ABSTRACT
The American Civil War (1861-1865) has been represented as a very special stage in
humanity’s development, the first fully industrialised conflict.1 Victory depended on
economic strength, with superior technology critical to the struggle, and mundane
improvement and outlandish innovation proceeded together. It seems as if almost
every possibility for advantage was grasped at. Gunsmiths Horace Smith (1808-1893)
and Daniel Wesson (1825-1906) patented the metal cartridge in 1852, ensuring the
power and accuracy of firearms and paving the way to automatic weapons. Huge
conscript armies required cheap, simple and reliable rifles. The Union army relied on
the Springfield Armoury set up by the industrial designer Eli Whitney (1765-1825),2
and it was there that the essential steps towards fully mechanised mass production
were taken, bringing manufacturing tolerances to a level where interlocking parts
could be made interchangeable.3 Meanwhile, especially in the weaker Confederacy,
curious marginal and hybrid designs, ironclads and submarines, were tried out in
desperation, pre-adaptations of later forms.
