The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Fire

Description: The Guns of John Moses Browning by Nathan Gorenstein A "well-researched and very readable new biography" (The Wall Street Journal) of "the Thomas Edison of guns," a visionary inventor who designed the modern handgun and whose awe-inspiring array of firearms helped ensure victory in numerous American wars and holds a crucial place in world history. Few people are aware that John Moses Browning--a tall, humble, cerebral man born in 1855 and raised as a Mormon in the American West--was the mind behind many of the world-changing firearms that dominated more than a century of conflict. He invented the design used in virtually all modern pistols, created the most popular hunting rifles and shotguns, and conceived the machine guns that proved decisive not just in World Wars I and II but nearly every major military action since. Yet few in America knew his name until he was into his sixties. Now, author Nathan Gorenstein brings firearms inventor John Moses Browning to vivid life in this riveting and revealing biography. Embodying the tradition of self-made, self-educated geniuses (like Lincoln and Edison), Browning was able to think in three dimensions (he never used blueprints) and his gifted mind produced everything from the famous Winchester "30-30" hunting rifle to the awesomely effective machine guns used by every American aircraft and infantry unit in World War II. The British credited Brownings guns with helping to win the Battle of Britain. His inventions illustrate both the good and bad of weapons. Sweeping, lively, and brilliantly told, this fascinating book that "gun collectors and historians of armaments will cherish" (Kirkus Reviews) introduces a little-known legend whose impact on history ranks with that of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Nathan Gorenstein is a former reporter and editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered city and state politics and produced a wealth of groundbreaking work. He was previously a reporter for the Wilmington News Journal, where he led coverage of Sen. Joseph Bidens first presidential campaign. He is also the author of Tommy Gun Winter, the story of a Boston gang from the 1930s that included an MIT graduate, a ministers daughter, and two of Gorensteins own relatives. He currently lives in Philadelphia. Review "A meticulously detailed biography of the self-taught firearms inventor known as "the Thomas Edison of guns.".... Gorenstein ably captures his subjects work ethic and impressive natural gifts. This comprehensive account makes clear that Browning is a more crucial figure in world history than is widely known." --Publishers Weekly"A text gun collectors and historians of armaments will cherish." --Kirkus Reviews "A well-researched and very readable new biography." --Wall Street Journal "An in-depth look at Brownings development process...Gorensteins work strikes a balance between accessibility and lavish detail." --American Rifleman "Excellent....Gorenstein shows us the real man behind [the] famous name, as well as the family around him. Following Browning from his birth in rural Utah to his death in urban Belgium, we see how a changing world shaped his inventions, and how, in turn, his inventions shaped the changing world." --Ian McCollum, Editor, ForgottenWeapons.com"Very engaging...If you already know the difference between a locked breech and blowback pistol, heres a chance to understand the life of historys premier gun designer. If you havent encountered those phrases before, heres a chance to see how a guy growing up poor in a remote Western village became one of the greatest mechanical engineers of his time, transforming the world." --Clayton E. Cramer, author of Lock, Stock, and Barrel: The Origins of American Gun Culture"Revelatory...In his beautifully crafted, fast-paced narrative, Gorenstein not only gives us the singular life of Browning; he brilliantly illuminates, so we mortals can understand, how great inventors think and work." --Jim Rasenberger, author of Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America"The perfect combination of technological and social history--a feat rarely attempted and even more rarely achieved with such thorough attention to detail." --Ashley Hlebinsky, former co-host of Discovery Channels Master of Arms and Founding President, Association of Firearms History and Museums"Vivid, meticulous, fascinating....Dont flinch as Gorenstein explains what happens when a Browning weapon hits a target. A remarkable and detailed story!" --Bing West, New York Times bestselling author of No True Glory, Call Sign Chaos, and The Last Platoon"Historians and firearms aficionados will revel in Nathan Gorensteins meticulous portrait of the arms makers life, which was devoted to revising, reworking, and tweaking to perfection blueprints he saw in his head for a stunning array of weapons, including pistols, shotguns, and automatic rifles." --Larry Kahaner, author of AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War"Marvelous...Once just an obscure name, Browning, the Mormon whose weapons won wars, emerges as one of Americas greatest inventors." --Alexander Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Washingtons Spies and American Rifle"The furious complexity of the human species means that the word genius can apply equally to the likes of Shakespeare, Einstein, Mozart -- and John Moses Browning, whose revolutionary firearms designs resulted in world-changing weaponry.... Gorenstein explores, in intricate and granular detail, the nature and implications of his achievement." --Julia Keller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mr. Gatlings Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It"The surprising story of a genius inventor who changed the course of American history. It will captivate readers interested in firearms and the process of innovation. I highly recommend it." --Paul M. Barrett, author of GLOCK: The Rise of Americas Gun Review Quote "Vivid, meticulous, fascinating....Dont flinch as Gorenstein explains what happens when a Browning weapon hits a target. A remarkable and detailed story!" --Bing West, New York Times bestselling author of No True Glory, Call Sign Chaos, and The Last Platoon Excerpt from Book Chapter One: Frontier Lessons CHAPTER ONE FRONTIER LESSONS John Brownings first firearm was a crude shotgun, fashioned from a discarded musket barrel as long as he was tall. He built it in his fathers workshop in less than a day and afterward went hunting in the grass of the high plains with Matt, his five-year-old brother and future business partner.1 The 1865 Browning home in Ogden, Utah, was adobe brick, situated a few steps away from untrammeled land filled with grouse, a small wildfowl that made tolerable eating once it was plucked, butchered, and cooked, preferably with bacon fat to moisten the dry flesh. Utahs five varieties of grouse could fly, but mostly the birds shuffled about on the earth. The male "greater" grouse reached seven pounds, making a decent meal and an easy target, as yellow feathers surrounded each eye and a burst of white marked the breast. A skilled hunter could sneak up on a covey picking at leaves and grasses and with one blast of birdshot get two or three for the frying pan. Such frugality was necessary. The closest railroad stop was nearly one thousand miles east, and the largest nearby town was Salt Lake City, thirty-five miles to the south and home to only ten thousand people. Ogdens settlers ate what they grew, raised, or hunted. Water for drinking and crops depended on the streams and rivers that flowed west out of the mountains into the Great Salt Lake, and irrigated wheat, corn, turnips, cabbage, and potatoes. Each settler was obliged to contribute labor or money to construct the hand-dug ditches and canals. They made their own bricks, cured hides for leather, and made molasses out of a thin, yellowish juice squeezed from sugar beets with heavy iron rollers and then boiled down to a thick, dark bittersweet liquid. The rollers were made by Johns father, Jonathan, himself a talented gunsmith who also doubled as a blacksmith while pursuing a variety of entrepreneurial adventures that never yielded more than mixed success. Jonathans shop was his sons playground, and Johns toys were broken gun parts thrown into the corner. At age six, John was taught by his "pappy" to pick out metal bits for forging and hammering into new gun parts. Soon the boy was wielding tools under his fathers direction. To build that first crude gun John chose a day when his father was away on an errand. From the pile of discards John retrieved the old musket barrel and dug out a few feet of wire and a length of scrap wood. He clamped the barrel into a vice and with a fine-toothed saw cut off the damaged muzzle. He set Matt to work with a file and orders to scrape a strip along the barrels top down to clean metal. With a hatchet John hacked out a crude stock. The boys worked intently. On the frontier a task didnt have to be polished, but it had to be right. Basic materials were in short supply, and to make his gun parts and agricultural tools Pappy Browning scavenged iron and steel abandoned by exhausted and overloaded immigrants passing through on their way west. Once, he purchased a load of metal fittings collected from the burned-out remains of an army wagon train, and as payment he signed over a parcel of land that, years later, became the site of Ogdens first hotel. John used a length of wire to fasten the gun barrel to the stock, then bonded them with drops of molten solder. There was no trigger. Near the barrels flash hole John screwed on a tin cone. When it came time to fire, gunpowder and lead birdshot would be loaded down the muzzle and finely ground primer powder would be sprinkled into the cone. The brothers would work together as a team: John would aim, Matt would lean in and ignite the primer with the tip of a smoldering stick, and the cobbled-together shotgun would, presumably, fire. This wasnt without risk. There was no telling if the soldered wire was strong enough to contain the recoil, or if the barrel itself would burst. Then there was the matter of ammunition. Gunpowder and shot were expensive imports delivered by ox-drawn wagon train, and early settlers, surrounded by game, suffered pangs of hunger when foodstuffs were eaten up, powder was exhausted, and their firearms hung useless on the wall. Even as a shotgun--which fires lead pellets--the Browning brothers makeshift weapon might prove ineffective. John could miss, and anger their father by using up valuable gunpowder with no result. Despite the risks, John pilfered enough powder and lead shot (from Jonathans poorly hidden supply) for one shot. In ten minutes the brothers were in open country. Ogdens eastern side nestled against the sheer ramparts of the Wasatch Mountains, and to the west lay the waters of the Great Salt Lake. To the north the Bear and Weber rivers flowed out of the Wasatch to sustain the largest waterfowl breeding ground west of the Mississippi River. Early white explorers were staggered by seemingly endless flocks of geese and ducks. In the 1840s pioneers described the "astonishing spectacle of waterfowl multitudes" taking to the air with a sound like "distant thunder." Mountains rose up in all four directions, with one range or another flashing reflected sunlight. It was a striking geographic combination, magnified by the bright, clear sunlight of Ogdens near-mile-high elevation. A settlers life was lived on a stage of uncommon spectacle.2 John carried the shotgun while Matt toted a stick and a small metal can holding a few clumps of glowing coal. The idea was to take two or three birds with a single shot, thereby allaying parental anger with a show of skilled marksmanship. Barefoot, the brothers crept from place to place until they spotted a cluster of birds pecking at the ground. Two were almost touching wings and a third was inches away. John knelt and aimed. Matt pulled the glowing stick out of the embers, almost jabbed John in the ear, and then touched the stick to the tin cone to fire the shot. The recoil knocked John backward--but in front of him lay a dead bird. Two other wounded fowl flapped nearby. Matt scampered ahead and "stood, a bird in each hand, whooping and trying to wring both necks at once." The next morning, as Jonathan breakfasted on grouse breast and biscuits, John listened to sympathetic advice from his mother and chose that moment to tell Pappy the story of his gun, his hunt--and the pilfered powder. Jonathan sat quietly and when John was finished made no mention of the theft. He did ask to see the weapon and was unimpressed. "John Moses, youre going on eleven; cant you make a better gun than that?" Matt snickered. John choked down his remaining breakfast. "Pappy has drawn first blood, no doubt about that. He hadnt scolded about the powder and shot, and the sin of stealing. But hed hit my pride right on the funny bone," John told his family decades later. A moment later he followed his father into the shop. He unrolled the wire from the barrel, "whistling soft and low to show how unconcerned I was," and then stamped on the stock, snapped it in two, and tossed the pieces into a pile of kindling. "I remember thinking, rebelliously, that for all Pappy might say, the gun had gotten three fine birds for breakfast. Then I set to work. Neither of us mentioned it again." The father, Jonathan, who was tutor and goad to his son John, was born in 1805 to a family that emigrated from Virginia to rich farmland outside Nashville, Tennessee. Jonathan Browning was the sixth of seven children raised on a homestead at Brushy Farm along Bledsoe Creek, a four-mile-long tributary feeding the Cumberland River. Early on, Jonathan decided hed rather hammer on an anvil than walk behind a plow and at nineteen years of age apprenticed himself to a Nashville rifle maker. He returned to Bledsoe Creek to open his own shop in 1826, and in November of that year, at age twenty-one, married a local woman, Elizabeth Stalcup. She was twenty-three, the only child of a widowed mother. When Jonathans parents and several brothers moved west to Quincy, Illinois, a newly settled town on the Mississippi River, Jonathan and Elizabeth followed. In 1834 they moved to the village of La Prairie. It was the start of a decade-long trek westward as they added children at the rate of one infant per year.3 The extended Browning family in Illinois included a cousin, Orville, a politically ambitious attorney who boasted that frontier rarity, a college education. Orville practiced real estate law, and so, along with gunsmithing, Jonathan began purchasing land in the surrounding counties, often at sheriff sales, and holding the parcels for eventual resale. While Orville persuaded Jonathan to run for justice of the peace, it was gunsmithing that produced a lucrative income for his growing family. In addition to a steady flow of repairs, Jonathan designed a repeating rifle that used the same mechanism found in Samuel Colts new six-shooter pistol: a metal cylinder with six cylindrical chambers, each loaded with a lead ball and gunpowder, which would be ignited by a percussion cap. Colts gun was the first practical repeating firearm. Jonathan produced a rifle-sized version and crafted a trigger, stock, and barrel. A surviving example shows an exquisite level of craftsmanship, but it required time and effort that Jonathan found unsustainable.4 While Jonathan was inventing, cousin Orville was elected to the state legislature, where he befriended another young lawyer, a tall, thin man with a distinctive jaw named Abraham Lincoln.5 The men were of similar age and background. Both grew up in Kent Details ISBN1982129212 Author Nathan Gorenstein Short Title The Guns of John Moses Browning Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 1982129212 ISBN-13 9781982129217 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2021-05-25 Subtitle The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World Pages 336 UK Release Date 2021-05-25 Illustrations Illustrations, unspecified Publisher Scribner Book Company Imprint Scribner Book Company DEWEY B Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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