The small arms now made at Harpers Ferry and Springfield, for the use of the United States, are constructed with such exact similarity in their several parts that a perfect gun can be made out of any number of parts from both armories, and the fitting will be so perfect that the pieces from each armory cannot be distinguished from one another. This has been proved by an examination recently made at the Harpers-Ferry Armory, under the immediate and personal direction of Col. H. R. Kraig, Chief of Ordnance, and conducted by Maj. P. V. Hagner of the Ordnance department, assisted by Messrs. Byington, and Allen, Master Armorers of the two Armories. Guns from both armories were introduced, and every interchange of pieces that ingenuity could devise was resorted to, and in every case the fitting was exact and complete. This system of constructing small arms will totally dispose with the necessity of having a corps of armorers constantly in the field to repair and fit new limbs to broken arms. They can immediately draw from the store keeper the part, or parts required, screw them on and the arm is again ready for use.
And out of a dozen broken arms, by this system 10 or 11 good guns may be made, if each gun had a different breakage. The examination here alluded to, a correspondent of the Martinsburg Republican states, has resulted highly to the character of the Harpers-Ferry Armory, and the credit of the officers, connected therewith and to the active and intelligent superintendent, H. W. Clowe, Esq., who took charge of the Armory in January, 1855, under adverse circumstances. The skill and intelligence directed upon the operations of this establishment, presents the armory, at this place, in a state of material efficiency unknown to it before, and not surpassed by any manufacturing establishment in this or any other country.
