Editing Springfield Armory (section)

===Early 19th century===
[[File:Organ of Muskets, Springfield Armory Museum.jpg|An "Organ of Muskets", in total the racks in the arsenal contain 647 [[Springfield Model 1861|Model 1861 rifles]], with capacity to hold 1,100 when fully stocked; these racks are so-called "organs" as they were described as such in [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s lamentations against the wastes of war in his poem "[[s:The Arsenal at Springfield|The Arsenal at Springfield]]"|thumb|left]]
The Armory played a major role in providing weapons for the American Army during the [[War of 1812]]. Its monthly reports to the War Department are online, and they indicate it made 9588 new muskets in 1814 and repaired 5190 old ones that year. It several times reported that its funding had been delayed.<ref>{{cite book|author=John C. Fredriksen|title=The War of 1812: U.S. War Department Correspondence, 1812–1815|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5NLIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|year=2016|publisher=McFarland|pages=70–71|isbn=9780786494088}}</ref>

Fueled by the Springfield Armory, the City of Springfield quickly became a national center for invention and development. In 1819 [[Thomas Blanchard (inventor)|Thomas Blanchard]] developed a special [[Lathe (tool)|lathe]] for the consistent mass production of rifle stocks. Thomas Blanchard worked at Springfield Armory for 5 years. The lathe enabled an unskilled workman to quickly and easily turn out identical irregular shapes. The large drum turned two wheels: a friction wheel that followed the contours of the metal rifle pattern, and the cutting wheel that imitated the movements of the friction wheel to make an exact replica of the pattern in wood. In the 1840s the old flintlock gave way to a [[Percussion cap|percussion]] ignition system that increased the reliability and simplicity of longarms.
{{multiple image
   | direction = vertical
   | width = 280
   | align = right
   | footer = Views of the [[Water Shops Armory|Water Shops]] in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1905, and 2014 respectively. The Water Shops served as the epicenter for Springfield Armory firearms production throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
   | image1 = Springfield Armory Watershops 1905.jpg
   | image2 = SpringfieldMA WaterShopsArmory.jpg}}

The Springfield Armory was largely involved in the growth and influence of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Much of this grew out of the military's fascination with [[interchangeable parts]], which was based on the theory that it would be easier to simply replace firearm parts than make battlefield repairs. [[Mass production]] of truly interchangeable parts demanded greater use of machines, improved gauging, quality control, and division of labor; all characteristics of the Industrial Revolution. From these individual components, the concept of the assembly line was devised.

The Springfield Armory also contributed to improved business management techniques. Colonel Roswell Lee, hired as superintendent in 1815, brought centralized authority, cost accounting for payroll, time, and materials, and increased discipline to a manufacturing environment—all business practices still in use today.

In 1843, [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] visited the Armory and wrote his poem "The Arsenal at Springfield."<ref>{{cite web|last=Longfellow|first=Henry Wadsworth|title=The Arsenal at Springfield|url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1318.html|work=Representative Poetry Online|publisher=University of Toronto Libraries|access-date=13 September 2010}}</ref> The anti-war poem described the rows of finished guns, by that point 1,000,000 stockpiled there, stored vertically in open racks: "Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms."<ref>{{cite web|title=Springfield Armory National Historic Site|url=http://www.museum.nps.gov/spar/vfpcgi.exe?IDCFile=/spar/DETAILM.IDC,SPECIFIC=9341,DATABASE=29426021,|work=NPS.gov|publisher=National Park Service (US Govt)|access-date=13 September 2010}}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>