A Better Rifle at Halloween
- Thread starter diesal
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- britwank rifles ww1 different
Surely our allies withdraw while the enemy retreats?
Keep up the excellent work!
Well Kitchener won’t be saying anything as i drowned him.
Industrial Machinery
2nd October 1914, Colchester
The factory floor was frantic with activity, a large order had been placed with The Colchester Lathe Company by the Farquhar-Hill Rifle Company, the order was for 16 new gun drills and 32 new lathes. The gun drills and lathes were to be electrically driven by individual motors, a deviation from the usual common shaft system traditionally employed by British manufacturers. These were the first true industrial lathes the company had manufactured but they were keen to expand in this direction and had recently acquired the design rights from two large American machine tool companies.
All of the gun drills and half the lathes were to be configured for virtually automatic operation, with the operator only responsible for ensuring coolant flow consistent and removing and installing each new blank prior to machining. The feeds and speeds would be set by a master operator and then locked into the machine.
For the lathes a series of tool holders were designed that could be rotated between tools allowing rapid changes of tool. In addition the new lathes were designed to use high speed steel cutting tools based on hardened RMS alloy.
All in all, it was thought that the new lathes would allow the operators to operate at nearly 50% higher efficiency than the old equipment as well as having far closer tolerances in the work they produced.
The factory floor was frantic with activity, a large order had been placed with The Colchester Lathe Company by the Farquhar-Hill Rifle Company, the order was for 16 new gun drills and 32 new lathes. The gun drills and lathes were to be electrically driven by individual motors, a deviation from the usual common shaft system traditionally employed by British manufacturers. These were the first true industrial lathes the company had manufactured but they were keen to expand in this direction and had recently acquired the design rights from two large American machine tool companies.
All of the gun drills and half the lathes were to be configured for virtually automatic operation, with the operator only responsible for ensuring coolant flow consistent and removing and installing each new blank prior to machining. The feeds and speeds would be set by a master operator and then locked into the machine.
For the lathes a series of tool holders were designed that could be rotated between tools allowing rapid changes of tool. In addition the new lathes were designed to use high speed steel cutting tools based on hardened RMS alloy.
All in all, it was thought that the new lathes would allow the operators to operate at nearly 50% higher efficiency than the old equipment as well as having far closer tolerances in the work they produced.
William Morris joins the team
2nd October 1914, London
Arthur Hill, Moubray Farquhar, and William Morris had just finished lunch, they had come from the War Office who had just placed an order for another 100,000 of their rifles. There discussions with the War office had gone well, they were very pleased with the rifles performance, but they expressed concern about the rate of manufacture. The Army was projected to grow massively, with at least another 24 infantry divisions required and every one of those men would need a rifle.
Morris had initially joined Farquhar-Hill as a consultant, whilst he had his own busy factory in Cowley that was being turned to war work entirely, he had been able to visit Farquhar-Hill several times and he had detailed a number of his engineers to the task of making a modern company. He had not done this entirely out of the goodness of his heart, he had soon taken a 15% share in the company which he imagined would turn a healthy profit with all the rifles that would be needed.
It had been William Morris who had pushed hard for the improved efficiency, he had been privately horrified and publicly polite about the manufacturing processes used by the Farquhar-Hill rifle company. Hill was a great gunsmith and designer, but he knew nothing about large scale manufacturing and despite his interests in efficiency, he lacked the personality drive forward the changes needed.
The new equipment orders that had been placed were only part of the drive for efficiency, the factory layout was to be changed to enable individual workers to carry out single steps in the manufacturing process before transferring the work on to the next step in the production line. Already the Taylor studies on how long it was taking to carry out each step were being used and the measurement of output by each worker was also being conducted.
Training had also been revolutionised by Morris and his people, the focus was on teaching the individual how to carry out their work task as efficiently and consistently as possible. Every step was broken down and trained until each worker could do it the same way every time. Each worker’s station was analysed to ensure that tools and equipment needed was close at hand and nothing that was not needed was present.
Also introduced was a rigorous quality control system, the machining of bolt and the gas system pistons were the two main problem areas, and it was hoped that the new lathes and a matching order of callipers and go no-go gauges would improve that.
It was thought that with the new machines the factory would be able to produce 750 rifles per day working two shifts. Current production was 90 rifles per day but that was running the current factory at an emergency pace and would soon decline as skipped maintenance cut into output. Production at Birmingham Small Arms was just coming on stream at 350 rifles per day, although the decision to also have them manufacture the Lewis guns which had been so effective in Belgian Service was going to preclude any further expansion of their efforts.
The Lewis gun was a problem in another way, it was being designed for the MKVII 303 round used by the majority of the British Army and neither BSA or the War office wanted a version in the .28 cartridge used by the Farquhar-Hill rifle. Withouth a Lewis in 0.28 every section would be burdened by two different ammunition calibres. This would increase the pressure on Farquhar-Hill to produce a rifle in 303, or even for production to be cancelled. As it was both Hill and Farquhar could see an opportunity to build an automatic version of their own rifle. Their own automatic rifle would enable them to provide automatic fire with a rifle that was derived from the existing design and that used the same ammunition.
Hill had been tinkering with various designs since the early days, but he was stymied by overheating, reliability issues and the very high rate of fire the rifle produced when firing on automatic it was up around 1000 rounds per minute. None of the problems were insurmountable but until recently, the frantic efforts to scale up production and get BSA onstream had precluded any real time for him to address this challenge.
The other area that was occupying his attention was working to improve the usability and reliability of the existing rifles, reports were coming back from battlefield use and training experience. The major problems related to mud, unless the rifle was kept clean reliability would decline, Hill was experimenting on new seal materials to reduce problems. He hoped to have it implemented soon and hoped it could be retrofitted to existing weapons.
The three men were doing well as individuals and their company was going to be an important element of any British victory in this war. All three men were bound and determined to do everything in their power to provide the best rifle in the world to the world’s best army.
Arthur Hill, Moubray Farquhar, and William Morris had just finished lunch, they had come from the War Office who had just placed an order for another 100,000 of their rifles. There discussions with the War office had gone well, they were very pleased with the rifles performance, but they expressed concern about the rate of manufacture. The Army was projected to grow massively, with at least another 24 infantry divisions required and every one of those men would need a rifle.
Morris had initially joined Farquhar-Hill as a consultant, whilst he had his own busy factory in Cowley that was being turned to war work entirely, he had been able to visit Farquhar-Hill several times and he had detailed a number of his engineers to the task of making a modern company. He had not done this entirely out of the goodness of his heart, he had soon taken a 15% share in the company which he imagined would turn a healthy profit with all the rifles that would be needed.
It had been William Morris who had pushed hard for the improved efficiency, he had been privately horrified and publicly polite about the manufacturing processes used by the Farquhar-Hill rifle company. Hill was a great gunsmith and designer, but he knew nothing about large scale manufacturing and despite his interests in efficiency, he lacked the personality drive forward the changes needed.
The new equipment orders that had been placed were only part of the drive for efficiency, the factory layout was to be changed to enable individual workers to carry out single steps in the manufacturing process before transferring the work on to the next step in the production line. Already the Taylor studies on how long it was taking to carry out each step were being used and the measurement of output by each worker was also being conducted.
Training had also been revolutionised by Morris and his people, the focus was on teaching the individual how to carry out their work task as efficiently and consistently as possible. Every step was broken down and trained until each worker could do it the same way every time. Each worker’s station was analysed to ensure that tools and equipment needed was close at hand and nothing that was not needed was present.
Also introduced was a rigorous quality control system, the machining of bolt and the gas system pistons were the two main problem areas, and it was hoped that the new lathes and a matching order of callipers and go no-go gauges would improve that.
It was thought that with the new machines the factory would be able to produce 750 rifles per day working two shifts. Current production was 90 rifles per day but that was running the current factory at an emergency pace and would soon decline as skipped maintenance cut into output. Production at Birmingham Small Arms was just coming on stream at 350 rifles per day, although the decision to also have them manufacture the Lewis guns which had been so effective in Belgian Service was going to preclude any further expansion of their efforts.
The Lewis gun was a problem in another way, it was being designed for the MKVII 303 round used by the majority of the British Army and neither BSA or the War office wanted a version in the .28 cartridge used by the Farquhar-Hill rifle. Withouth a Lewis in 0.28 every section would be burdened by two different ammunition calibres. This would increase the pressure on Farquhar-Hill to produce a rifle in 303, or even for production to be cancelled. As it was both Hill and Farquhar could see an opportunity to build an automatic version of their own rifle. Their own automatic rifle would enable them to provide automatic fire with a rifle that was derived from the existing design and that used the same ammunition.
Hill had been tinkering with various designs since the early days, but he was stymied by overheating, reliability issues and the very high rate of fire the rifle produced when firing on automatic it was up around 1000 rounds per minute. None of the problems were insurmountable but until recently, the frantic efforts to scale up production and get BSA onstream had precluded any real time for him to address this challenge.
The other area that was occupying his attention was working to improve the usability and reliability of the existing rifles, reports were coming back from battlefield use and training experience. The major problems related to mud, unless the rifle was kept clean reliability would decline, Hill was experimenting on new seal materials to reduce problems. He hoped to have it implemented soon and hoped it could be retrofitted to existing weapons.
The three men were doing well as individuals and their company was going to be an important element of any British victory in this war. All three men were bound and determined to do everything in their power to provide the best rifle in the world to the world’s best army.
OTL 97% of Belgium was occupied during the war, at this stage it is about 50%, with the tide flowing fairly hard in the other direction. Antwerp remains firmly in in allied hands and Brussels is threatened. There is hunger in Belgium but the British and Dutch are labouring to relieve it.
On a side note I have been a fan of Herbert Hoover for years, he introduced Square Sets to Broken Hill.
As far as I am aware he turned down. Peerage because his son wanted a go at the commons. He ought to have been made a Duke or an Earl otherwise.
Are you sure?
In modern times Lords appear to have a degree of choice (Lord Adonis is a modernish example) while many peerages appear to relate to place names (Marquis of Bath, Duke of Norfolk) historically and currently.
Unless Lords choosing a title name is a recent thing Lord Blenheim looks quite likely.
Mark1878
Donor
British PMs were effectively entitle to be a hereditary Earldom when they retired. MacMillan was the last to take it. Thatcher took a life peerage.
It depends on the rank. Most ennoblements today are Life Peerages where the person chooses their name, often their name and a location to distinguish between peers with the same name.
Life Peers are Barons and addressed as Lord X
Hereditary peers have the various ranks e.g. Duke Earl, Marquess Viscount and Baron and are usually named after a location for the higher ranks and name for lower ranks although there are many exceptions..
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Thanks. That makes sense (well as far as the Lords and peerages ever make sense).
Incidentally, Thatcher was given a hereditary title (baronetcy) which meant that her arms dealer son who was convicted for trying to organise a coup inherited the title.
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Mark1878
Donor
There has been one timeline that stopped in Jan 2008 and the author added the next message in Dec 2021 so nearly 14 years between posts, So there is always hope.