Personal Element Excluded, Disclosing the Cause of the Error at Target.

[2] Revenue from sale of his bone cutters enabled him to retire from practicing medicine at the age of 37 and devote his time to investigation of rifle ballistics.

[1] Mann worked with members of the Massachusetts Rifle Association including gunsmith Adolph Otto Niedner and gun barrel-maker Harry Melville Pope.

By 1894 he was conducting experiments with the aid of precision crafted guns and ammunition on specially designed equipment to minimize and measure sources of error.

His 1909 publication had secretly been studied by European combatants building long-range artillery of World War I. Mann died at home in 1916 without being aware of the international governmental recognition of his work.