Springfield Armory.

[Cutlass]

So today I spent some time in the Springfield Armory national historical site. Thought I'd share a few pics, just in case anyone is interested.


http://www.nps.gov/spar/index.htm

 

[Cutlass]

 

[bhsup]

I would love to tour that someday before I die. Check out those gatling guns!

 

[Phrossack]

Cool! I love the old-timey handgonne (picture #4).

 

[Antilogic]

Looks beautiful. According to the website, this site was active from 1794 until 1968 and was then converted to the museum.

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah. Washington started this commie factory, and it lasted over 170 years. Then production of the military's guns went all private. Most of it, for small arms, moved just down the river to Hartford and the Colt Arsenal.

The Springfield Armory is actually a nice illustration of the American means of manufacture and warfare.

This pic:



Is the same muskets as are in the big gun organ. But made by 9 different manufacturers. And it's hard to tell the difference between all the guns. And that was in the 1960s. In contrast, the Confederacy had to use dozens of different guns, meaning a much more difficult logistics problem.

It's a small place. You can see it all in a couple hours. But some interesting things there. Helps to know a little background, though.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Did they ever produce any M2 machine guns? I can't quite read the signs.

 

[Cutlass]

No, they produced a variant of it, sometimes called the M-3, which was a mounted gun, such as the wing guns on WWII fighter planes and later on helicopters.