Ferguson rifle
E711468
The Ferguson rifle was an innovative 18th-century British breech-loading flintlock firearm, notable for its rapid rate of fire and association with Major Patrick Ferguson during the American Revolutionary War.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ferguson rifle canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8100235 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ferguson rifle Context triple: [Patrick Ferguson, notableFor, Ferguson rifle]
-
A.
The Springfield Rifle
The Springfield Rifle was the nickname of Vic Raschi, a dominant right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees in the late 1940s and early 1950s known for his powerful fastball and key role on multiple World Series championship teams.
-
B.
Harpers Ferry Model 1855 rifle-musket
The Harpers Ferry Model 1855 rifle-musket was a .58 caliber, percussion, rifled long arm used by the U.S. military in the mid-19th century and is notable as an early standard-issue American rifled musket.
-
C.
Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle
The Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle was an early 19th-century American military flintlock rifle, notable as one of the first standardized U.S. service rifles and widely used during the War of 1812.
-
D.
Snider–Enfield rifle
The Snider–Enfield rifle was a 19th-century British breech-loading conversion of the Enfield muzzle-loading rifle, widely used by the British Army during the mid to late 1800s.
-
E.
Springfield Model 1795 musket
The Springfield Model 1795 musket was the first standardized military firearm produced in the United States, widely used by American forces in the early 19th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ferguson rifle Target entity description: The Ferguson rifle was an innovative 18th-century British breech-loading flintlock firearm, notable for its rapid rate of fire and association with Major Patrick Ferguson during the American Revolutionary War.
-
A.
The Springfield Rifle
The Springfield Rifle was the nickname of Vic Raschi, a dominant right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees in the late 1940s and early 1950s known for his powerful fastball and key role on multiple World Series championship teams.
-
B.
Harpers Ferry Model 1855 rifle-musket
The Harpers Ferry Model 1855 rifle-musket was a .58 caliber, percussion, rifled long arm used by the U.S. military in the mid-19th century and is notable as an early standard-issue American rifled musket.
-
C.
Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle
The Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle was an early 19th-century American military flintlock rifle, notable as one of the first standardized U.S. service rifles and widely used during the War of 1812.
-
D.
Snider–Enfield rifle
The Snider–Enfield rifle was a 19th-century British breech-loading conversion of the Enfield muzzle-loading rifle, widely used by the British Army during the mid to late 1800s.
-
E.
Springfield Model 1795 musket
The Springfield Model 1795 musket was the first standardized military firearm produced in the United States, widely used by American forces in the early 19th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
18th-century firearm
ⓘ
breech-loading rifle ⓘ |
| barrelLength | approximately 32 inches ⓘ |
| caliber |
.65 inch
ⓘ
approximately 17 mm ⓘ |
| category |
experimental military small arms
ⓘ
historical firearms ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Kingdom of Great Britain ⓘ |
| designer | Patrick Ferguson ⓘ |
| effectiveRange | about 200 to 300 yards ⓘ |
| era | 18th century ⓘ |
| feature |
breech sealed by rotating screw plug
ⓘ
could be loaded in wet conditions more easily than muzzle-loaders ⓘ could be loaded while prone ⓘ rapid rate of fire compared to contemporary muskets ⓘ |
| feedSystem | single-shot ⓘ |
| firearmAction | breech-loading ⓘ |
| hasSafetyCharacteristic | relatively secure powder chamber when breech closed ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | one of the first military-issue breech-loading rifles ⓘ |
| ignitionSystem | flintlock ⓘ |
| influencedBy | earlier screw-breech designs ⓘ |
| innovationComparedTo | Brown Bess musket ⓘ |
| loadingMechanism | screw plug breech ⓘ |
| material |
steel barrel
ⓘ
wooden stock ⓘ |
| militaryUser | British Army ⓘ |
| muzzleVelocity | approximately 1000 feet per second ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Patrick Ferguson ⓘ |
| notableEngagement | Battle of Brandywine ⓘ |
| notableUser | Patrick Ferguson ⓘ |
| numberBuilt | approximately 100 to 200 units ⓘ |
| overallLength | approximately 49 inches ⓘ |
| productionStatus | limited production ⓘ |
| projectile | lead ball ⓘ |
| propellant | black powder ⓘ |
| rateOfFire | up to 6 to 7 rounds per minute in trained hands ⓘ |
| reasonForLimitedAdoption |
death of Patrick Ferguson
ⓘ
high manufacturing cost ⓘ mechanical complexity ⓘ |
| rifling | rifled barrel ⓘ |
| survivingExamples | held in museums and private collections ⓘ |
| usedByBranch | British light infantry ⓘ |
| usedByUnit | Ferguson’s rifle corps ⓘ |
| usedInConflict | American Revolutionary War ⓘ |
| weight | approximately 9 pounds ⓘ |
| yearOfIntroduction | 1776 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ferguson rifle Description of subject: The Ferguson rifle was an innovative 18th-century British breech-loading flintlock firearm, notable for its rapid rate of fire and association with Major Patrick Ferguson during the American Revolutionary War.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.