March 2023 Sustaining Members Night

Dinner Cost:
Members and Guests $25
Retirees $15
Students $10
Online Attendees are Free

Abstract
The author’s two decade-old presentation, “Materials and Processes in the Manufacture of Civil War Small Arms”, traced the evolution of the American System of Manufacturing which enabled rapid production of robust, value engineered military small arms with fully interchangeable parts ca. 1860, at both U.S. and British arsenals.   This historical technology review included insights to the metallurgy behind these weapons, plus a survey of materials and processes available to arms makers of the period and a full metallurgical examination of representative antique rifle musket components.
This update recaps key elements of the Interchangeable Parts System of Manufacture, and the author expands the scope of historical firearms examined to include mid-19^th Century British-pattern rifle muskets produced by native workers at The Arsenal of Nepal.  The present work further addresses an earlier erroneous conclusion regarding apparent differences in the metallurgy of British rifle muskets produced for use by regular Crown forces vs. comparable pattern arms intended for export sale (as to both Federal and Confederate forces in the U.S. Civil War) or for issue to British Empire colonial troops.  As in previous presentations, example antique rifle muskets are displayed for audience viewing.


Biography
Mr. Harkness holds BS and MS Degrees in Metallurgy from Case Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University, respectively, and is a Fellow of the American Society for Materials International (FASM).  He retired in 2011, after 33 years, from the position of Principal Scientist, Alloy Research and Development, at Brush Wellman Inc. (now Materion) in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.  His research interests there included Cu-Be and other Be-containing alloy development, raw material and component parts fabrication technology, new products and physical metallurgy.   He is co-inventor on several US and foreign patents for lean, low cost, high performance Cu-Be alloys; has written extensively on the performance attributes of Be-containing alloys and has contributed to articles on Cu-Be and other Cu alloys in the ASM Handbook series.  He is a Past Chairman of the Cleveland Chapter ASMI.
Mr. Harkness is also a life-long student of military history and technology.  He is Past President of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, a member of the Company of Military Historians and The Ohio Gun Collectors' Association, a former Civil War and Revolutionary War re-enactor and has shot original Civil War small arms with live ammunition extensively in target competition in the North-South Skirmish Association.