Hall Model 1819: A Rifle to Change the Industrial World
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Published 2020-09-07
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John Hall designed the first breechloading rifle to be used by the United States military, and the first breechloader issued in substantial numbers by any military worldwide. His carbines would later be the first percussion arms adopted by any military force. Hall developed a breechloading flintlock rifle in 1811, had it tested by the military in 1818, and formally adopted as a specialty arm in 1819.
Hall’s contribution actually goes well beyond having a novel and advanced rifle design. He would be the first person to devise a system of machine tools capable of producing interchangeable parts without hand fitting, and this advance would be the foundation of the American system of manufacturing that would revolutionize industry worldwide. Hall did this work at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, where he worked from 1819 until his death in 1841.
I plan to expand on the details of a variety of Hall rifle models in future videos, and today is meant to be an introduction to the system. Because it was never a primary arm in time of major war, Hall is much less well recognized than he should be among those interested in small arms history.
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All Comments (21)
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John Hall was the true pioneer. Eli Whitney actually FAKED his demonstration of interchangeable parts for the government. Hall was given a long time to complete his 1000 rifles. The guy running Harper's Ferry (got the job for politics) hated Hall and considered him a flim-flam man because he wasted time NOT producing rifles, and NOT hiring lots of men to make them. Kept reporting him as such. When the congressional committee showed up, he demonstrated one boy operating machines that were making perfectly interchangeable parts, and demonstrated that they WERE interchangeable. They were floored. NOBODY expected such a leap forward. Hall and North came up with the use of standardized measuring tools to keep the measurements universal over long distances, too. Frankly, it looks like Hall may well be the true originator of modern manufacturing. I'll have to look for it, but there is an excellent write-up on it somewhere online.
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Adding the history of the designers is a big reason why I love this channel, thanks Ian for the work you put into your videos.
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Their most famous use was in the Mexican American War. Soldiers found the percussion breech could be removed, put in a pocket, and carried in Mexico City as a pistol. It was done enough that orders had to be issued for them to stop doing it.
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It was pretty much the closest thing to "modular" any weapon platform could get in that particular time period with the available interchangeable parts this beautiful rifle had.
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One of the most fascinating things about Hall’s Rifle Works at Harpers Ferry is that his factories were completely powered by water in only a few years
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The NRA museum in VA has one of these on display. Their information was not as in-depth and detailed as your work. Thank you for all the work you do.
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“The Sig Trigger Pack in 1819”
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Marine stereotype...as early as 1820.... "References to crayons in literature appear as early as 1813 in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Joseph Lemercier (born in Paris 1803—died 1884), considered by some of his contemporaries to be "the soul of lithography", was also one of the founders of the modern crayon. Through his Paris business circa 1828, he produced a variety of crayon and color related products." -Wikipedia Math checks out.
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That rifle just looks SO well made, John Hall's manufacturing techniques are obviously to credit for that. A true genius.
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As a engineer I can believe in interchangeable parts in XIXth century. Getting a government to wait years for delivery- now that's the really impressive part!
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Hm. So basically this is the SCAR-H of two hundred years ago - based on previous technologies applied in a novel manner, well engineered, actually mass produced, kind of expensive, limited issue only to special troops, in a different caliber than regular troops would use and not issued to Marines because they'd just break them.
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The Breech face gap to barrel on this rifle was substantially tighter than any Revolver/Revolving Rifle/Shotgun of the period. So gas blow by is a non sequitur, in relation to that. For it's time The Hall Rifle was and still is a brilliant design. Halls dedication to it's production lead the way for the modern "Production Standards' in place were all parts are built to a rigid standard with quality control testing throughout to ensure interchangeability of those parts, that most take for granted.
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This thing even has a semi pistol grip, this thing is way ahead of it’s time
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Come for the guns, stay for the history lessons. They don't teach this stuff in schools!
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I wonder how many of these rifles were "midnight acquisitioned" by the Marine Corps. I find it hard to believe Marines just accepted "No" for an answer.
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Rumour has it that the breech block assembly could be removed and used as a stand - alone, "impromptu" handgun - but I personally would not want to try it. Thanks for the video, Ian!
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16:36 They had crayons in the 1820s, I checked.
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Whenever there are thise kind of weird "pistol grips but not quite" i wish Ian would give us a show of how to hold the damn thing because i haven't the slightest idea
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“Been going on...” I would actually love to hear more about Mr. Hall and his venture into interchangeable parts. That kind of stuff is fascinating to me.
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I want C&Rsenal to talk about this gun for like 2 hours
