Today I am in the Wurlitzer Factory and Wulitzer Park neighborhood in North Tonawonda NY. Look at the size of this place-
and
The factory made organs jukeboxes and Proximity Fuses during WW2 untill 1973. It was served by 2 main line railroads NYC and Lehigh Valley. "New York Railways"had interurban service to the plant as well. The Interurban Line is still in service as a power plant branch off the NYC Niagara Branch to Sodus Bay NY.
The proximity fuses don’t surprise me, during World War Two some companys made things they never thought they’d make, such as the Rock-Ola juke box company making M-1 carbines, at least 250,000 of them.
They’re good shooters too. I should know, I own one!
I well remember looking down at my ‘loaner Stoner’ during a PTX and discovering to my amusement that it was the product of the Hydra-Matic Division of General Motors.
Was that by any chance the radio proximity fuze described by SF writer George O. Smith (note: not radar in the usual sense, radio) complete with vacuum tubes that worked after being shot from guns? That was yet another of the 10 best technological achievements of the 20th Century, not quite up there with using a 19-cent needle to play color television off a stamped black vinyl record … but still.
Proximity fuses with vacuum tubes are exactly the way they were made during World War Two.
Artillerymen were still using proximity fuses when I was in the Marines 40 years ago, except they were called VT fuses, for “variable time.” I don’t know how they were made, I’m assuming they’d progressed to solid-state technology by that time. I assume they’re still being used today.
Quite true, a proximity fuse comes with every nuclear device.
And then there is the digital readout which is standard equipment on bombs these days. It’s for the convenience of anyone standing next to the bomb.
Firelock,
Am surprised you own the ROCK-OLA produced US Military rifle M1 carbine! You didn’t say if it was “original” and unrestored or a bastardized US Millitry rebuild after extensive use in WWII - with only one or two remaining parts?
I have seen one “original” M1 Carbine made by ROCK-OLA and they are quite distinctive and a bit crude. At that time - about 20 years ago - this used but original rifle was going for around $2000 at a Detroit gun show.
My dad, a Corps of Engineers Officer who landed on the beach with Gen MacArthur in the Philippine invasion of Leyte Island recollected the use of two of the M1 rifles. The first he recounted a Japanese sniper dressed as a woman about to kill him but he fired first. This same rifle later shot out of his hands by a Japanese fighter plane straffing him. He later found the M1 Carbine shot in two by the machine guns on the plane. This he returned to US Army Ordinance for a replacement rifle. Both were I believe General Motors Inland Division produced weapons.
Personally, I have collected a few including an original “Saginaw Stearing Gear” and mint early “Underwood Typewriter” completed by “Winchester” when the government dropped the contracts with most of the small builders. I also have an original folding stock “paratrooper” M1A Carbine made by General Motors Inland Division that came out of the back door of the Detroit Police Department.
When I visited London, England, I was quite interested in the one or two M1/M2 Carbines kept for display in the Tower of London as war relics by the British Government. This is one of the few places of in the world where absolutely “mint” new condition versions these weapons are on public display.
---------------------&n
I don’t think a VT fuze and a proximity fuze are the same thing.
The VT fuze is like a glorified version of the timer in a hand-grenade. You set it (or the ballistics computer sets it) to run a particular time after the shell arms itself, and then detonate. This can give very accurate “proximity” detonation if the target is being tracked by high-frequency radar to give range and bearing (so you can figure the exact resultant distance at the end of the anticipated firing trajectory) and you have reproduceable ballistics from your propellant and tube, etc. But the shell knows nothing about where the target actually is. And that is what the radio proximity fuze did.
(Before anyone brings up FlAK as an example of either VT or proximity fuzing, I believe those shells were originally optimized to detonate at a particular barometric altitude range, which is another approximation that crews could take advantage of by bobbing up and down (the barometric approximation of jinking). That’s not the same thing, either, even if a targeting system like the ones in the Korean War could set the baro to a radar-reported altitude range…)
Older atomic/nuclear weapons used radar proximity fuzes (with IIRC a simple baro for initial de-safing), and the proximity detection didn’t have to be all that accurate, as the contribution to effective CEP over the sort of expected variation in firing altitude, even on depressed trajectory, is not all that significant. Modern weapons use a combination of techniques which are perfectly adequate to whatever the operational use of the device would be. (An interesting case was the ground-penetrator redux, dumb as the idea was, which needed to figure out a relatively precise
RME, 40 years back (and has it REALLY been that long?) the way the cannon-cockers at an artillery demonstration explained it to us was the VT fuse was proximity-based, that is it was used to facilitate airbursts at the optimum height over the ground. No muss, no fuss, no guesswork, get the co-ordinates of the target, say infantry in the open, set up the fire mission and let the fuse do the work. The took us down to an observation post so we could see the target area and lo and behold the VT’s worked as advertised. Not being an artilleryman myself I can’t give you the mechanics, but it WAS cool to see, to say nothing of hearing the “wooosh-wooosh-wooosh” as the shells came past. Let me add these were the old 105 howitzers of World War Two vintage, although they’d been rebuilt several times since then.
Ever sit behind a 105 when it’s fired? It’s cool! You can see the shell going downrange like a drop-kicked football!
Hello Dr. D!
First off, my congratulations to your father for being a good shot!
Second, how did I latch on to a Rock-Ola carbine. Welllll, if you worked for a gun company and firearms importer as I did back in the 80’s it was easy! We’d imported a number of M-1 carbines from Isreal, former IDF weapons, and there was a whole conucopia of makes in the bunch, Winchester, Inland, Saginaw, IBM, Quality Hardware, Underwood, and Rock-Ola. I grabbed a Rock-Ola as I loved the irony of a juke box manufacturor making rifles, can’t get any further from juke boxes than that! A buddy of mine who was a professional data processor bought one of the IBM’s.
The “intact from the maker” versus “arsenal rebuild” controversy is one I’ve never concerned myself with. As an old Marine I can tell you that when a weapon goes to a repair depot the armorer doing the rebuild doesn’t care who’s parts he uses, all he cares about is when he’s done the thing has to WORK, because if it doesn’t some poor guy’s going to die, and he doesn’t want it to be his fault.
Personally, I don’t mind rebuilds because all that means to me is the rifle’s been where the action is and has a story to tell, as opposed to one that’s museum quality and hasn’t gone anywhere or done anything. Depends on your point of view I suppose. I’ve got an M-1 Garand that has a WW2 Springfield reciever, a Winchester trigger housing group, and a 1966 produced Springfield barrel but I don’t care, it shoots beautifully.
Don’t believe the old husbands tale of some carbines were better than others, they were all made to the same specs, and if the manufacturor couldn’t meet those specs, like the Pedersen company, they lost the contract.
Nothing crude about the Rock-Ola I’ve got, it’s first rate.
Lady Firestorm and I even got an M-1 carbine as a wedding present! It’s
I’ve been getting quite a lesson here on WW2 rifles. Rock-Ola? I had no idea. Awesome, I say!
You know, without forgetting the heartbreak, terror, and misery that’s what makes World War Two such a fascinating study for so many, and that fascination shows no sign of abating. Consider the weapons, the equipment, the personalities, and the sheer scale of the war itself.
There was a joke years ago: Ed Sullivan’s closing his Sunday night variety show and shouts to the audience, “Next week, World War Two! With the ORIGINAL CAST!”
Have you noticed? WW2 is approaching the level of legend that the American Civil War reached many years ago, at least to my observation.
Here’s the production numbers for the M-1 carbine, listed by maker, and the numbers include all variants.
Inland Manufacturing (GM) 2,632,097
Winchester 828,059
Underwood 545,616
National Postal Meter 413,017
(In late 1944 NPM changed their name to Commercial Controls Coporation and produced 239 carbines before the end of the contract. If you see one, caveat emptor! This one get
Indeed!. Most everyone did their part. Didn’t Lionel make ships navigation equipment? I wonder what the other model train manufacturers made for the war effort? I do recall the Standard Products plant in Long Island City back in the 70s. A huge place and they made parts for just about any type of car, even the 1960 Nash Metropolitan I once owned.
Firelock76,
The railroad police that were photographed in WWII on guard duty always seemed to carry the venerable Winchester 94 lever action Cowboy rifle design dating back to the Civil War. The M1 Carbine was a front line military rifle at the time and was impossible for civilians to get until after the war.
Even though my dad used one in the war he had to resort to the civilian commercial copies to own one - Sears Roebuck sold the Universal Firearms version made in Hialeah, Florida I believe.
The military M1 Carbine was indeed a formidable weapon and unbelievably well built - most parts like the reciever were milled forged steel, other parts were cast steel and heavily quality machined - all the parts from all the manufacturers were entirely interchangable. The government put so much quality into the building of these weapons, I believe the remaining ones will never wear out - at least not with the use collectors will give them.
Unlike the M1 Garand 30-06 high powered Battle Rifle the M1 Carbine was only supplied ammunition with non-corrosive primers. These weapons from WWII mostly have amazingly good rifle barrels - unfortunately the M1 Garand Battle Rifles kept the corrosive primers from WWI and most had their barrels destroyed by moisture found on the battlefields.
Regarding the M1 Carbine, it was built in 4 basic variations - (1) the M1A which only General Motors Inland Division built - had a folding metal stock allowing it to pass for a large pistol. (2) The M2 Carbine built only by General Motors Inland Division and Winchester Repeating Arms - was selective fire capable - i.e. a machine gun or a semi-auto rifle. (3) The M3 Carbine was equipped for night fighting with a infra-red heat reading scope for night sniper work.
The M1 Carbine was designed as a defensive weapon for use by officers, or
Any Idea were the orginal plant for Rockola was in Chicago. Instresting to compare size of Rockola -plant vs Wulitzer plant. BTW Rockola is alive and well in Torrence CA
http://www.jukeboxhistory.info/RockOla/ROC-factory.html
This place is HUGE! Unfortunatly the location is now a blah strip plaza see
CandOforprogress2,
The manufacture of the many M1 Carbines for the US Government by war contractors was not as easy as it might seem. The war came upon everyone very quickly and the contracts were given. The challenges to make this weapon were difficult to say the least and the time was short. First off the design of the rifle was an entirely new technology and the quality of its construction was demanding.
For example the M1 Garand 30-06 Battle Rifle was designed by the US Government in the 1930’s and was a semi-automatic rifle of great significance. General Patton described it as the “finest battle impliment for war ever devised.” NO nation in the world could field such an advanced weapon - 8 round en block clip fed gas operated rifle. The rifle could fire 8 cartridges successively on each pull of the trigger and would reload each time - then suddenly eject the cartridge clip and lock open for another 8 round clip block.
The 30-06 American cartridge was a battle developed round that came out of the failure of American’s battle rifle in the Spanish American War. It was well tested in WWI in the bolt action Springfield Rifle. Then quickly placed into producton on the Garand Rifle in time for WWII. My point here is the factory and production was already set up maybe 7 to 10 years before WWII.
The MI Carbine was developed as WWII started and the US Govenment wanted the weapon NOW! Winchester Repeating Arms and Springfield - the US Government Arsenal were already in full production and had no extra manufacturing capability. Winchester had the advantage because it designed the M1 Carbine based on an idea worked up by David Marshall Williams an incarcerated felon serving time in prison!
Hollywood did a movie on the M1 Carbine in which Jimmy Stewart plays the role of the pardoned felon who got out of jail just so he could d
Proximity fuses were developed by Dr. James Van Allen when he was in the Navy during WWII. This is the Van Allen Radiation Belt scientist. One of his proximity fuses is currently on display this year at the new “Hawkeyes in Space” exhibit in the basement of the Old Capitol at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Ken Vandevoort
As I have read in various media, Van Allen and others such as Merle A. Tuve and Capt. (later) Admiral William S. “Deak” Parsons worked on development of the Proximity Fuse.
In August 1945, Parsons , as weaponeer on the Enola Gay armed the Little Boy bomb in-flight before its use over Hiroshima.
Interesting observation.
Consider timing, “Gone With the Wind”, the movie, was released about 75 years after the events dramatized in the movie. At that time, there were a few Civil War vets still around. The 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is coming up in two months and there are a few Pearl Harbor survivors still around.
When I was growing up, a good fraction of my paranets generation were WW2 vets, including my dad and his two brothers (though his younger brother was the only one who was in a combat zone). Heard a lot of stories from them and others of their generation about the war. My dad and his older brother passed away in the 1990’s, my last uncle made it to 2013
One interesting memory was hanging out with some of the OERM gang watching the movie “Away all Boats”, where one of the gang, Wally Richards, was sharing his experience working with landing craft during the war. One comment was that the movie was fairly accurate in the portrayal of operation of the boats. Sadly, very few young people will have the experience of watching a WW2 flick or TV show with someone who was there.
We’ll have people who remember regular steam operations for a bit longer. We have a few more decades before we lose people who remember pre-Amtrak passenger trains.
As for M-1 carbines…
After the war, Remington Arms had a huge stockpile for the brass cups that were the first stage of making the .30 carbine cartridge case. Mike Walker was assigned thetask of figuring out how to make use of them and came up with a varmint round that was a good compromise between the 22 Hornet and 220 Swift, namely the 222 Remington. Varmint shootrs wanted something with a bit more punch, so Remington responded with the 222 Remington Magnum. About this tim