Early years
In 1793, the National Arsenal contained brass ordnance, howitzers, traveling carriages, shot strapt, canisters filled, quilted grape, iron shot, shells, powder, musket ball, cylinders, caps, paper cartridges, fuzes filled, muskets, swords, various military stores, and implements.[11] In 1795, the Springfield Armory produced the new nation's first musket - the Model 1795 Musket which was largely patterned after the French Charleville musket which had armed the French army during the American Revolution.
Early 19th century
The Armory played a major role in providing weapons for the American Army during the War of 1812. Its monthly reports to the War Department are online, and they indicate it made 9588 new muskets in 1814 and repaired 5190 old ones that year. It several times reported that its funding had been delayed.[12]
Fueled by the Springfield Armory, the City of Springfield quickly became a national center for invention and development. In 1819 Thomas Blanchard developed a special lathe for the consistent mass production of rifle stocks. Thomas Blanchard worked at Springfield Armory for 5 years. The lathe enabled an unskilled workman to quickly and easily turn out identical irregular shapes. The large drum turned two wheels: a friction wheel that followed the contours of the metal rifle pattern, and the cutting wheel that imitated the movements of the friction wheel to make an exact replica of the pattern in wood. In the 1840s the old flintlock gave way to a percussion ignition system that increased the reliability and simplicity of longarms.
The Springfield Armory was largely involved in the growth and influence of the Industrial Revolution. Much of this grew out of the military's fascination with interchangeable parts, which was based on the theory that it would be easier to simply replace firearm parts than make battlefield repairs. Mass production of truly interchangeable parts demanded greater use of machines, improved gauging, quality control, and division of labor; all characteristics of the Industrial Revolution. From these individual components, the concept of the assembly line was devised.
The Springfield Armory also contributed to improved business management techniques. Colonel Roswell Lee, hired as superintendent in 1815, brought centralized authority, cost accounting for payroll, time, and materials, and increased discipline to a manufacturing environment—all business practices still in use today.
In 1843, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Armory and wrote his poem "The Arsenal at Springfield."[13] The anti-war poem described the rows of finished guns, by that point 1,000,000 stockpiled there, stored vertically in open racks: "Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms."[14]
Late 19th century
With the destruction of the Harpers Ferry Armory early in the American Civil War, the Springfield Armory was briefly the only government manufacturer of arms, until the Rock Island Arsenal was established in 1862. During this time production ramped up to unprecedented levels never seen in American manufacturing up until that time, with only 9,601 rifles manufactured in 1860, rising to a peak of 276,200 by 1864. These advancements would not only give the Union a decisive technological advantage over the Confederacy during the war but served as a precursor to the mass production manufacturing that contributed to the post-war Second Industrial Revolution and 20th century machine manufacturing capabilities. American historian Merritt Roe Smith has drawn comparisons between the early assembly machining of the Springfield rifles and the later production of the Ford Model T, with the latter having considerably more parts, but producing a similar numbers of units in the earliest years of the 1913–1915 automobile assembly line, indirectly due to mass production manufacturing advancements pioneered by the armory 50 years earlier.[7]
In 1865, Master Armorer Erskine Allin introduced the "Allin Conversion," which incorporated the far more advanced design of breech-loading into the now-obsolete muzzleloaders, thereby extending their service life. In 1891 a new function was assigned to the Armory—it became the army's main laboratory for the development and testing of new small arms.
One of the most distinctive elements of the Armory is the fence surrounding the site, which was started after the Civil War and completed in 1890. Unable to find funding for the purchase of a fence, Major James W. Ripley requested obsolete cannons from government storage, some from the Revolutionary War.
Early 20th century
During the Spanish–American War, it was recognized that the Spanish Mauser Model 1893, exhibited characteristics superior to the "trapdoor" Springfield and Krag–Jørgensen rifles carried by the United States troops. On August 15, 1900, Springfield Armory completed an experimental magazine rifle which they believed to be an improvement over the Krag. They fashioned a clip loading magazine rifle in which the cartridges were contained within the stock, preventing damage to an otherwise exposed magazine. It was approved for production in as the Model 1903. Mauser later sued for patent infringement and won royalties from Springfield.[15]
By the time that the United States entered World War I, approximately 843,239 standard service Model 1903 rifles had been manufactured. However, this was insufficient to arm U.S. troops for an undertaking of the magnitude of World War I. During the war Springfield Armory produced over 265,620 Model 1903 rifles. In addition, the War Department contracted for production of the M1917 Enfield Rifle to help aid American troops. These, along with the additional 47,251 rifles produced by the Rock Island Arsenal and the weapons already in service, were enough to supply the war effort. During World War I the Springfield Armory produced ≈25,000 M1911 pistols before all facilities were dedicated to production of M1903 rifles.
In 1919, when John Garand was 31, he came to Springfield, where he worked to develop a
Late 20th century
The last small arm developed by the Armory was the M14 rifle, which was, essentially, a highly modified version of the M1 Garand. The M14 was produced from 1959 to 1964 and was the U.S. Army's primary combat rifle until being replaced by the M16 rifle gradually from 1964 to 1970. The M14 has evolved over the years into a more modern sniper rifle—the M21.
By the time the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, Springfield Armory developed not only rifles but machine guns for ground and air use, grenade launchers, and associated equipment. Many weapons were not manufactured at the Armory, but plans and specifications were drawn up for the use of private contractors who built them elsewhere, representing an economic shift toward the American private arms industry.
