Grease Barbie
America's Largest Gunmaker:? Nobody You Know
Who was the most important gunmaker in U.S. history? and maybe a score, if – there at least half a dozen you are thinking hard about it – leading contenders. Let me in the spirit of things by quoting from the top of my head and shuffle, Oliver Winchester, Samuel Colt, Mr. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, Christopher Spencer, John Browning, Christian Sharps, Remington brothers, John Garand, Eugene Stoner. . .
Each of these persons with any right to claim the mantle of America's Greatest Gunmaker. But I give him the laurel wreath to someone you probably never heard of. In my eyes, instead of languishing in obscurity his name be not only a household but a national annual celebration with a parade, one day work, a monument, and some fireworks. For it was he who almost single-handedly laid the foundations for economic supremacy of the United States by developing the first true "changeable" in the gun first half of the nineteenth century. Think of him as the Alexander Graham Bell of weapons technology, Steve Jobs of gun design, the Henry Ford of the gun industry. Only completely dark. And who never any money.
So who is this already illustrious Unsung Hero? Blessed with the innocent name of John Hall, Maine, he was born (in 1781) and was obsessed from his early 30s making machines – people were not up to the task, he thought – that would make guns, thousands of them, each perfect and indistinguishable from the others. Hall dreamed that a lot of guns construct, dismantle, random mix elements of each gun – from the smallest screw up – and then back them. They would perfectly, or so the theory went.
Now, to us this may not seem like a special dream, after all, factories around the world today to produce many millions identical televisions, microwaves, Barbie dolls, and more. Even the computer that you can read the same in every particular to a horde of others. There is nothing inherently individual about.
At the moment though, what was called "exchangeable" was considered the Holy Grail. So high were the obstacles that few inventors believed it could ever be achieved – for each product, let alone something as sophisticated as a gun. It was intended, they thought, a foolish quest continue. Only Hall, who had set up Working for a Rifle at Harpers Ferry Armory, thought differently. For decades, he worked all hours of the day, fighting against infidel superiors, cost cutting bean counters, and incompetent bureaucrats, becoming the world's first mass-produced rifle build. Indeed, Hall was so driven that he not only wanted to win the prize, but to do it with a very breechloading advanced weapon. (This then newfangled rifles loaded through an opening behind the barrel and above the trigger, the speed of loading and fire increased, in contrast to muskets, who were charged with ball and powder in the muzzle).
It is difficult to vaulting ambition of the Hall aims to communicate to modern readers. As there was no means of travel faster than a horse in the pre-industrial America, everything, absolutely everything has been hand made, some elbow grease and a few tools in small workshops across the country. Take a blacksmith, for example. After a long period, he established his own shop, he created for himself any part of a gun, boring of the barrel, to the formation of the screws, to carve the cob, affixing to the sights.
Even with a pupil of his own to help, he could prove only a few guns per month and due to the vagaries of construction, his level of skill, his preferences, and the quality of materials, each slightly different than the last. With the naked eye, they can look similar to the outside, but a piece of equipment subject to the titanic thermo-dynamic forces that a gun, even a loose nut could eventually unnoticeable and shaken free and lead to a potentially deadly explosion. Worse, because there are no standards or performance to standardize measurements, a gunsmith the weapon would be very different those in a neighboring county or even across the street: Some would be heavier, which would have longer barrels, fit some larger calibers. . . Everything about them was individual, in other words.
Hall was, in the end, a tragic figure. In 1830, after nearly twenty years of toil, he had finally finished his machines, had a limited number of rifles, and had acquired a bundle of admiring reports of investigations of the army. On the eve of worldly success, Hall fell victim to his insistence on working alone, only helped by a team of hand picked, well trained mechanics. Time had caught up with him. His rear loading mechanism, once revolutionary, delayed behind the newcomers to the market and gun upstart rivals (such as Colt) are themselves to discover the secrets of compatibility. He had always been "hard to get along with" but he was too old, and now reluctant to listen to advice or to implement changes to his fief to be held on the Rifle Works. Carefully, he was pushed out of Harpers Ferry by a younger generation of engineers and ordnance specialists.
His health deteriorated rapidly and he died on February 26, 1841. Hall's rifle was shelved shortly after and the world moved on and forgot him. Today, no resemblance to the great man exists and only a few copies of the main hall behind loader are stored in museums. In fact, while I was writing the book, American Rifle: A Biography, I was sanctified the Smithsonian Institution's Gun Room to enter – a vast storehouse of deadly weapons is not open to the public. After attracting white gloves, I grabbed a Hall, still a beautiful piece of art after all these years, and marveled at the beauty of the mechanism.
Hall, however, had a posthumous enjoy last laugh. The engineers to whom he imparted the secrets of interchangeability went out into the world, multiplying and prosperous. In their large diaspora, they learn of their high priest applies to all sectors of the business enterprise of the country, bringing to an end the era of individual skills and small scale production. Gun lobby, in short, was the shock of a new industrial era and the rise of the American superpower.
The names of the Colt, Smith & Wesson, Winchester, and Remington still resonate – but she thanked them all these brave, cranky Yankee from Maine.
© 2008 Alexander Rose
About the Author
Born in the United States, Alexander Rose was raised in Australia and Britain. A military historian and former journalist, he is the author of Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring, and his writing has appeared in the New York Observer, the Washington Post, Studies in Intelligence, and many other publications. His website is www.alexrose.com .
Audition songs for Grease … and maybe a monologue?
Okay I'm trying out for bold, so I have an idea for what song I do, I'm trying to Ritzo or maybe Frenchie? But I also have a monologue … I remember hearing this one about Barbie and how it sucks for her … if anyone has one that would be great, but maybe one … one that would INVOL a tough girl .. maybe …. but not download stuff from websites … messes up my computer the best answer gets 10 POINTS! Thank You
Songs: Adelaide's Lament-Guys and Dolls Anyone can Whistle-Anyone Can Whistle Good Morning Baltimore-Hairspray I get a kick out of U-Anything Goes I'm Gonna Wash That Man Outa My Hair-law South Pacific, Gypsy-Let Me Entertain You-Take Back Your Mink Guys and Dolls I do not have that monologue, but here are a few others: Dance 10, Looks 3 – A Chorus Line So, the day after I Turned 18, I kissed goodbye to the people, but I got on a Trailways bus – and headed for the big bad apple. Rockette because I wanted one. Oh, yes, let's get one thing straight. See, I never heard about "The Red Shoes," I never saw "The Red Shoes' I did not fuck about" The Red Shoes. "I decided to be a Rockette because this girl in my home town – Louella Heiner – had actually gotten out and made it in New York. And she was a Rockette. Well, she came home one Christmas to visit, and gave her a parade. A damn parade! I turned a friggin 'baton for two hours in the rain. But alas, I've knocked them over Christmas. Merry Christmas – and never returned to Radio City plan. That was mine. New York, New York. Except that I had a little problem. You see, I was ugly as sin. I was ugly, skinny, homely, unattractive and flat as a pancake. Get the picture? Anyway, I got off the bus in my little white shoes, my little white socks, white dress, my ugly little face, and my long blonde hair – it was natural then. I looked like a fucking nurse! I had $ 87 in my pocket and seven years of tap and acrobatics. I could do a hundred and eighty degree split and come tapping Morse code. Well, with that kind of talent I thought the mayor would be waiting for me at Port Authority. Wrong! I had to wait six months for an audition. Well, finally the big day came. I let you in the Music Hall with my red patent leather tap shoes. And I have my little tap routine. And this man said to me: Can you fankicks? – Well, I could do great fankicks. But they were not good enough. Of course, what he was trying to tell me was … it was the way I looked, not fankicks. So I said: Fuck you, and the Radio City Rockettes! I'm going to Broadway! Well, Broadway, same story. Each audition. I mean, I dance rings around the other girls and find myself in the alley with the other rejects. But after a while I caught on. I mean, I had eyes. I saw what they rent. I also swiped my dance card once after an audition. And on a scale of 10 …. They gave me dance 10. For looks: 3. Death-A Street Car Named Desire: I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All those deaths! The long procession to the cemetery! Father, Mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! So big it could not be placed in a coffin! But had to be burned as rubbish! You came home just in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths-not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes even cry for you, "Do not let me go!" Even the old, some say "Do not let me go." As if you were able to stop them! But funerals are quiet, with beautiful flowers. And, oh, what a beautiful boxes they pack them away in! Unless you're there on the bed as she cried: "Hold me!" you'd never suspect there was a struggle for breath and bleeding. You have no dream, but I saw! Saw! Saw! And now here is telling me with your eyes, I let the place go! How in the hell do you think that sickness and dying was paid? Death is expensive, Miss Stella! Jessie's cousin and former direct After Margaret's, hers! Therefore, the Grim Reaper put up his tent on our doorstep! ? Stella. Belle Reve was his headquarters! Which of them showed us a fortune? Which of them had a cent of insurance even? Only poor Jessie-hundred to pay for her coffin. That was all, Stella! And I with my pitiful salary at the school. Yes, accuse me! Sit and stare at me, thought I let the place go! I let the place go? Where were you! In bed with your-Pool! Leave Me Alone Mr. Cornell, The Star-Spangled Girl Mr. Cornell, Ah have tried to be neighborly, Ah have tried to be friendly, and Ah have tried to warm … Ah do not know what it is that you're tryin 'to be. That first night was grateful Ah you made mah trunk up the stairs … The fact that she slipped and fell five flights and beaten to pieces was not your fault … Ah did not even mind that the personal message you painted on the stairs. Ah thought it was crazy, but sorta sweet. However, things have gone too far now … Ah can not accept gifts from a man Ah hardly know … Especially canned goods. And Ah read your note. Ah can guess the core of it all Ah do not speak Italian. This is due, Mr. Cornell quit. Ah can do very well without you leavin 'little chocolate-almond Hershey bars in mah mailbox – they melted yesterday, and now Ah got three letters of gooey white house
Grease Collectiable Sandy Olsson Barbie Doll
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Collectible Barbie Pop Culture Doll Grease Rizzo 2007 Pink Label $33.80 |
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2007 GREASE: RACE DAY COSMO FRENCHY Barbie (AphroditeFM) Pop Culture M0682_NRFB $45.00 |
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Pop Culture Barbie as Race Day Cha Cha in Grease $44.99 |
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NIB RIZZO BARBIE DOLL “GREASE” $42.99 |
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Baribe Grease Rizzo Doll $35.00 |
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2008 Grease *Frenchy* Barbie doll $31.99 |
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Barbie Pink Label Collector Collection 30 Years Anniversary Grease 12 Inch Doll $40.80 |
