John Browning
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- This article is about John Browning the American weapon designer, and not John Browning the pianist, or John Browning the football player.
Image:JohnBrowning.jpeg John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. He is arguably one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms and is credited with 128 gun patents—his first (for a single shot rifle) was granted October 7, 1879.
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History
From 1883, Browning worked in partnership with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and designed a series of repeating rifles and shotguns, most notably the Winchester Model 1887 and Model 1897 shotguns and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles, all of which are still in production today.
Perhaps the most famous individual Browning-designed firearm was a FN 1910 handgun, serial number 19074. In 1914, the pistol was used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, an event which arguably sparked the First World War. The pistol was rediscovered in 2004. [1]
Browning belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two year mission for the church in Georgia beginning on March 28, 1887. His father Jonathan Browning, who was among the thousands of Mormon pioneers in the mass exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, had established a gunsmith shop in Ogden in 1852. Image:Winchester rifle grko474 rifle.jpg
In 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liege, he died of heart failure. The 9mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the Browning Hi-Power.
Until his death, Browning designed weapons for Colt, Remington, his own company and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. In 1977 FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning's death.
Products
Several of his designs are still in production today. Some of his most notable designs include:
Firearms
- The Winchester Model 1887 lever-action repeating shotgun;
- The Winchester Model 1894 lever-action repeating rifle;
- The Winchester Model 1897 pump-action repeating shotgun;
- The Browning Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun of 1902;
- The FN 1910 semi-automatic handgun;
- The Colt Model 1911 semi-automatic handgun;
- The Model 1917 water-cooled machine gun;
- The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) of 1918;
- The Browning M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun of 1921.
Cartridges
In addition, the cartridges he developed are still some of the most popular in the world. They include:
Military weapons
Image:Machine gun BAR 1.jpg The Colt 1911, Browning 1917, and the BAR saw action in World War I, World War II and the Korean War, with the 1911 going on to serve as the United States's standard military sidearm until 1986; a variant is still used by special operations units of the USMC and FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, and the design remains very popular amongst civilian shooters. The Browning Hi-Power would have a similarly lengthy period of service outside the United States, and remains the standard sidearm of the United Kingdom's armed forces. The M2 heavy machine gun is still in widespread use throughout the world.
Selected patents
- Template:US patent Winchester 1885 single-shot, Browning’s first patent
- Template:US patent Winchester 1886 and Model 71 lever action rifles
- Template:US patent Winchester Model 1887/1901 lever action shotgun
- Template:US patent Winchester 1890 pump action rifle
- Template:US patent Winchester 1893 and 1897 pump action shotguns
- Template:US patent Winchester 1892 lever action rifle
- Template:US patent Winchester 1894 lever action rifle
- Template:US patent Colt 1895 machine gun
- Template:US patent Winchester 1895 lever action rifle
- Template:US patent Colt 1900 automatic pistol
- Template:US patent Winchester 1900 bolt action single shot .22 rifle
- Template:US patent FN/Browning Auto 5 shotgun, also Remington Model 11
- Template:US patent Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle.
- Template:US patent Browning Model 1917 machine gun
- Template:US patent Colt 1903 automatic pistol
- Template:US patent Stevens 520 pump action shotgun
- Template:US patent Colt Model 1905 in 45 ACP (predecessor to the M1911)
- Template:US patent FN Model 1906 and Colt 1908 Vest Pocket in 25 ACP
- Template:US patent Colt 1911
- Template:US patent Browning .22 Automatic Rifle
- Template:US patent Remington Model 17 and Ithaca 37 pump action shotguns
- Template:US patent Colt Woodsman
- Template:US patent Browning Automatic Rifle Model of 1918
- Template:US patent FN "Trombone" pump action .22 cal repeater (Rare in USA)
- Template:US patent 37mm automatic cannon
- Template:US patent Browning Superposed over/under shotgun
- Template:US patent FN and Browning Hi-Power pistol
- Template:US patent M2 machine gun in 50 caliber
References
- John Browning & Curt Gentry. John M. Browning, American Gunmaker. NY: Doubleday, 1964. OCLC 1329440
See also
- Winchester Repeating Arms Company
- Browning Arms Company
- Remington Arms
- Fabrique Nationale de Herstal
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