Forgotten in time?

T

TNT

New member
Would I be wrong to say that David Marshall Williams aka Carbine Williams is forgotten in time. It is easy to look at many before him Samuel Colt, John Browning, Benjamin Tyler Henry, Hiram Maxim, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Richard Gatling, John Garand, Gene Stoner, Oliver Winchester, Mauser brothers. We fast forward today and find that the most reliable rifles in semi autos are the piston operated ones. Although Mr. Williams did not design the M1 carbine it is his operating system that is in there and it's the rise of the piston operated weapons that most people desire for semi-autos in modern times. Thoughts?
 
American Rifleman,,,

Ran a several page article on him no more than a few years back.

He's not forgotten,,,
Just not heavily memorialized.

Aarond
 
I wonder if he is not as well known/celebrated because he apparently served time. My thought is that some think it is not a proud part of gun history they don't want to bring up.....
 
Mr. Williams was not berated because he served time for murder, in fact it made him a cult figure, the poor country boy who over came adversity to succeed. He did made an important contribution with the concept of a short stroke piston. After further work and development Winchester was able to apply it to a Browning design and came up with the M-1 Carbine that we all know and love. Mr. Williams was not a team player and was unable to work comfortably with the Winchester people so he left and tried to make it on his own. Bad ideal with the war looming. He had a number of good ideals and further design changes in reference to the carbine but the Army wanted the gun as soon as possible, not later. If he had stayed with Winchester he would have had the weight and prestige of a large established company to support his ideals. He made his own decisions and as a result any further grand ideals he may have had went unheralded. A very gifted but basically uneducated, well he was more of less a " One Hit Wonder ". He also designed the Floating piston which in the long run a dead end. By the way, I don't believe he was even called Carbine Williams until the movie, which BTW really played fast and loose with the facts, but it was after all just a movie.:)
 
Yeah... Wasn't really trying to give a definitive answer. Mainly just a thought that came to mind after reading a little about him. Honestly, I had not known of him at all prior to this thread.

Was the movie worth watching? Or was too much "artistic license" taken (I guess if you want to call butchering the facts artistic license)?

He indeed does sound very influential.
 
So how many of us know who designed the Colt SAA-it wasn't Sam Colt, he was long gone. Who designed the Army Special/Official Police. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson did not design the M&P or the Triple Lock. Who designed the S&W M-39 ? The Remington 870. The Mossbergs? Most gun designers are largely unknown.
 
I think it's quite the opposite. I think that he is unusually well known despite his minimal contributions.

He invented the floating chamber for rimfire conversions, which no one even cares about, and the gas system for the M1 carbine. That's it.

This guy has had a damn movie made about him when most firearm designers are nameless and unknown.
 
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