America has produced some of the world’s greatest inventors and entrepreneurs. Names like Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and
Harvey Firestone come to mind. Then we have the tech revolution moguls like Jobs, Gates, and many others. But when I think of great American inventors, the first one I think of is John Moses Browning.
John Browning was born in Ogden, Utah on January 23, 1855 and he died in Liege, Belgium on November 26, 1926. In his lifetime he gave the world and especially Americans some of the greatest firearms of all time; some of which are extremely popular even today.
Browning’s father was a gunsmith and young John learned at an early age the trade of gunsmithing. He made his first gun, a crude single shot, at age 10. Browning had an innate ability to design guns in his mind. He rarely used paper and pencil when designing a new firearm. He simply worked the design in his head, made a prototype, worked on any problems and voila, the result was a reliable, efficient and practical gun. He used this unique process for his entire lifetime.