View From The Porch: Today In History: Happy Birthday, JMB!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Today In History: Happy Birthday, JMB!

Happy Birthday to the man who invented the one-piece slide and breechblock for autoloading pistols, the self-loading shotgun, the tilting-barrel short-recoil self-loading pistol and half the other firearms innovations we take for granted today...

21 comments:

2yellowdogs said...: As you've said so eloquently in the past, PBUH.; 8:57 PM, January 23, 2011
Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...: We bow our heads in reverence.; 9:27 PM, January 23, 2011
New Jovian Thunderbolt said...: Haven't you heard? That 1911 pistol he designed is no good, apparently. No good at all.; 9:36 PM, January 23, 2011
1911Man said...: I heard of this guy who was in the Army or something, a long time ago, and he says that nobody can hit a barn from the inside, with one of those things.; 9:39 PM, January 23, 2011
Kevin said...: I'll buy any and all 0f them for 100% of scrap iron value

Hell, even recycled they are worth a lot more than tupperware!; 10:13 PM, January 23, 2011
Stretch said...: Face Ogden and bow.
OK boys and girls! How many JMB designs (not individual weapons) do you have?
I've 5 designs.
Ranging from .22 to 12 gauge.
Will ad more as soon as the lottery board stops giving my money to total strangers.; 10:28 PM, January 23, 2011
Ed Foster said...: I goggle in wonder every day as I tweak 1911's together for a living. The 1911 still has the fastest lock reset time on the planet, due to that totally non-linear disconnector, a stroke of brilliance even for JMB.

It all works together with simple synergy that glows. A century later, it's still state of the art. Can you that about a Stanley Steamer or a Model T Ford?

Posit a bit of serious social intercourse. Posit also a steel frame. Heavier, but it shoots better, and that's what it's all about.

Would you be undergunned with a 1911, compared to any of it's decendants or near clones?

Have you ever seen a quad .50 light up the night and know you'll sleep safer because people who don't like you are on the recieving end of your basic WOS?

Winchester levers, belgian pocket pistols, humpbacked shotguns, all the things that made a little kid from a hick town grow bigeyed when the grownups broke out the cigars and whiskey to trade sea stories.

Thank you Sir. J.P. Morgan and William Jennings Bryan are cold names in a dry history book to most people, but those same people will know your name and work long after I'm pushing up daisies, and I plan to be around for a while.

Happy birthday.; 11:47 PM, January 23, 2011
perlhaqr said...: Stretch: Three, I think, in my personal collection. Unless I've got some I don't know about, and given how many he made, I wouldn't be terribly surprised by that. Wouldn't mind more.; 1:39 AM, January 24, 2011
Neutrino Cannon said...: Whether the 1911 is truly gilt-edged competitive now, a century after it all is debatable.

It freaking wiped the floor with any* of its contemporaries though.

These days the pistol designers are much more advanced, and they show their prowess by using the exact same recoil system as the BHP and locking it into the ejection port, just like a Webley automatic.

*I would like to think Pedersen's Remington 53 would have given the 1911 a run for its money if it had been given a fair shot at life.; 2:16 AM, January 24, 2011
Joe in PNG said...: I've got a little .25 Baby back home in the US, and a matched set of .30cal M2-AN machine guns here*

*Both machineguns are sadly corroded into solid chunks of rust.; 3:20 AM, January 24, 2011
ViolentIndifference said...: Happy Birthday!; 7:25 AM, January 24, 2011
JimB said...: Put me down for 4...
1911
Hi-power
.22 auto rifle
Model 94 Winchester; 7:42 AM, January 24, 2011
Wiggy said...: My Son, 16, just commented that, considering all JMB's ontributions to this country and society, perhaps this would be a better day to have as a school holiday than some of the others we have. When you are in High School any excuse for a day off is a good one. Hehehehe. He makes a good point, though.

Let's see
94 winchester
High power
M1911-A1
A5
30-06; 7:54 AM, January 24, 2011
Anonymous said...: As I recall, another distingished-and living-gunnie has an imminent B'Day too.

I can't divulge her name, though
:-). Shhhh !; 8:36 AM, January 24, 2011
Nate said...: Two buddies and I paid our respects early with a good lunch and a trip through the JMB museum the week before last. It's about 3 miles from my house.

Tell me how many travel days would be involved with 71 trips from Ogden to Belgium beginning in 1902? That's how many trips JMB made to see his guns built by FN.

Anyway, just 2 designs in my locker so far, 1911 and 22 semiauto rifle.; 11:30 AM, January 24, 2011
NotClauswitz said...: Four if you count the cartridge. Mom grew up in Ogden, after they had to move off the farm.; 12:38 PM, January 24, 2011
Anonymous said...: Stretch's comment in your debit card/microchip post above that technology reached its zenith with pencils, DC-3's and the 1911?

As for the latter at least, it be true.

An engineer and visionary of our own time, in a rarified league with Da Vinci, imho.

Happy b-day, JMB...PBUY.

AT; 4:03 PM, January 24, 2011
roland said...: The thing that really brought his genius home for me was seeing all the prototypes at the museum. It appears that many designs were first draft is final draft. The A5looked like all it lacked to be ready for prime time was a trip to the bluing tanks. Visionary indeed.; 5:49 PM, January 24, 2011
Anonymous said...: The most influential designer EVER!!! J.M.B.'s designs are very near and dear to Every serviceperson!! They ALWAYS worked as he prescribed. GOD bless him!!; 8:19 PM, January 24, 2011
libertyman said...: Well, I just checked on my JMB designs and I have eight different ones. I blush that I didn't know one was one of his designs -- the Colt Woodsman. Who can recommend a good book about the man?; 11:26 PM, January 24, 2011
Anonymous said...: I keep meaning to get a statuette of Mister browning about 6" high. I plan to set it on a shelf, with an incense burner on the left, and an offering plate in front with a fresh box of ammo on it. Sorta like the Chinese set up in their homes and shops.; 11:45 AM, January 25, 2011