Gun factory

“ Government gun and ammunition factories were full of German spies, and some of the largest ones were destroyed by explosions and fires. Committees of the people were formed everywhere, even in small rural communities, and very quickly every private manufacturing concern was turned into a factory to produce army supplies, from guns to boots. ”

“ The gun-foundry board, consisting of army and navy officers, appointed under the act of March 3, 1883, visited Europe and made full reports, advising large contracts for terms of years with American manufacturers to produce the steel necessary for heavy cannon, and recommending the establishment of one army and one navy gun factory for the fabrication of modern ordnance. ”

“ They are employed chiefly either at the imperial gun factory or at numerous private factories (about 130, with 4350 men) and small workshops. The main branch of the industry is the making of rifles (from 20,000 to 30,000 annually) . ”

“ At Detroit, Mich., Dodge Bros., as agents for the Government, erected an entirely new factory, costing in the neighborhood of $11,000,000 to give the final machining to the rough-machine forgings for five recuperators daily for the 155-millimeter gun and to machine completely the parts for twelve recuperators daily for the 155-millimeter howitzer. Their huge new plant for this purpose established a record for rapidity of construction in one of the most severe winters of recent history. ”

“ The establishment is arranged to turn out 2,000 guns per week. The Birmingham gun-makers were stirred up to somewhat indignant emotion at this Government competition and interference in their trade; but as they could not put down the Enfield factory, they formed a large and powerful joint--stock company, which has not only been able to compete successfully with the Government, but also to perform work which Enfield could not execute for want of productive capacity. ”

“ When we first commenced the gun business at Windsor we commenced building nice machinery, made many machines for other gun makers. Made at Windsor for the English Government most of their gun machines for the Enfield armory. We ran a regular machine shop also. In Hartford we ran a [290] machine shop and Sharps Co. continued the work. In Hartford made most of the machines used in the factory, and many others for the English and Spanish Governments, and other Gun and Sewing Machine Makers. Started the manufacturing of gun machinery in Hartford which brought Pratt and Whitney into the business. ”

“ In these times of stress when all munition factories in America are endeavouring to work above their capacity the man in charge of production has a rotten time of it.
However, the steel sometimes gets through and finally reaches a machine shop. Generally speaking, the foreign inspector doesn't worry very much about the actual gun until it has been proof-fired. If the manufacturer has been clever he will have caused his own inspection staff to watch closely every inch of the steel as the machine work gradually exposes the metal. ”

“ Why keep up a distinction that does not exist? Why call a gun London-made because the seller rents a shop and calls himself a gun-maker? Why not at once say, “Our manufactory is in Birmingham, as we find we can make both better and cheaper there.” ”

“ There are nearly 600 manufacturers in Birmingham engaged in different departments of the gun trade, which departments are eight in number, and some of these are again subdivided. There are about 10,000 men, women, and children employed in these different branches. Good workmen can earn, on an average, thirty shillings a-week. Gun-making by machinery, after the American process, has been introduced quite lately. ”

“ As it is essential that all arms made for the service should be interchangeable, the orders to the trade have been confined to the factories where the work is done exclusively by machinery, viz., to the Small Arms Company and National Arms Company in Birmingham, and to the London Small Arms Company, whose works are at Bow. The National Arms Company, which was incorporated in January, 1872, is no longer in existence, having gone into liquidation in December, 1882. With a paid up capital of £330,000 they erected gun works at Sparkbrook, and ammunition works at Holdford. ”

“ As the plug was drawn the glowing mass leapt out like a stream of silver, filling up the moulds for two twelve-pounder howitzers that were to be cast, and leaving a bright, hungry-looking flame playing over them, making everything red-hot which it approached. In this workshop about twenty men and boys produce twelve brass guns per week, as well as tangent-scales for ships’ guns, lock-covers, brass fittings for machinery, &c., and iron castings. Each gun cast requires two days to cool, when it is removed to the turnery to be bored ”

“ This, however, would be a very bald and incomplete reply, and would denote a somewhat benighted idea of the productive resources of Birmingham. Gun and pistol making form a very important industry in the city, and one ward—St. Mary's—is the happy hunting ground of small firearm makers. All the same, gunmaking is not the be-all and end-all of our manufacturing activity, and is, indeed, only one of the many and increasing trades that thrive and progress in the midland hardware capital. ”

“ Artists and sculptors exhibit the effects of their genius: why should not gunmakers also? The highest skill is required in producing a gun: a first-rate gun is indeed a work of art. Why is it not done? “Self” is the stumbling-block. The first makers “par excellence” do not encourage it, being jealous of being beaten by some provincial. There wants unanimity, a co-operative feeling, both in London and Birmingham. A well-arranged “Mutual Improvement Society” would be the means of driving the “rubbish” out of the market, and the sordid manufacturer into a reformation of his ways ”

“ Coming next to the more personal equipment of the soldier, we find the necessity confronting the Ordnance Department to manufacture shoulder rifles by the million and cartridges for them by the billion. The great war brought the machine gun into its own, requiring in the United States the manufacture of these complicated and expensive weapons by the tens of thousands, including the one-man automatic rifle, itself an arm of a deadly and effective type. ”

“ What has been achieved has been without the facilities that are provided in modern gun-factories; but notwithstanding all the drawbacks, it is probably safe to assert that no guns in the world to-day are superior to those that have been fabricated at the Washington navy-yard of steel on the new adopted pattern. The work at this ordnance yard is carried on without ostentation ”

“ There are, properly speaking, no gun-makers in America; a few workmen import English locks, stocks, and barrels, and fitting them together, stamp them with their names; but I know of no establishment where the smallest portion even of the fowling-piece is manufactured. It is a matter of great difficulty to get any good work done, and the simplest repairs are generally bungled in our best shops in a way to disgrace the trade and disgust the owner; as for having a gun made, we have not advanced the first step towards it, not even having a compulsory proof-stamp. ”

“ Except in the case of some who may fancy the old Kentucky rifle, all guns will probably be made with half-stock. It would be hardly advisable to keep only a very limited stock of full length stocks on hand. If such are to be roughed out, pay particular attention to have the grain of the wood as straight as [114] possible the full length where the barrel is to be let in.
How to Stock a Gun.—Stocking a gun is the most difficult portion of the gunsmith’s trade. The change from iron work to the manipulation of wood is so great that many workmen refuse to work at both branches of the business. ”

“ In this connection the reader should bear continually in mind that throughout the development of machine-gun manufacture we utilized all existing facilities to the limit in addition to building up new sources of supply. In other words, whenever concerns were engaged in the manufacture of machine guns, whatever their make or type, we did not stop the production of these types in these plants and convert the establishments into factories for making other weapons ”

“ A good gun is like the good wine of the proverb—if it were made in a village, to that village men would go or send for it. The materials for gun making are, surely, not very expensive—processes for cheapening steel and metal generally are now carried to such an extent, and the market for metals has fallen to an [Pg 17] extraordinary extent. Machinery and steam-power to drive it is, no doubt, a very heavy item; but are we so anxious for machinery and machine-made guns? ”

“ There are many advantages resulting from this exact conformity to an established pattern in the components of the musket, such as greater facility and economy in manufacturing them, and greater convenience in service,—spare screws, locks, bands, springs, etc., being easily furnished in quantities, and sent to any part of the country where needed, so that, when any part of a soldier's gun becomes injured or broken, its place can be immediately supplied by a new piece, which is sure to fit as perfectly into the vacancy as the original occupant. ”

“ Its equipment includes not only the elaborate finishing machinery, but also a shop capable of heat-treating and rough-machining 200 sets of black forgings for the gun every month. This plant alone can produce 75’s to keep pace with the needs of a great army, including its battle wastage, until a new gun industry can come into existence. All the buildings are new steel and concrete structures. ”

“ As one man drank he spun round and fell with a thud on his face. Machine-gun bullets were whipping up the earth. From Loos came a loud and constant rattle of machine-guns. Machine-guns were firing out of the broken windows of the houses and from the top of the “Tower Bridge,” those steel girders which rose three hundred feet high from the center of the village, and from slit trenches across the narrow streets. There were one hundred machine-guns in the cemetery to the southwest of the town, pouring out lead upon the Londoners who had to pass that place. ”

“ A gun-stock is, perhaps, as irregular a shape as the ingenuity of man could devise, and as well calculated to bid defiance to every attempt at applying machinery to the work of fashioning it. The difficulties, however, insurmountable as they would seem, have all been overcome, and every part of the stock is formed, and every perforation, groove, cavity, and socket is cut in it, by machines that do their work with such perfection as to awaken in all who witness the process a feeling of astonishment and delight. ”

“ The ammunition wagons are installed and opened; the belts are ready; the gun layer, the loader, and the crew are at their stations.
The lieutenant makes the rounds of each section, inspecting the guns, testing the mechanism, trying the weight of the munitions, taking account of everything and looking each man in the face.
“We are the last company organized,” he says. “You know that the machine gunners should be the flower of the army; don’t forget it. It is our first engagement. Try to show that we’re there a little.” ”

“ The great automobile factories have expanded amazingly in order to meet the demand for shells, field-guns, and motor-trucks. Turin, as an officer smilingly remarked, "now consists of the Fiat factory and a few houses." The United States is not the only country to produce that strange breed known as munitions millionaires. ”

“ The making of machine guns to-day as compared with 1915 has increased twenty-fold, while the supply of small-arm ammunition has become so abundant that the necessity for importation has ceased altogether. In one Government factory alone the making of rifles has increased ten-fold, and the employees at Woolwich Arsenal have increased from a little less than eleven thousand to nearly seventy-four thousand, of whom twenty-five thousand are women.
Production of steel, before the war, was roughly seven million tons ”

“ A stream of oil runs on each drill, and something like 1,000 horse-power is required for nothing but the pumping of this oil to the rifle-drilling machines. The factory is turning out 8,000 completed rifles and over 300 machine-guns a week now. And, after the usual fashion, it is busily preparing to add heavily to its output. About twelve acres of new floor space have already been added to the works, and new floor is still being piled on floor, filled with another tossing and churning sea of machinery as fast as it is made ready, and driven up into its top working speed at once. ”

“ An arsenal of the first class should include factories for guns and gun-carriages, small-arms, small-arms ammunition, harness, saddlery, tents, and powder; a laboratory and large store-houses. In arsenals of the second class workshops take the place of the factories. The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, which manufactures warlike implements and stores for the army and navy, was formed about 1720, and comprises factories, laboratories, &c., for the manufacture and final fitting up of almost every kind of arms and ammunition. ”

“ You realize — again, the people here — because they’re so knowledgeable out here in the Rose Garden. But what people don’t realize: The only industry in America — a billion-dollar industry — that can’t be sued — has exempt from being sued — are gun manufacturers. ”

“ Next were stacked boxes of machine-gun ammunition, hundreds and hundreds of them, occasionally interspersed with stray boxes of rockets, signal flares, Very lights and huge piles of rifles, of machine-guns and of empty brass shells of various sizes. The value of an average German city lay spread along that road all worthless to the former owners -all constructed for the purpose of killing their fellow men! ”