John M. Browning American Gunmaker : An Illustrated Biography of the Man and His Guns
(John M. Browning. The amazing story of this great genius ...)
John M. Browning. The amazing story of this great genius - whose inventions armed the forces of the United State during two world wars and equipped the huntsmen of three generations - had its beginning in the small settlement of Ogden in Utah Territory. John M. Browning was on of twenty-two children born to Mormon Jonathan Browning, a pioneer gunmaker who manufactured many of the guns and implements used in Brigham Young's trek West.
John Moses Browning was an American inventor. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries who pioneered the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms.
Background
John Moses Browning was born on January 21, 1855 in Ogden, Utah, of Mormon parentage, son of Jonathan Browning, a gunsmith, and Elizabeth Caroline (Clark).
His father, who was among the thousands of Mormon pioneers in the mass exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, established a gunsmith shop in Ogden in 1852. As was common in the Mormon community at that time, Jonathan Browning was a polygamist, having taken three wives. He fathered 19 children, including John Moses Browning.
Career
At the age of thirteen John Moses Browning made his first gun of scrap iron in his father's gunshop. In 1879 he secured his first patent for a breech-loading single-shot rifle. He, with his brother Mathew, made about 600 of these rifles, one of which was brought to the attention of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company who were so impressed with the simple and effective design of the arm that they paid the brothers large royalties to allow the Winchester Company to produce this rifle, which is still being made by them.
Browning's association with the Winchester Company led him into the field of repeating rifles and shotguns.
He designed many types of sporting firearms, such as the Remington auto-loading shotguns and rifles; the Winchester repeating shotguns; single-shot and repeating rifles; the Stevens rifles; and the Colt automatic pistols. The repeating rifle was patented in 1884; the box magazine in 1895; and numerous other patents were secured on rapidfire guns.
From all of these Browning drew large royalties. With his brother, he organized the J. M. & M. S. Browning Company, and the Browning Brothers Company, branching out from gun-making to banking and stock-raising, until their estates, at the time of his death, were rated in many millions.
In 1890 a machine gun of Browning design, but known as the Colt, was adopted by the United States Army.
The first machine gun turned out by Browning was made famous during the Spanish-American conflict through its effective work in both land and naval engagements around Santiago. It became known as the "Peacemaker. "
Browning produced in 1896 the automatic pistol, later improved and used by the United States Army in the World War.
The manufacturing rights for this weapon were obtained by the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut In May 1917, when the secretary of war ordered a Machine Gun Board to test all machine guns and automatic rifles submitted to it, Browning submitted through the Colt Company two guns, one, the heavy water-cooled machine gun, and the other the light Browning automatic rifle, demonstrating these guns himself.
They proved to be superior to anything else tested or known, and were so declared by the Board. The Browning Machine Gun, Model of 1917, the Browning Automatic Rifle, Model of 1918, and the Automatic Pistol, Model of 1911, were supplied to the United States Army in large numbers. The Browning Aircraft Machine Gun, which is the Browning heavy type machine gun modified for use in aircraft, has a rate of fire of 1150-1250 shots per minute and can be used with a synchronizer to fire through propeller blades, being fired from a special aircraft mounting.
One of Browning's machine guns, adopted by the United States Army in 1918, at its official trial fired 39, 500 rounds before a breakage developed. Browning's inventions never lacked a market. From the time he manufactured his first gun until the World War made him more widely known, he received flattering offers for his ideas and inventions almost as soon as they had taken definite shape on the work bench. No design of Browning's ever proved a failure, nor was any arm produced by him ever discontinued.
At the time of his death he was working on an "over and under" double-barrelled shotgun.
He died suddenly of heart disease at Herstals, near Liège, Belgium, where he had gone on a mission to Belgium's national armament factory, in which he was interested. When his remains were brought to this country they were received with military honors and forwarded to his home at Ogden, Utah.
Achievements
The first automatic pistol designed by Browning was the . 32 caliber Model 1900, followed by his most noted design the . 45 ACP M1911 Government Model and Browning High-Power Model P-35 in 9mm Parabellum. In 1910, he produced a new 0. 30-inch water cooled machine-gun and in 1917, 57, 000 of these guns were produced for soldiers fighting on the Western Front during World War I.
He also produced the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) which fired a 20 round magazine. Over 52, 000 of these guns were purchased by the US Army as a support weapon for the light machine-gun which were used during World War II, Korean War and in the Vietnam War.
He always avoided publicity and his name was used in one establishment only, the Fabrique National at Liège, Belgium, and only on his last machine gun and automatic rifle.
He was made a Chevalier of the Order of Leopold and was decorated by King Albert of Belgium on the occasion of the completion of the millionth automatic pistol at Liège. His longest and last association in this country was with the officials of the Colt Patent Firearms Company, with whom he worked for many years.
He was considered one of the greatest inventors of small arms in history and was foremost in the field of automatic weapons.
