Dec
29
Three Presidents and the Rifle
Filed Under History | Comments Off
Alexander Rose asked:
Three of our presidents have been particularly fascinated by rifles: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. But all for different reasons.
Washington was what we would call an “early adopter” of rifle technology. As early as the French and Indian War (1754-1763), when he was first baptized into frontier warfare, the young, ambitious officer owned his own rifle. This was at a time when few, apart from frontiersmen, even knew what one was.
In 1775, for instance, as well-informed a gentleman as John Adams mentioned to his wife Abigail that he had recently heard about a “peculiar” kind of gun that had “grooves within the barrel, and [carried] a ball with great exactness over great distances.”
Muskets — which, unlike rifles, were smooth-bored, short-range, and monstrously inaccurate weapons — were all that he knew. Yet we find a New-York Mercury story reporting some twenty years earlier that somewhere in the wilderness one then-obscure “Col. Washington,” accompanied by rifle-armed “woodsmen,” was energetically hunting down French-backed Indian raiders.
But why the rifle? Why Washington’s insistence on carrying one in battle (and purchasing several more — specially customized, of course — for hunting)? Originally, it was because rifles were better suited than muskets for frontier fighting, which favored fleety, camouflaged, loosely organized bands of men traveling light and adeptly using trees, ravines, and rocks to pick their targets and snipe at the enemy. Washington was nothing if not a practical man.
But he was also one keenly sensitive to symbolism, and by the time of the Revolution the rifle was famed as the fabled arm of frontiersmen — even if poor John Adams remained as bemused as ever. Washington’s call for the backcountry riflemen of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to join him besieging the British in Boston in the summer of 1775 was designed to impress and inspire his musket-armed New Englanders with the frontiersmen’s “American” qualities: doughty individualism, rugged self-reliance, and an independent spirit determined to defend hearth and home.
Rifles, it would nevertheless turn out, were not ideal for the type of army-versus-army warfare that dominated much of the War and so played little overall role in it, but Washington was more interested in what they meant (or symbolized) than in what they did (or performed, in other words).
Lincoln was precisely the opposite. He had no idea what rifles “meant”, but he was fascinated by what they did and how they worked. Lincoln’s, unlike Washington’s, was a mechanical mind.
As early as 1855, he was keeping abreast of firearms developments. He knew, for instance, from his treasured copy of that year’s Annual of Scientific Discovery, of the debate between advocates of the new breechloaders (which were charged through an opening behind the barrel and above the trigger) and those of traditional muzzleloaders. One of his colleagues from his youth, Henry Clay Whitney, recalled his friend’s insatiable inquisitiveness. While on the road they usually stopped at a local farmhouse for dinner, where Lincoln would obtain some “machine or tool, and he would carefully examine it all over . . . If he could make a practical test of it, he would do that; he would turn it over or around and stoop down, or lie down, if necessary, to look under it; he would examine it closely, then stand off and examine it at a little distance; he would shake it, lift it, roll it about, up-end it, overset it, and thus ascertain every quality and utility which inhered in it.”
During the Civil War, Lincoln would invite arms designers to the White House and take them outside to his makeshift shooting range at the bottom of the lawn where he try out their products. Sometimes, he even overruled his own ordnance experts and requested that they purchase several thousand of the latest experimental rifles.
Lincoln was neither a ballistician nor a designer nor even a good shot (one of his bullets went astray and crashed through Mrs. Grady’s window overlooking 15th Street, flying through her parlor and lodging itself in the opposite wall). To him, rifles were practical instruments of war that symbolized nothing. This was a typically mid-century American conception of technology: Man was an ingenious inventor of tools that served specific purposes.
By Theodore Roosevelt’s day, at century’s turn, finding such simple joy in the mechanics of things was fast disappearing. Many people were growing alarmed at the increasing dominance of industrialization in their lives; some feared that with the rise of “scientific management” (also known as Taylorism) in the factories, workers were actually being turned into machines themselves for the sake of efficiency and profit. The essence of humanity was as stake.
Roosevelt thought such concerns overblown. What alarmed him more was that, as he saw it, the very spirit of “American-ness” was being eroded by such social factors as immigration. He intended to use the rifle to reinvigorate the concept. The weapon he played a role in forging was the Springfield Model 1903, which he proclaimed would be an all-American one made on modern Taylorite principles. He himself would use one as his personal hunting arm, and the entire army was issued with them. (At the time, the dispirited military was using a Norwegian piece, the Krag-Jorgensen.) Magnificently manufactured and enjoying the highest standards of performance, the rifle represented American prowess, power, and confidence in the future. For the president, therefore, what his rifle meant mattered as much as what it did.
In Roosevelt’s Springfield, the symbolism of Washington and the practicality of Lincoln finally merged into what would become the first of the modern American rifles. An old book (Brown’s Story of Ordnance in the World War, published in 1920) I read while writing my own, American Rifle: A Biography, summed it up perfectly: “It is amazing to consider how deeply national characteristics are imbedded in mechanical design.” Quite so.
©2008 Alexander Rose
Author Bio
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.
ABAD
Three of our presidents have been particularly fascinated by rifles: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. But all for different reasons.
Washington was what we would call an “early adopter” of rifle technology. As early as the French and Indian War (1754-1763), when he was first baptized into frontier warfare, the young, ambitious officer owned his own rifle. This was at a time when few, apart from frontiersmen, even knew what one was.
In 1775, for instance, as well-informed a gentleman as John Adams mentioned to his wife Abigail that he had recently heard about a “peculiar” kind of gun that had “grooves within the barrel, and [carried] a ball with great exactness over great distances.”
Muskets — which, unlike rifles, were smooth-bored, short-range, and monstrously inaccurate weapons — were all that he knew. Yet we find a New-York Mercury story reporting some twenty years earlier that somewhere in the wilderness one then-obscure “Col. Washington,” accompanied by rifle-armed “woodsmen,” was energetically hunting down French-backed Indian raiders.
But why the rifle? Why Washington’s insistence on carrying one in battle (and purchasing several more — specially customized, of course — for hunting)? Originally, it was because rifles were better suited than muskets for frontier fighting, which favored fleety, camouflaged, loosely organized bands of men traveling light and adeptly using trees, ravines, and rocks to pick their targets and snipe at the enemy. Washington was nothing if not a practical man.
But he was also one keenly sensitive to symbolism, and by the time of the Revolution the rifle was famed as the fabled arm of frontiersmen — even if poor John Adams remained as bemused as ever. Washington’s call for the backcountry riflemen of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to join him besieging the British in Boston in the summer of 1775 was designed to impress and inspire his musket-armed New Englanders with the frontiersmen’s “American” qualities: doughty individualism, rugged self-reliance, and an independent spirit determined to defend hearth and home.
Rifles, it would nevertheless turn out, were not ideal for the type of army-versus-army warfare that dominated much of the War and so played little overall role in it, but Washington was more interested in what they meant (or symbolized) than in what they did (or performed, in other words).
Lincoln was precisely the opposite. He had no idea what rifles “meant”, but he was fascinated by what they did and how they worked. Lincoln’s, unlike Washington’s, was a mechanical mind.
As early as 1855, he was keeping abreast of firearms developments. He knew, for instance, from his treasured copy of that year’s Annual of Scientific Discovery, of the debate between advocates of the new breechloaders (which were charged through an opening behind the barrel and above the trigger) and those of traditional muzzleloaders. One of his colleagues from his youth, Henry Clay Whitney, recalled his friend’s insatiable inquisitiveness. While on the road they usually stopped at a local farmhouse for dinner, where Lincoln would obtain some “machine or tool, and he would carefully examine it all over . . . If he could make a practical test of it, he would do that; he would turn it over or around and stoop down, or lie down, if necessary, to look under it; he would examine it closely, then stand off and examine it at a little distance; he would shake it, lift it, roll it about, up-end it, overset it, and thus ascertain every quality and utility which inhered in it.”
During the Civil War, Lincoln would invite arms designers to the White House and take them outside to his makeshift shooting range at the bottom of the lawn where he try out their products. Sometimes, he even overruled his own ordnance experts and requested that they purchase several thousand of the latest experimental rifles.
Lincoln was neither a ballistician nor a designer nor even a good shot (one of his bullets went astray and crashed through Mrs. Grady’s window overlooking 15th Street, flying through her parlor and lodging itself in the opposite wall). To him, rifles were practical instruments of war that symbolized nothing. This was a typically mid-century American conception of technology: Man was an ingenious inventor of tools that served specific purposes.
By Theodore Roosevelt’s day, at century’s turn, finding such simple joy in the mechanics of things was fast disappearing. Many people were growing alarmed at the increasing dominance of industrialization in their lives; some feared that with the rise of “scientific management” (also known as Taylorism) in the factories, workers were actually being turned into machines themselves for the sake of efficiency and profit. The essence of humanity was as stake.
Roosevelt thought such concerns overblown. What alarmed him more was that, as he saw it, the very spirit of “American-ness” was being eroded by such social factors as immigration. He intended to use the rifle to reinvigorate the concept. The weapon he played a role in forging was the Springfield Model 1903, which he proclaimed would be an all-American one made on modern Taylorite principles. He himself would use one as his personal hunting arm, and the entire army was issued with them. (At the time, the dispirited military was using a Norwegian piece, the Krag-Jorgensen.) Magnificently manufactured and enjoying the highest standards of performance, the rifle represented American prowess, power, and confidence in the future. For the president, therefore, what his rifle meant mattered as much as what it did.
In Roosevelt’s Springfield, the symbolism of Washington and the practicality of Lincoln finally merged into what would become the first of the modern American rifles. An old book (Brown’s Story of Ordnance in the World War, published in 1920) I read while writing my own, American Rifle: A Biography, summed it up perfectly: “It is amazing to consider how deeply national characteristics are imbedded in mechanical design.” Quite so.
©2008 Alexander Rose
Author Bio
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.
ABAD
Dec
29
Watch Simpsons Episodes Online
Filed Under Television | Comments Off
Richard Cunningham asked:
If you’re a fan of the hit American cartoon series, then it’s good news that you can watch Simpsons episodes online. This classic cartoon comedy series that turned popular to the rest of the world is one of its kind that has inspired so many others that followed its unique genre, which in turn also became popular to the world audience, giving entertainment to the entire family in a series of episodes that showed as much as every night. The show in itself is comic and original, so it’s hard to find anything like it before or now.
The show is actually based on the misadventures of the Simpsons family who resides in a non-existent town, supposedly in the United States of America, called Springfield. The family is made up of Homer Simpson, the father, and his wife Marge Simpson, along with their three children, the mischievous Bart, the intelligent Lisa and the baby Maggie. Together, these individuals interact with other funny and notable citizens of Springfield, some of which are even caricatured out of real people in the society and create an the kind of funny and entertaining plot that this show has been known for in every episode.
People like to watch a Simpsons episode online whenever they can because it’s for free. They don’t have to buy DVD or home videos anymore, which can save them a lot in watching these episodes in the long run. Moreover, it’s easy to do so it’s all worth trying.
The Simpsons is a popular family television cartoon series that has entertained all sorts of audience in American entertainment industry, as well as the world. Actually, it has been going on for so long now that reruns have been played over and over again so that generations that missed it can watch them too. It has also brought inspiration to so many cartoons that have also become popular to the television audience worldwide.
The story of the cartoon series revolves around the misadventures of The Simpsons, a not so typical family of five that reside in a fictional region in the United States called Springfield. With their individually unique characters, they make up a one of a kind formula for family entertainment.
If you watch The Simpsons online you get the benefit of being able to watch all those episodes you may have missed as well as the luxury of doing so in your own time, so long as you have an internet connection that will let you enjoy online video streaming from the internet. Additional perks to being able to watch The Simpsons online is that you get to join online communities that share their comments and opinions about this hilarious series.
If you want, you can even join the many fan artists all over the World Wide Web in producing their own videos related to The Simpsons such as music videos and altered voiceovers, which gives all those old rerun episodes a new twist for comic relief.
BECKMANN
If you’re a fan of the hit American cartoon series, then it’s good news that you can watch Simpsons episodes online. This classic cartoon comedy series that turned popular to the rest of the world is one of its kind that has inspired so many others that followed its unique genre, which in turn also became popular to the world audience, giving entertainment to the entire family in a series of episodes that showed as much as every night. The show in itself is comic and original, so it’s hard to find anything like it before or now.
The show is actually based on the misadventures of the Simpsons family who resides in a non-existent town, supposedly in the United States of America, called Springfield. The family is made up of Homer Simpson, the father, and his wife Marge Simpson, along with their three children, the mischievous Bart, the intelligent Lisa and the baby Maggie. Together, these individuals interact with other funny and notable citizens of Springfield, some of which are even caricatured out of real people in the society and create an the kind of funny and entertaining plot that this show has been known for in every episode.
People like to watch a Simpsons episode online whenever they can because it’s for free. They don’t have to buy DVD or home videos anymore, which can save them a lot in watching these episodes in the long run. Moreover, it’s easy to do so it’s all worth trying.
The Simpsons is a popular family television cartoon series that has entertained all sorts of audience in American entertainment industry, as well as the world. Actually, it has been going on for so long now that reruns have been played over and over again so that generations that missed it can watch them too. It has also brought inspiration to so many cartoons that have also become popular to the television audience worldwide.
The story of the cartoon series revolves around the misadventures of The Simpsons, a not so typical family of five that reside in a fictional region in the United States called Springfield. With their individually unique characters, they make up a one of a kind formula for family entertainment.
If you watch The Simpsons online you get the benefit of being able to watch all those episodes you may have missed as well as the luxury of doing so in your own time, so long as you have an internet connection that will let you enjoy online video streaming from the internet. Additional perks to being able to watch The Simpsons online is that you get to join online communities that share their comments and opinions about this hilarious series.
If you want, you can even join the many fan artists all over the World Wide Web in producing their own videos related to The Simpsons such as music videos and altered voiceovers, which gives all those old rerun episodes a new twist for comic relief.
BECKMANN
Dec
28
Call of Duty World at War
Filed Under Video Games | Comments Off
lisa asked:
Ok this was submitted by Scott Aka ” Hellfire” you may of seen him running around in call of duty 4. Anyway he has given us and updated weapons list which has been labeled “Final Set” these call of duty world at war weapons will bring great joy to many call of duty fans, A few of the call of duty favorite weapons have been kept and a few new weapons have been added to call of duty world at war.
Credit goes out to Scott for this one(Thanks mate):
“Weapons of COD5 World at War.
This list isn’t intended to show what gun you unlock first, its only for reference.
Rifles
M1 Garand
Mosin Nagant
Kar98
Arisaka Type 99
M1903 Springfield
M1A1 Carbine
SVT-40
Heavy Sub-Machine guns
Browning Automatic Rifle
MP-44
PPSH(drum mag.)
Light Sub-Machine guns
M1A1 Thompson
MP-40
Type 100 Sub-Machine gun
Sten
Light Machine guns
Browning M1919A6
MG-34
MG-32
FG-42
Type 92 Heavy Machine gun
Sniper Rifles
Kar98 Scoped
M1903 Springfield Scoped
Mosin Nagant Scoped
Gewehr 43
Shotguns
Trench gun
Double-Barelled shotgun
Sidearms
Knife(not used as sidearm slot)
Katana(not sure if its used as a sidearm slot)
Colt 45
TT-33
PO8 Luger
Nambu 14
Walther P38
Edit: M1A1 Carbine Placement and Conory’s facts”
Quite a nice looking weapons list for sure, now as mentioned above these are not in any pacific order, But should only be used as a reference. cod5 / cod 5 / call of duty 5 / call of duty world at war weapons round up.
You can read the full article & more at: call of duty world at war
MCDANNELL
Ok this was submitted by Scott Aka ” Hellfire” you may of seen him running around in call of duty 4. Anyway he has given us and updated weapons list which has been labeled “Final Set” these call of duty world at war weapons will bring great joy to many call of duty fans, A few of the call of duty favorite weapons have been kept and a few new weapons have been added to call of duty world at war.
Credit goes out to Scott for this one(Thanks mate):
“Weapons of COD5 World at War.
This list isn’t intended to show what gun you unlock first, its only for reference.
Rifles
M1 Garand
Mosin Nagant
Kar98
Arisaka Type 99
M1903 Springfield
M1A1 Carbine
SVT-40
Heavy Sub-Machine guns
Browning Automatic Rifle
MP-44
PPSH(drum mag.)
Light Sub-Machine guns
M1A1 Thompson
MP-40
Type 100 Sub-Machine gun
Sten
Light Machine guns
Browning M1919A6
MG-34
MG-32
FG-42
Type 92 Heavy Machine gun
Sniper Rifles
Kar98 Scoped
M1903 Springfield Scoped
Mosin Nagant Scoped
Gewehr 43
Shotguns
Trench gun
Double-Barelled shotgun
Sidearms
Knife(not used as sidearm slot)
Katana(not sure if its used as a sidearm slot)
Colt 45
TT-33
PO8 Luger
Nambu 14
Walther P38
Edit: M1A1 Carbine Placement and Conory’s facts”
Quite a nice looking weapons list for sure, now as mentioned above these are not in any pacific order, But should only be used as a reference. cod5 / cod 5 / call of duty 5 / call of duty world at war weapons round up.
You can read the full article & more at: call of duty world at war
MCDANNELL
Dec
28
Joe Biden in Springfield, IL
Filed Under News | 23 Comments
BarackObamadotcom asked:
Joe Biden’s first appearance as Barack Obama’s running mate in Springfield, Illinois
MESSLER
Dec
27
B U F F A L O S P R I N G F I E L D
Filed Under Music | 23 Comments
beyondthebeat asked:
Rock’n Roll Woman
Live Popendipity (1967)
You wanna see more? please check out:
www.beyondthebeatgeneration.com
STEVES
Dec
25
What is the value of a Savage Springfield Bolt Action 22 Model 234, and what is the year that it was made?
Filed Under Hunting | 2 Comments
IbanezFreak05 asked:
Where can I sell it for what its money for? What website can I find it on? Any of ya’ll people want to buy one?
KENNEMORE
Where can I sell it for what its money for? What website can I find it on? Any of ya’ll people want to buy one?
KENNEMORE
Dec
24
miweb74 asked:
Dusty singing her first solo hit on Dutch TV on 23/1/1964
WRONA
Dec
24
Bina. asked:
I can’t find the answer! >.<
BLAIZE
I can’t find the answer! >.<
BLAIZE
Dec
21
Rick Springfield - Don’t Talk To Strangers
Filed Under Music | 23 Comments
Melodicdownloads asked:
Rick Springfield - Don’t Talk To Strangers
WIGHT
Dec
21
Sugababes & Dusty Springfield
Filed Under Entertainment | 24 Comments
alnurse asked:
Duet Impossible - Sugababes & Dusty Springfield
BOYKINS