Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Manufactured 1917 Savage Arms

13 The present year has seen an unprecedented demand for guns of from 3 to 5 inches in caliber, a demand entirely beyond the capacity of existing manufacturing establishments to produce. At the outbreak of the present war, all spare guns from 6 inch 45 caliber to 3 pounder, inclusive, for which mounts were available, were grouped into reserve batteries, and either tentatively or finally assigned to merchant ships. The bureau realized that there was a shortage of these guns, and at the time the war broke out was manufacturing approximately 300 guns to form into additional reserve batteries. However, the peculiar conditions of this war have required approximately 5,000 guns for this purpose. It immediately developed that the forging capacity of the country was entirely inadequate to meet the demands of the Army or the Navy, to say nothing of the requirements of both. It therefore became necessary to initiate new plants into the manufacture of both guns and gun forgings.

14 The bureau succeeded in enlisting the services of several new firms in the Middle West, and has endeavored to give them every assistance in the way of advice from skilled personnel that could be found. That more firms could not be interested was due to the fact that money to permit of plant extension was not obtainable. To relieve this situation, the bureau under date of June 5, 1917 drew up a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting that Congress be asked to authorize the payment of advances to contractors not to exceed 30 per cent of the total amount of their contract, such advance to be covered by suitable bonds.

15 This bureau is assisting in developing increased capacity and output in the following plants:
The Inland Ordnance Co at Bedford, Ohio.
Taylor Wharton Iron & Steel Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
Alloy Steel Forging Co at Pittsburgh, Pa.

16 In addition the Midvale Steel Co. and the Erie Forge Co. have made large extensions to their plants.

17 The following new concerns have undertaken the manufacture of guns:
Root & Vandervoort Co., East Moline, Ill.
Defiance Machine Works, Defiance, Ohio.
The American Radiator Co., Bayonne, NJ.
Inland Ordnance Co., Bedford, Ohio.
Poole Engine & Machine Co., Baltimore, Md.

18 In addition the resources of the Bridgeport Projectile Co. have been expanded and contracts placed with the Driggs Ordnance Co., and the General Ordnance Co., the Savage Arms Co., and the American & British Manufacturing Co., to the extent of their capacity. The Bethlehem Steel Co. having been assigned to the Ordnance Department of the Army, this bureau has obtained none of their new forging output. Owing to the length of time that is required for new concerns to prepare for and become accustomed to the processes of gun forging and gun manufacture, the earliest deliveries under these new capacities will not be obtained until January or February 1918. Until that date there will be a large shortage of guns, but the bureau hopes to be able to meet the large destroyer construction program and to arm all ships being built or taken over by the Shipping Board, with but slight delay.