happy birthday to the -A1...!!!
Posted on 01/05/2011 9:11:52 PM PST by stolinsky
John Moses Browning was an inventor. Many consider him a genius. He lived from 1855 to 1926, and during his life he was granted 128 patents. His father Jonathan was a friend of a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, who had been an overnight guest in his home. Jonathan was one of the original Mormon settlers of Utah. They left Missouri and Illinois after bloody pogroms in which their leader, Joseph Smith, was lynched, perhaps in part because of his anti-slavery views. On his arrival in Utah, Jonathan established a gunsmith shop in Ogden.
Perhaps these stories of fleeing from persecution convinced young John Browning of the necessity of weapons for defense against criminals and mobs. At the age of 10, John designed his first, crude rifle. His father Jonathan looked at it and complained, “Can’t you make a better gun that that?” John spent the rest of his life answering this question. His father chose John to take over the business, though John was not the eldest son, observing, “You have a good head, John Moses.” He got that right.
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happy birthday to the -A1...!!!
Most copied and cloned handgun of all time. He did it right. Love mine.
Glad I bought mine years ago.
I suspect prices will go sky high this year with commemoratives.
Have one, Springfield model. New.
Even my wife's tiny little "Baby Browning" .25 ACP is a jewel, as are all of his other inventions. I had the pleasure to shoot a few, including the outstanding (if heavy) BAR.
John Moses Browning will never be forgotten. And the man did it all without a hint of CAD tools or modern materials science. THAT is genius.
Happy Birthday!
I still have and shoot the one my dad carried in WWII. Still shoots like a dream.
I have one also. Its looks like it could kill someone while still in the holster...
It works.
Happy B-Day... I’ll drag the old girl out today for a little toast... me with a brewsky, her with a bottle of gun oil, then we’ll head to the range for a little party, when she gets back... ah, the spa treatment begins. ;-)
This is the model I have. When you own one of these, there is no point in owning any other pistol.
When you own one of these, there is no point in owning any other pistol, unless they design one that is a .46 or larger caliber.
1911 Fan Club ping. OB
Right, no computer-aided design or machining. Still, it makes me wonder whether advanced education helps or hinders creativity.
There’s an old joke about another self-taught genius, Edison. One guy says, “Imagine what he could have accomplished if he had gone to college and gotten an engineering degree.” The other guy replies, “Yes, he could have spent his life designing better kerosene lanterns.” And what about Bill Gates? Just think—if he had finished college and gotten an MBA, he too could have built Enron.
My current favorite. Hundred-year-old design, modern materials and manufacturing.
The only changes for a century have reflected changing ideas of ergonomics and tactical shooting.
I'm still amazed how so few parts control so many mechanical functions of the weapon. This makes individualizing the M1911 so easy and effective for anyone with a bit of skill and care. It's probably the most customizable handgun ever made. With millions of users, who have hundreds of millions of ideas on how to tweak it, there are tons of good and bad aftermarket items out there.
The M1911 has also benefited the entire handgun world by setting a standard for other designs to try to approach. After all the gunsmithing I've done, I can use what I've learned to evaluate other brands of handguns.
So thanks to John M. Browning for a design that has stood the test of time, and set the bar for handguns that will also try to last through the ages.
“
Right, no computer-aided design or machining. Still, it makes me wonder
whether advanced education helps or hinders creativity.
“
I’ve heard a few expert commentators muse about how two bicycle mechanics
beat a lot of other college grads in making a real airplane.
But IIRC, they were no fools, having uncovered errors in data tables
on flight done by experts in aviation.
“
John Moses Browning was an inventor.
“
That’s an understatement.
With the .45 pistol, .30 air-cooled, .50 Ma Deuce, and BAR, he helped keep us in the game
until the Manhattan Project settled the conflict.
And I have my late father’s (Remington) Auto-Five shotgun.
It is definitely one of my prized possessions.
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