alphabrass
posted this
19 April 2023
I also am fortunate to have a copy of the reprint. I first saw the original in the Dewey Decimal section of the University of Arizona Science and Engineering Library decades ago. It was a big influence on my becoming a manufacturing engineer. I knew that I had to have my own copy and after years and years of looking I found one. When I want to remind myself that ingenuity is not dependent on computers, I take a look. I marvel at the dimensioned and perspective drawings of all of the tooling and gauging.
The Army realized that more rifles would be needed soon, and would have preferred the 1903. When the 1917 became available, the 1903 project was shelved until WW II. The sections in the book about the Benet-Mercie, Lewis, and Vickers machine guns are also interesting. The politics around the Benet-Mercie (M1909 Machine Rifle) and Lewis guns show that some things never change.
One of the authors, Fred H. Colvin, was very prolific, writing many books on machining practice, and for the American Machinist periodical. His autobiography, "60 Years With Men And Machines", is very interesting.
alphabrass