Remington Arms - - The Rifle Factory

[aut-ord-co]

This topic is not pure Thompson Submachine Gun. Not strictly about Tommy Guns. Not about finned barrels or nickel sears.

Not about PD guns or actuator wear. Not about serial numbers or Colt prices. Not even about black walnut furniture or overstamps.

It’s about the old man - General John Taliaferro Thompson. Who ever writes about him? We write and angst about his guns and their

accessories. But this story is about his legacy or at least another part of his legacy.

 

Quoting from The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar, by William J. Helmer, on page 9:

“In November 1914, Thompson surprised his Ordnance Department colleagues by retiring

from the Army to become chief consulting engineer for the Remington Arms Corporation.

His Ordnance Department work had established him as a small arms expert, and Remington

offered him a challenging job: designing the world’s largest rifle factory at Eddystone,

Pennsylvania, supervising its construction, and directing the manufacture of rifles for the

British army. Thompson got the British .303 Enfield into production in October 1915, two

months ahead of schedule, and by the middle of 1916 Remington was mass producing

the rifles at a rate of two thousand a day. By this time Remington also had received large

orders from Russia to manufacture the 7.62mm Mosin-Nagant. To handle the Russian

contract, Thompson supervised the building of another large rifle factory, at Bridgeport,

Connecticut.”

 

In the weekly magazine, The Independent, March 6, 1916, an article entitled, “America Arming the Allies”, by Sydney Brooks related details

about the size and construction of this immense Remington plant. It tells the story referring to the then owner and president of Remington--

Marcellus Hartley Dodge. The Hartleys had purchased Remington in 1888 and already owned the Bridgeport Gun Implement Company and the

Union Metallic Cartridge Company also in Bridgeport.

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/rw50/Remington%20Rifle%20Plant/RiflePlant1916.jpg

Ground was broken in December 1914 and in March 1915 foundations and steel began coming out of the ground. In less than eight months,

by November 1915, all buildings were completed and seventy-five percent of the machinery was installed and in operation. 3000 masons worked

on the building each day. The plant was working up to a production goal of 5,000 rifles per day.

 

The plant has a floor area of about 1,500,000 square feet. With all original buildings some references quote over 2,000,000 square feet. It consisted of

thirteen interconnected buildings, each five stories high. The restaurant seated 800 people. The guard force numbered 300. The floors throughout the

building were 2”x12” planks laid on edge! The buildings had an onsite pool hall and a bowling alley for the workers recreation. The article stated that

the company built homes “for the 18,000 employees that were already on the Bridgeport payrolls and for the other 16,000 or 18,000 that it expected to take on.”

And like Eddystone, which was completed while construction was starting on Bridgeport, this plant was touted as the nations largest.

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/rw50/Remington%20Rifle%20Plant/Wide.jpg

 

The revolutions going on in Russia eventually brought about the repudiation of the rifle contracts and the US government had to step in and bail out Remington

by purchasing thousands of rifles outright. WWI was over in 1918 and Remington had a couple of huge rifle plants on their hands and no major wars in existence.

Remington sold the large Bridgeport rifle plant to General Electric for $7,000,000 in 1920.

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/rw50/Remington%20Rifle%20Plant/GEplantb.jpg

 

My dad worked in several of these buildings for 45+ years when it was the General Electric Company. I worked in the third building from the front for two

summers (“66,’67) while on vacation break from college as a cable repairman. During the annual two week shutdown period, I worked throughout the complex

consolidating inventory and re-racking maintenance stores. This was certainly a different kind of summer internship than you hear about today. But it was great

practical experience to have worked in a large, historic factory from the war years.

 

The “Thompson bug” was already jumping around me but I really didn’t know about John T. Thompson’s involvement in this factory since Helmer’s book wasn’t

published until 1969 and I didn’t buy it until 1977. GE eventually closed this building for good in 2007. This plant is only part of what was the entire Remington complex.

This type of smokestack manufacturing site of multi-story red brick buildings, proliferated throughout the Bridgeport landscape. Companies such as: Singer Sewing

Machines, The Bullard Company, Warner Bros., Underwood Elliott Fisher, Bassick Company, Bridgeport Brass, Raybestos, Hubbell, Bryant Electric, as well as, the

Auto-Ordnance Corporation and many others.

 

Alright, where am I going with this un-Thompson gun-like article. Well the point is - this huge building is gone. It was demolished during this year (2012) for proposed

redevelopment, a possible high school, etc. No doubt a good thing for Bridgeport rather than have this huge structure stand vacant and invite continuing arson and

“haunting” like other similar buildings in the city have.

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/rw50/Remington%20Rifle%20Plant/0022.jpg

I took this picture in May 2012.

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/rw50/Remington%20Rifle%20Plant/005p-Copy-1.jpg

I took this picture in August 2012. And then there were none.

 

On a personal note, I guess I felt kind of nostalgic standing in front of this gigantic open space (about 80 acres). We lived about a mile and a half away. This building

was a monolith in Bridgeport. A symbol of stability. A factory that provided our family and thousands of other families with a place to work which then provided: food,

homes, cars, educations, futures, etc. Just a weird feeling and some thoughts that I couldn’t shake for the rest of the day.

 

Maybe John Taliaferro Thompson hung around here for only a few months back in 1915-1917 but immense structures like this and the massive one that was the

Eddystone Rifle Factory in Pennsylvania will always be very much an intriguing but different example of the Thompson history and lore.

 

A sixteen page expanded article will appear in a future Thompson Collectors Newsletter.

[jim c 351]

aut-ord-co,

Certainly a sad and depressing sight.

Good location for a school tho. The graduating students can be made to understand that the reason they will have to leave the area to find a job is because the school replaced the factory that previously employed thousands of thier fellow residents. It will help them understand why they can't find a job.

 

Jim C

[james m]

Quote:

"Ground was broken in December 1914 and in March 1915 foundations and steel began coming out of the ground. In less than eight months,

by November 1915, all buildings were completed and seventy-five percent of the machinery was installed and in operation. 3000 masons worked

on the building each day. The plant was working up to a production goal of 5,000 rifles per day."

 

A sad commentary on the times is that permitting and an "Enviromenatal Impact Study" probably couldn't be completed in 8 months today. We have tied ourselves up in so much red tape and with so many regulations that if we should ever have to get back into emergency wartime production and actually manufacture something here again doing it in a reasonable timeframe and at an acceptable cost will probably be impossible.

Jim

Edited October 26, 2012 by james m

[reconbob]

Thanks for posting this. I enjoy reading about the historical aspects of industry, It really

does not take long for technology, machines, factories, etc. to become lost in time. What used

to be Bethlehem Steel is about an hour from me. Of course Bethlehem Steel was one of the big

American Industrial giants. Now, there is not much left - a few of the blast furnaces rusting away and

they have built a casino on part of the site. But they are trying to get a museum of industry going

and even though the plant closed in the 1980's (I think) I read that there are machines in the

buildings and already - 30-ish years later - nobody knows what they were used for.

 

Bob

[newtommygunner]

A very well written piece. Tks Mike

[TD.]

Bill,

Excellent work. I really enjoyed the read. Yes, we do spend a lot of time dealing only with the gun itself. It was very enjoyable reading about some of the history associated with the developer, General John T. Thompson. I look forward to reading the complete story. Thank you!

[Stgw. 57]

Superb post! Thank you very much!

[OCM]

Great history, love it- Thanks. 3000 masons, can't imagine.

 

OCM

[aut-ord-co]

All,

 

Thanks for the positive comments.