Eduard Rubin
Eduard Alexander Rubin was a Swiss mechanical engineer and artillery officer who is best known for inventing the full [metal jacket bullet] in 1882. He also developed the 7.5×55mm Swiss cartridge, the Schmidt-Rubin rifle, the Rubin-Fornerod ignition mechanism and the use of TNT and ammonium nitrate to replace gunpowder in artillery shells. Rubin's fully copper clad bullets were also the inspiration for the full metal jacket bullets introduced in 1886 for the Lebel rifle.
Biography
Rubin was born in Thun on 17 July 1846, the son of Carl Rubin, a mechanic, and Maria Bader. He studied engineering at the Zurich Polytechnic from 1866 to 1868 and at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, where he graduated in 1869. From 1871 to 1879, Rubin was an assistant, and from 1879 to 1920, the director of the Swiss Federal Ammunition Factory in Thun. He married Rosina Susanna Leuzinger, daughter of cartographer Rudolf Leuzinger, in 1876.Rubin developed the military Schmidt-Rubin rifle, the Rubin-Fornerod ignition mechanism and the use of TNT and ammonium nitrate in artillery shells in place of gunpowder. His most famous cartridge was the 7.5×55mm Swiss, which was the standard ammunition for the Schmidt–Rubin, K31 and Stgw 57 military rifles. Rubin held the rank of colonel in the artillery of the Swiss Army, and also served as a radical member of Thun's executive council from 1883 to 1890.6 July 1920, aged 73.