A Simplified Tommy-Gun

The submachine gun never got a real hold in World War I, soon afterward began to figure more in gang news than in Army talk. Of 15,000 Thompsons ("Tommies") manufactured by Colt in 1921, nearly 5,000 were still unsold 18 years later. But World War II revised military opinion: the light, easily handled submachine gun (spitting a stream of .45-calibre bullets 300-400 yards, battle sight--i.e., point-blank range) turned out to be a potent weapon in shock tactics. Recently Great Britain was reported eager to buy 250,000 to 500,000 from the U. S.--if they could be made fast enough.

Last week a new submachine gun that looked like the answer to the speed problem began coming in quantity from the Harrington & Richardson Arms Co. plant at Worcester, Mass. The new gun weighs only six and a half pounds (to the Tommy's ten), fires 200 shots a minute. Its biggest feature: it has only three moving parts, is designed to be mass-produced at about $50 (Tommies cost $200-225).

None of the parts requires special machinery; even the bolts could be made in carload lots by any first-class machine shop. Blurted an Army sergeant who fired the gun, "Good God, it's so simple I could manufacture it myself." Harrington & Richardson bragged that it would produce 500 a day by next month, 1,000 a day by April. The U. S. Army made no commitments, but Army Ordnance predicted that the new gun "will play no small part in military events of the future."

H. & R.'s gun was invented by patient, reticent Eugene G. Reising, who started tinkering with firearms in boyhood and has been at it ever since. Gunsmith Reising has designed weapons for many of the big U. S. manufacturers, spent 16 years with Colt, holds some 60 patents and enough marksmanship medals to clutter his home at Hartford, Conn.

Reising worked out the details of his submachine gun at the H. & R. plant, under a contract giving H. & R. exclusive manufacturing rights. Painstaking Gunsmith Reising grumbled only when associates suggested changes that would complicate his gun. Then he groused: "Next thing they'll be wanting me to put a shaving mug on it."

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