The Waffenfabrik von Dreyse was founded around 1841 to manufacture the famous Dreyse Needle gun for the Prussian Army, and they also made needle-pistols and caplock revolvers.
In 1809 he employed the German Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse who would later become the inventor of the famous Dreyse rifle.
The battle at first appeared to favor the French, for they had better rifles, the Chassepot, an early bolt-action rifle replacing the musket with a range of over 1,500 yards, far superior to the Prussian Dreyse bolt-action rifle, also called the needle gun, which had a range of only 600 yards.
The Dreyse M1907 appeared in the earlier versions of the board game Cluedo, mislabeled as a revolver.
The success of the Dreyse needle gun spurred subsequent developments in firearms technology and, before the start of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the French introduced the Chassepot rifle.