Charles River Editors

The Industrial Revolution that unfolded in Western societies at the dawn of the 19th century altered daily life as a rapidly developing paradigm. One historian suggests that in Europe and America, the highest known form of technology was the pipe organ before the rise of factories, steam drive combustion, and railway and communication breakthroughs built upon the mastery of electricity and transformed the standard processes of society. Such a rapid alteration of the prevailing world seemingly took place in a historical instant that propelled technology all the way to the age of powered flight. 

 No less affected were the technological accomplishments that cast their influence over the wars so rampant in Europe through the past centuries. Military weapons benefited from various upgrades and innovations, even as the soldiers and generals remained confined within Napoleonic tactics while struggling to learn about the new principles of physics and engineering.

 For Americans who were recently embroiled in the Revolution and were obsessed with ownership and development of the West, the search for a major shift in military weaponry was the same. Whatever the refinements, the state of national arms lay within the confines of single-shot firearms and lumbering artillery pieces, and with no standardization in the building of portable arms, reliability was forever a battle liability. While America continued to fight multiple enemies, including Europeans, Mexicans, and indigenous natives intent on preserving their lands, other military tides were on the rise. The Chinese, inventors of gunpowder, spread through Asia, and the Ottoman Empire reached the gates of Vienna. In subsequent years, non-Western powers such as India began to hold their own against would be occupiers. Established and emerging powers around the world craved a technological advantage as the globe began to obtain parity.

Jim Walsh

The Modernization of American Guns: The History of the Gunsmiths and Weapons that Revolutionized the Country’s Firearms

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