A World Without J.M. Browning?

[MikePGS]

Currently I'm reading Harry Turtledove's "The Great War" trilogy. For those of you unfamiliar with this work, its basically an alternate history novel based on the south having not lost General Lee's plan to invade the north, and thus actually winning the war. Years later there is another (brief) war between the North and the south, and again the South prevails. Finally the Great War is touched off and the South is allied with France and England and the north has become allies with Germany. During the previous novels (theres a standalone book that the trilogy followed) the Mormons have had violent rebellions and are at the point in my reading basically disarmed and not allowed to practice their religion. As many of you know Mr Browning was a Latter Day Saint from the state of Utah, which in this alternate timeline is basically considered to be a police state entirely subject to the will of the American (union) government. Sorry for the long setup but my point is this. How would the world have been different without the innovations and designs that Mr Browning Pioneered? If things had gone the way they had in this novel its reasonable to assume that Mr Browning might not have been so involved with firearms industry since he would've almost been considered a pariah. Its important to note that the first war itself was touched off by an assasin using one of Brownings designs. Now i'm not saying that it could've only been done with a browning semi-auto... thats ridiculous of course. What I am saying is that this man is a giant in the field of innovation. Here is an incomplete list of things that he directly invented (though i'm sure it was with teams of people a lot of the time, but still he's a guiding force). Without browning we don't have the following things: BAR, M2, 1911 Pistol, Hi-Power, Browning Auto-5, Winchester 1894 lever action, Model 1917 machine gun. Additionally he helped to develop the following calibers: .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, .45ACP, .50BMG. Neither of these lists are even close to being complete, and my knowledge of Mr Browning has gaps large enough to pilot aircraft carriers through... but that being said... what would the world of firearms be like if we had never been graced by Browning's presence?

 

[browningguy]

I certainly would be troubled, about 1/2 of my collection are JMB designs.

 

[Bezoar]

Actually it would be interesting, more of the german and english designs would have gotten better recognition and usage.
Instead of debating who makes the best mil spec 1911, it would be "who makes the best ster hahn copy" or, "why did the union use the podwels breach loading rifle when they could have had a mauser or a prussian "needle fire" gun?"

 

[1911 guy]

A world without John Browning?

Bleak and desolate. And over-run with mediocre handguns. And rifle technology would be stalled at the lever action. Oh, and all those mediocre handguns would be blowback design because Browning invented the locking tilt breech.

 

[default]

And over-run with mediocre handguns

Well, no more than it is now, but half of them wouldn't be 1911 clones.

Kidding aside, no doubt the man was a genius, and certainly the single most important and influential designer of firearms, at least in the metallic cartridge era. However, in retrospect, at least in respect to self-loading pistols, it's hard to imagine that someone else wouldn't have eventually come up with the reciprocating slide concept, or the tilting-barrel locked-breech style of recoil operation. Whether they would have gotten it so right, so early, and furthermore coming near the tail end of a career that would have already been distinguished enough to assure a legendary reputation a century later is another story.

 

[buzz_knox]

We'd probably still have the .45 ACP. It was developed to duplicate the .45 Colt round in an autoloader, and the Army had a heavy hand in its development. It'd probably be chambered in a Savage or a Luger.

The .50 BMG round would exist as the need for an anti-aircraft round would still be there and the design was based off the .30-06. It'd probably be used in a Vickers design.


Much of what he would have created would be created still because the designs are superior to the alternatives and such things have a way of winning through. Browning is seen as a genius and rightly so, in no small part because he was first and because he was good at meeting customer demands. Those demands would exist regardless of who was around to meet them.

 

[Vonderek]

All the gun mags would have cover stories about the latest toggle-action P08 derivative.

I would have more money in my bank account and more room in my safe.

The internet would have "9mm vs 9X18" threads ad nauseum.

And internet warriors would all loudly proclaim "The only calibers I shoot/carry all start with a 3".

 

[ozwyn]

one would have to wonder if newer designs which may have been developed as coutnerpoints to JMB designs would have even been concieved (cz-75 variants and glock types particularly)

his direct designs and numerous derivities are one thing, but what about all of the designs deveoped trying to re-think JMB's approach? Without the original, would you have the innovation in response to the original?

 

[Double Naught Spy]

what would the world of firearms be like if we had never been graced by Browning's presence?

Because of such conceptual theories as the law of unintended consequences, it is impossible to know what the world would have been like without JMB. For all we know, his level of success might have been sufficient enough to stifle the budding developments of some other genius who ended up turning his/her attention elsewhere and as a result, we suffer not having the contributions of that other person.

Without JMB, no doubt his absence would be a void filled by other folks and the outcomes could have been better or worse. While he gave us a variety of firearms, what we can't know is what we didn't get because of hime. Maybe there would have been the substantially more powerful Maxin .60 cal instead of the M2 .50. Maybe the standard military sidearm would have turned out to be Luger, S&W, or some other brand and we would be wondering what the world would have been like without that inventor.

We know some of the results of JMB's intended consequences, but what don't know what the unintended ones that were produced in regard to what would have happened had he not been around.

 

[MrDig]

JMB designs defeated the Kaiser and Hitler think of that..... Those designs were instrumental in ending the Worst and most Inhumane conflicts of the 20th Century. Not to mention all the Minor regional conflicts that they were involved in. Where would Democracy itself be were it not for JMB?

 

[cheygriz]

Not to detract in any way from the genius of Browning, but if he had never been born, others would have designed guns just as good, or possibly even better than his.

The human race is extremely adaptive. Kalashnikov was a railroad guy before designing the AK. H&K made sewing machines, before guns. Whenever a "better mousetrap " is needed, someone will find a way to build it.

And the guy that invents the "better mousetrap" just might be a piano player or an artist, or a plumber by trade.

 

[Two Cold Soakers]

My mudder? Da woman's a saint!!!

(okay, got the character? Brooklyn accent- here goes)

JMBrowning, the man's a genius!
If he'd never been born, we'd be disussing bringing a rock to a knife fight.​

(out of character)



Soakers, fanboy.