Arsenal

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View of the Entrance to the Arsenal, by Canaletto, 1732 View of the entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.jpg
View of the Entrance to the Arsenal , by Canaletto, 1732
Cannons and mortars of Napoleon's army exhibited along the wall of the Kremlin Arsenal Russia-Moscow-Arsenal.jpg
Cannons and mortars of Napoleon's army exhibited along the wall of the Kremlin Arsenal
The Royal Armoury, Leeds RoyalArmoryLeeds.JPG
The Royal Armoury, Leeds
Armory of Swiss Guard Armeria001.JPG
Armory of Swiss Guard
The Kansas Army National Guard armory in Concordia, Kansas, is a typical building used for the National Guard programs in the United States. National Guard Armory (Concordia, Kansas).JPG
The Kansas Army National Guard armory in Concordia, Kansas, is a typical building used for the National Guard programs in the United States.

An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) [1] [2] are mostly regarded as synonyms, although subtle differences in usage exist.

Contents

A sub-armory is a place of temporary storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition, such as any temporary post or patrol vehicle that is only operational in certain times of the day. [3]

Etymology

The term in English entered the language in the 16th century as a loanword from French : arsenal, itself deriving from the term Italian : arsenale, which in turn is thought to be a corruption of Arabic : دار الصناعة, dār aṣ-ṣināʿa, meaning "manufacturing shop". [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Types

A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish the materiel and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, small-arms ammunition, small-arms, harness, saddlery tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great storehouses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress.

In the early 21st century, the term "floating armoury" described a ship storing weapons to be supplied to merchant vessels in international waters subject to piracy, so that the weapons do not enter territorial waters where they would be illegal.

Operational subdivision

The branches in a great arsenal are usually subdivided into storekeeping, construction and administration:

In the manufacturing branches are required skill, and efficient and economical work, both executive and administrative; in the storekeeping part, good arrangement, great care, thorough knowledge of all warlike stores, both in their active and passive state, and scrupulous exactness in the custody, issue and receipt of stores. Frederick Taylor introduced command and control techniques to arsenals, including the U.S.'s Watertown Arsenal (a principal center for artillery design and manufacture) and Frankford Arsenal (a principal center for small arms ammunition design and manufacture). [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence of the realm and its overseas possessions, and as the supplier of munitions and equipment to both the Army and the Navy'. The Board also maintained and directed the Artillery and Engineer corps, which it founded in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the Board of Ordnance was second in size only to HM Treasury among government departments. The Board lasted until 1855, at which point it was disbanded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Arsenal</span> Public community common, and housing, formerly a Military owned site

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magazine (artillery)</span> Place of storage for ammunition or other explosive material

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headstamp</span> Markings on the bottom of a cartridge case

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Army Ordnance Corps</span> Former corps of the British Army (1918 – 1993)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Army Ordnance Corps</span> U.S. Army branch charged with the supply of weapons and ammunition

The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army combat units with weapons and ammunition, including at times, their procurements and maintenance. Along with the Quartermaster Corps and Transportation Corps, it forms a critical component of the U.S. Army logistics system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ermine (heraldry)</span> Style of tincture in heraldry

Ermine in heraldry is a fur, a type of tincture, consisting of a white background with a pattern of black shapes representing the winter coat of the stoat. The linings of medieval coronation cloaks and some other garments, usually reserved for use by high-ranking peers and royalty, were made by sewing many ermine furs together to produce a luxurious white fur with patterns of hanging black-tipped tails. Due largely to the association of the ermine fur with the linings of coronation cloaks, crowns and peerage caps, the heraldic tincture of ermine was usually reserved to similar applications in heraldry. In heraldry it has become especially associated with the Duchy of Brittany and Breton heraldry.

Armory or armoury may mean:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankford Arsenal</span> United States historic place

The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pall (heraldry)</span>

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During the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Though the muzzleloader percussion cap rifled musket was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles - two of the world's first repeating rifles - were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Naval Armament Depot</span> Armament depot

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Caleb Huse was a major in the Confederate States Army, acting primarily as an arms procurement agent and purchasing specialist during the American Civil War. He is most well known for his successful acquisition of weapons contracts with various European nations including the United Kingdom, Austria, and to a lesser extent, France, Prussia, and Bohemia. A majority of the weapons imported to the Confederacy from foreign powers during the war were negotiated for and purchased by Huse.

JSC Arsenal AD is a Bulgarian joint-stock company based in Kazanlak, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is Bulgaria's oldest arms supplier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Metcalfe (military officer)</span> American military officer and business theorist

Captain Henry Metcalfe was an officer in the United States Army Ordnance Corps, inventor and early organizational theorist, known for his 1873 invention of a detachable magazine for small arms, for his work on modern management accounting, the development of the "time card" and his theory on the role of middle management.

Floating armouries are vessels used to store military grade weapons. Being in possession of military-grade weapons in most jurisdictions is highly controlled. In the early twenty-first century, piracy in international waters became a serious issue for shipping companies. In response, services that supply weapons on the high seas, often referred to as floating armouries, were implemented. These armouries provide transfer services to private maritime security companies (PMSCs); the controlled weapons are available in international waters, but never enter patrolled territorial waters—they are delivered by an armoury to a client's vessel, and returned, in international waters.

References

  1. Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (ed.) (2005). Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd Ed., revised, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 85. ISBN   978-0-19-861057-1.
  2. The English barrister and heraldist Arthur Charles Fox-Davies meant that the spelling without a u was never used for weapons but only used for armory in the meaning of the science of coats of arms, which is a part of heraldry, in his book The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopædia of Armory (1904), p. 1
  3. Firearms, Idaho Department of Correction, 2010, p. 2, archived from the original on 2016-12-24, retrieved 2014-06-12
  4. "Definition of arsenal – Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English)". Oxford Dictionary of English. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012.
  5. "Define Arsenal at Dictionary.com". Reference.com.
  6. "American Heritage Dictionary Entry: arsenal". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
  7. "Online Etymology Dictionary". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  8. "Definition of "arsenal" – Collins English Dictionary". Collins English Dictionary.
  9. "Arsenal – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-Webster.
  10. 1 2 PD-icon.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arsenal"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 02 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 650 to 651.

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arsenal". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.