Monday 27 January 2014

'CARBINE' WILLIAMS - M1 Carbine Inventor

Carbine Williams who worked on the M1 Carbine at Winchester had an interesting life – quiet a character!

Born David Marshall Williams in Cumberland County, North Carolina November 13 1900, as the first born of seven he worked on the family land before working in a local Blacksmiths Shop - followed by a brief time in the US Navy - until they discovered that he had lied about his age.

When seventeen he was dismissed from Military Acadamy for theft of 10,000 rounds of ammunition and several rifles, government property. He then married and was dismissed from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad being judged to be 'mentally imbalanced' after shooting at birds with a revolver while at work'.

While operating his illegal distillery, during a raid in July 1921, a deputy marshall was shot dead resulting in Williams being charged with First Degree Murder, – A hung-jury result led him to plead guilty to a lesser Second Degree Murder charge and a 20 to 30 year sentence working on the chain-gang at Caledonia State Prison Farm.

The prison Superintendent noticed his mechanical ability while Williams was making repair parts for wardens guns from scrap metal in the prison machine shop! During this time he was able to develop his mechanical genius – staying up late into the night designing systems with the help of technical data and contacts with patent attornys supplied by his mother – and was granted several patents notably for a short stroke piston action and a floating chamber .22' conversion. His family together with the Sheriff he had surrendered to, and the widow of the shot Deputy (!) campaigned for his prison term to be commuted – leading to parole and early release in 1931.

Wikipedia tells how he worked on perfecting his designs for two years before presenting them to the War Department in Washington – where he was granted contacts for .22" floating chamber conversions to the Browning Machine Gun and the M1911 .45"ACP Pistol for training purposes.

The .22" caliber 1911 was called the Colt Ace and he also produced a kit that could be used to convert any make of M1911 to .22" rim-fire.


Recommended by General Julian Hatcher – Williams went to work at Winchester Repeating Arms in 1938, working on short piston designs as part of their team, and entered into a licensing agreement with them. Carbine Williams time as a team member at Winchester was never a happy one as he preferred to work alone, - and ongoing disputes over his patents and license agreements lead to his eventual resignation during the Korean War. - Winchester sought to get out of their agreements with him, but finally agreed to settle and pay-up and afterwards, Williams floating chamber design featured in a series of Winchester semi-auto shotgun models. His work while at Winchester centered around the short-piston design application to the M2 RIFLE and the M1 CARBINE.

                                     CARBINE WILLIAMS aged 70

In 1952 film star Jimmy Stewart played Williams part in the movie 'CARBINE WILLIAMS'. He acted as technical advisor to the film that brought his recognition and fame. The Remington 550-A semi-auto .22" used his 'Williams Chamber' to work equally well with Short, Long, & Long-Rifle ammunition. - When Williams died in 1975, he held over 50 patents - including for a non-sagging cloths-line, an electric can opener, and a mousetrap.

Marty K.
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