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Chargement... The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the Worldpar Nathan Gorenstein
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Gorenstein fashions something I'd never been interested in, gun design, into a fascinating read. I never really thought much about how guns even work, and the descriptions here make it all clear to a novice like me. He was an investigative reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and it shows. A shy genius, Browning pictured his inventions in his head and worked without drawings. He started in the 1870s. He'd build his prototypes in Utah, bring them on the train to manufacturers in the East and sell the designs to the likes of Colt and Winchester. Later the guns were made by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, which sparked the first World War, was accomplished with a Browning design, the 1910 handgun. His 1911 design was also well known and revered in gun circles.) Machine guns and semi automatics, also first designed in his mind, and then made by FN well into the 20th century, became ubiquitous and were used in wars all over the world. I didn't know any of this before reading this book. It's being published this week so I'm getting the word out although I'm still reading it. The name Browning should be as well known as Smith & Wesson, Glock and Luger are. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"The first major biography of "the Thomas Edison of guns," John Moses Browning, a visionary inventor who designed the modern handgun and whose awe-inspiring array of firearms helped ensure victory in numerous American wars and found an important place in American culture. Few people are aware that John Moses Browning-a tall, humble, cerebral man born in 1855 and raised as a Mormon in the American West-was the mind behind many of the world-changing firearms that dominated more than a century of conflict. He invented the crucial design used in virtually all modern pistols, created the most popular hunting rifles and shotguns, and conceived the machine guns that proved decisive not just in World Wars I and II but nearly every major military action since. Yet few in America knew his name until he was into his sixties. Now, author Nathan Gorenstein brings firearms inventor John Moses Browning to vivid life in this riveting and revealing biography. Embodying the tradition of self-made, self-educated geniuses (like Lincoln and Edison), Browning was able to think in three dimensions (he never used blueprints) and his gifted mind produced everything from the famous Winchester "30-30" hunting rifle to the awesomely effective machine guns used by every American aircraft and infantry unit in World War II. The British credited Browning's guns with helping to win the Battle of Britain. His inventions illustrate both the good and bad of weapons. Sweeping, lively, and brilliantly told, this fascinating book introduces a little-known American legend whose impact on history ranks with that of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)683.40092Technology Manufacture of products for specific uses Hardware, weapons, household appliances WeaponsClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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And Gorenstein does a phenomenal job of showing the development and importance of each, including Browning designing the gas-piston system of modern automatic and semi-automatic rifles *in a single day*. Gorenstein shows how Browning, of truly humble beginnings, designed his first gun from scraps laying around his dad's engineering and repair shop - just to hunt small game to help feed the family. Gorenstein shows how these humble beginnings played such a role in Browning not even really beginning to invent until at or beyond the age when others in more academic professions say genius decays - and how this "lost decade" played such a role in Browning's later drive and inventiveness.
It doesn't matter what you think of how Browning's designs and their derivatives over the last 100 years have been used. You know about Edison, or can. You know about Ford, or can. You deserve to educate yourself about this genius as well, if only to learn the lessons of his genius. And this book is the very first time you really can. Very much recommended. ( )