Ask Ian: Tractors to Typewriters, Non-Gun Companies Making Guns? (ad-free)
Added 2022-08-18 12:01:01 +0000 UTCFrom Brian on Patreon:
"Would you give your thoughts and comments on non-gun companies making guns? For example Baldwin Locomotive/Eddystone 1917s, IH Garands, GM M-16s, most M-1 carbines, maybe even TRW M-14s. How did the experiment work out?"
I would say that the experiment worked very well. Springfield Armory was tasked with developing production tooling for various US military production items, with the express purpose of aiding private industry in tolling up for mass production. This was an essential element in the US being able to exploit its industrial dominance during World War Two, with dozens of non-gun companies able to come online making munitions quickly and with relatively few problems. Nothing is going to go perfectly, but the track record of American non-gun companies during the war was no worse than the firms like Winchester, Colt, and H&R.
By the way, if you ARE interested in modern defense production logistics, I would highly recommend the channel Perun:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC3ehuUksTyQ7bbjGntmx3Q
Comments
I have one of the Smith Carona 1903A3s (with a Remington bolt, sadly) and an IBM M1 Carbine (someone stuffed it into a 3rd party M1A1 stock kit)...
Jonathan R Charles
2022-08-19 15:53:50 +0000 UTChmm... I suppose I should suspect my headphones then? I am gravely confused right now...
Loke von Post
2022-08-18 18:41:54 +0000 UTCThat's a myth. Mattel didn't make parts for the M16. There are rumors that they made the grips but no one can produce a grip marked Mattel. Also, the grips on the M16 are not plastic but pressure molded fiberglass which Mattel doesn't do.
Michael Baggott
2022-08-18 18:41:17 +0000 UTCI had no issue hearing this video and I hearing is not great (I wear hearing aids) and I often have issues with YouTube videos, but not this one.
Michael Baggott
2022-08-18 18:35:46 +0000 UTCRemington Rand built me a 1" @ 25 yards 1911A1 in late 1944. They just didn't know it at the time. It looks like it was finished on a sanding wheel and then parked, but it's been reliable and accurate for the 5 decades since I got hold of it. And In the '90s I fired GM M2s in a national guard unit and they worked just fine--without use of the squirt bottle of LP lube needed by the M60s.
ViejoLobo
2022-08-18 16:50:07 +0000 UTCI was going to mention Mattel, but apparently they only made parts of the M-16.
Mark Townsend
2022-08-18 15:49:35 +0000 UTCPlanning this type of distributed manufacturing is routine in many countries all the time. Many firms have "army tools" for a specified product in storage. Even the personnel to use these tools is specified "released from army service to production in war time".
Risto Alanko
2022-08-18 14:27:24 +0000 UTCI wonder what my favorite tractor maker, FARMALL, did. Probably just made better tractors!
Ranger Bear 91
2022-08-18 14:11:24 +0000 UTCI hope Ian reads these, because I've got an issue with the later videos: The audio is too quiet for me. I don't think it's my hearing getting worse, since other YouTube videos are much louder for me, but for this one I had the volume maxed on the video and still had a sorta hard time making it all out. Am I the only one? EDIT: The version on YouTube sounds fine though, so I'm not sure *what's* going on!
Loke von Post
2022-08-18 13:46:13 +0000 UTCOne of the best US investments in the interwar period was establishing the Army Industrial College in 1924. Later the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, currently The Dwight D Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
John Arpin
2022-08-18 13:05:35 +0000 UTCThe industrialization of the USA was one of the Department of War's greatest achievements. There are still people in DOD doing something like Springfield did. Though it's more for bigger items than rifles and handguns!
Brett Baker
2022-08-18 12:53:44 +0000 UTCWeren't Singer 1911s supposed to be the bees' knees?
Aelric FitzWilliam
2022-08-18 12:45:53 +0000 UTCAs a side note, M2 (since updated to M2A1) machine guns made by Frigidaire, AC Spark Plugs, and Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company are still in US military service at this moment. The legacy of non-firearms manufacturers firearms lives on.
Ryan D Thorne
2022-08-18 12:25:12 +0000 UTC
