Self Firing Rifle
The self-drip rifle was one of the most ingenious improvisations to emerge from the Gallipoli campaign, created by Lance Corporal William Charles Scurry of the Australian Imperial Force in late 1915. As Allied commanders planned the final withdrawal from the peninsula, the greatest fear was that Ottoman forces would detect the evacuation too early. Any sign that the trenches were thinning out would invite a major attack, turning a retreat into a disaster. Scurry’s invention became a critical element in preventing this.
Scurry observed that water dripping from one container into another created a predictable, timed motion. He adapted this simple principle to a rifle trigger. His system used two tin cans: one suspended above filled with water, the other beneath it left empty. A hole in the upper can allowed water to drip steadily into the lower can. As the lower can grew heavier, it pulled on a string attached to the rifle’s trigger. When the weight reached a tipping point, it fired the weapon. By adjusting the size of the hole, the amount of water, and the angle of the rifle, he could control the timing and direction of fire, creating intermittent shots that resembled the pattern of a soldier still actively engaging the enemy.
The arrangement was simple, silent, and highly effective. Soldiers set up their rifles before slipping away under cover of darkness, leaving dozens of weapons scattered along the trenches to fire long after the men had departed. These ghostly volleys misled Ottoman observers into believing the lines were still manned and discouraged any advance. Some rifles were further rigged with slow-burning fuses or weighted levers to provide variation in firing rhythm, making the deception even more convincing.
The success of the withdrawal from Gallipoli owes much to this humble device. When the last Allied troops departed in December 1915, the Ottomans were still receiving sporadic fire from the abandoned trenches, unaware that the evacuation had already succeeded. This inventive use of basic materials not only saved lives but entered military history as a classic example of fieldcraft and improvisation. Scurry’s self-drip rifle demonstrated how a simple idea, thoughtfully applied, could shape the outcome of an operation far beyond the expectations of its creator.
