Talk:John H. Hall (gunsmith)

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Additional text from User:Ronkley

The following text was added by User:Ronkley, and then removed as possible vandalism by User:VoABot II. The text was not vandalism, but was inappropriate for the main page, so I have added it here for further discussion: Simon12 (talk) 02:46, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

In many years of research on the early life and work of John H. Hall, I’ve found no evidence of his having worked in the tannery that was established by his maternal grandfather. At the time of his father’s death, in the mid-1790s, young John was apprenticed to a local cooper – probably Nathaniel Brackett, whose shop was located on the waterfront just a stone’s throw from the Hall family home at the corner of present-day Fore and Center Streets.

Hall’s apprenticeship ended with his coming of age in 1802, at which time he established himself in the cooper’s trade – very possibly as a successor to Brackett. Newspaper ads of the period indicate that Hall also rented small boats, and that he was the owner of a small commercial schooner, but I’ve found nothing more than an uncorroborated assertion by a 19th century historian to suggest that he was a boat builder.

I know of no instance, during his years in Maine, when Hall referred to himself or was referred to by others as a machinist. It is evident, however, that he was evolving ideas (and perhaps creating some rudimentary equipment) for using machines to replace skilled labor during the time (ca. 1812-1815) that he was working in North Yarmouth (present-day Yarmouth, Maine) and living among individuals familiar with mechanical devices used in clockmaking, and with early textile machinery.

Hall’s early association with the cooper’s trade was fortuitous if not downright providential, for the capacity of cooperage products had long been regulated by statute, and capacity, in turn, was a function of the size and shape of the staves from which casks, barrels and hogsheads were formed. Thus the concepts of standardization and interchangeability were no doubt firmly implanted in young John Hall’s mind during his earliest days as a cooper’s apprentice, and it is not surprising that they later emerged as a key concept in his manufacture of firearms.

Hall’s characterization in Wikipedia as a “soldier,” and various references to him as “Captain” Hall, stem from his early enlistment in a local militia unit, the Portland Light Infantry, and his progressive rise to the rank of Captain and Commanding Officer of that unit. It was, accordingly to Hall’s own account, his involvement as a sergeant in charge of marksmanship training for the P.L.I. that gave rise to some of his ideas which were to be incorporated into his breechloading “patent rifles.” It was also his status as a local military commander that earned Hall the privilege, in 1817, of attending a formal dinner for visiting President James Monroe, and later accompanying the president on a tour of the Portland Harbor fortifications -- during which Hall reportedly demonstrated one of his breechloaders. The President was evidently impressed, for Hall received his first government contract shortly after Monroe’s visit

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