Browning’s Final M1918 BAR Patent Grants Hit 100th Anniversary
Some of John Moses Browning’s last patents for the groundbreaking M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle hit their centennial anniversary this year. While Browning’s first prototypes were created near the end of World War I and the original patents were granted in 1919, some of his final tweaks didn’t come until near the end of his life.
Browning filed his patent for what became the BAR in 1917, but it wasn’t ready in time to have a major impact on WWI, and the U.S. War Department wasn’t even fully sure how to deploy the new firearm in the field. The patent was granted in 1919, but Browning continued to improve the design. (Image: U.S. Patent No. 1,298,022)
Browning died in 1926 but not before filing his final adjustments to the BAR with the patent office in 1925. These refinements rounded out some of the finer points of the firearm that would become the iconic M1918A2 we know today. That’s the model that gained fame in the hands of American service members during both World War II and the Korean War.
Browning filed these latter patents as refinements to increase durability, reliability, and ease of use as he incorporated lessons learned from troops wielding the new firearm in the field. That included his own son, Lt. Val Browning.
Lt. Val Browning holds a BAR in some early photos of the firearm, likely used for promotional purposes. Val Browning also instructed U.S. troops on how to use the new weapon system. (Images: Browning)
Browning, seen here on the top right, envisioned the BAR as a walking wall of fire for American troops as they assaulted German positions in World War I. The later M1918A2 used in WWII serve as more of a squad-level and platoon-level support firearm, but it still gave American GIs a more portable platform for fire support. (Images: Browning)
The BAR’s technical service life ran from 1918, when the U.S. War Department officially adopted it, until 1973. That timeline saw U.S. service members carrying it during the early stages of the Vietnam War. The U.S. eventually passed on large numbers of BARs to the South Vietnamese Army and other allies over the course of the war.
Here’s a peek at the last of Browning’s BAR patents that were granted in 1925.
Filed on Dec. 6, 1922, and granted on April 14, 1925, this patent addition from Browning had a particular impact on the durability and ease of use of the magazine latch in harsh environments: “The main object of the present invention is, to provide an automatic rifle with a novel and improved magazine-latch mechanism, which, while simple and reliable in construction and operation, is sufficiently strong and durable to withstand the exposure and abuse which it is liable to meet in the trenches and the field of modern warfare. This object is attained by providing the following novel constructions.” (Image: U.S. Patent No. 1,533,966)
Filed on Dec. 29, 1922, and granted on April 14, 1925, this patent addition offered the following improvements to the design: “The object of the present novel improvement is to provide a rifle of this class with a manually operated means for covering or uncovering the ejection-opening, such, as for example, a lever for at will raising or lowering the cover-plate for said opening, combined with a safety device to prevent the firing of the rifle by positively locking the action-slide and, thereby, the means transmitting its movement to the breech mechanism, while the ejection-opening is closed.” (Image: U.S. Patent No. 1,533,967)
Filed on Jan. 6, 1923, and also granted on April 14, 1925, this patent addition from Browning dealt with improving existing BARs with a post-production modification to similarly protect the ejection port in the field: “The object of the present improvement and addition is to provide a previously manufactured rifle of this class with a manually operated device for at will covering or uncovering the ejection-opening, combined with a safety device which shall positively prevent the firing of the rifle while the said ejection-opening is covered. This object is attained by providing a mechanism of very simple but strong construction, inexpensive and not liable to get out of order and positive in operation.” (Image: U.S. Patent No. 1,533,968)
This final example, filed on March 13, 1924, and granted on April 4, 1925, was intended to further protect the BAR’s operating system from foreign matter in extreme environments when the magazine was removed: “Firearms of this class have sometimes to be carried without the magazine, in which case the opening in the wall of the breech casing is left uncovered, and dust, dirt, snow, or other extraneous matter may enter the breech casing through said opening … It is an object of the invention to overcome these difficulties by providing a novel, improved means for closing said opening in the breech casing while the magazine has been removed. This object is attained by providing on the arm a closure for said opening.” (Image: U.S. Patent No. 1,548,709)
While these were Browning’s final official contributions to the BAR before his death in 1926, the M1918 continued to evolve in the lead-up to World War II. Later BAR modifications continued under U.S. military engineers rather than Browning himself.
Today, the BAR is kept alive in its semi-auto form for the commercial market by Ohio Ordnance, which also lists other classics like the M2 Browning heavy machine gun (in semi-auto form) and the M240 medium machine gun (again, in semi-auto form) to this very day.
The company’s HCAR also offers a modernized tactical rendition of the platform to bring it forward into the 21st century. A later sporting BAR rifle created by his descendant, Bruce Warren Browning, also paid homage to the original BAR in name, if not in its actual design.
