Collecting Oriental and Asiatic Arms and Armour: The Activities of British and East India Company Officers,c.1800-1850

During the first half of the 19th century substantial quantities of Oriental and Asiatic arms and armour first began to appear in Britain. On the one hand they certainly reflected the expansion of empire but their wider significance has yet to be discussed. This article seeks to address that omission by exploring the growth of interest in these objects within military circles, what they represented to the individuals who acquired them, and how they fitted into the wider collecting strategies of military officers as a group.     

Fighting on Their Own Terms: The Tactics of the Irish Republican Army 1919-1921

Abstract

The 1919-1921 Anglo-Irish War represents one of the earliest instances of a successful insurgent movement in the twentieth century. By combining a fluid organizational structure with effective hit-and-run tactics and accurate intelligence, the Irish Republican Army was able to defeat militarily the security forces of Great Britain. Combined with a successful propaganda campaign, these tactics allowed the IRA to drive the British to the negotiating table, where its representatives secured greater autonomy than Ireland had known in centuries. The outcome of the Anglo-Irish War demonstrates the success which a well-organized guerrilla campaign can achieve, and the tactics used by the IRA must therefore be understood by any serious student of small warfare.     

The Enfield Lock Barrel Mill of 1815 and Moves to Replace Musket Barrel Grinding by Turning c1780 to c1840

In 1841 Henry Wilkinson in his book Engines of War and William Greener in The Science of Gunnery describe a range of methods then in use for shaping the outside of gun barrels after the barrel forging process, ranging from manual off-hand grinding to the use of precision machines. In the same year G. & J. Rennie published the design of their state-of-the-art lathe that was capable of turning complex and dished barrel forms. This built upon the earlier work of both Henry Nock and John Jones. In the early years of the 19th century both Britain, at Enfield and other locations, and the USA, at Harpers Ferry and Springfield, began to introduce barrel-turning technology. This paper uses measurements taken from a significant number of military barrels made by several makers, and also newly exposed information about Henry Nock and the Enfield Factory of 1815, to understand better the technologies that were applied to military flintlock barrel finishing from the 1780s to the 1840s, and particularly during the major wars of 1793–1815, when high output was paramount. Measurements both of barrel form and out-of-roundness are presented. These allow the interpretation of the techniques being used by different makers at different locations, and raise questions about the purpose and achievement of the complex dished barrel forms found on British military flintlock muskets. This approach also allows us to better describe the earliest factory on the Enfield site, one of the most significant sites in the wider history of UK manufacturing.     

The Crowe Memorandum,the Rebalance to Asia,and Sino-US Relations

Many contemporary academics and policy analysts have revisited the Anglo-German rivalry before 1914 to predict what may await China and the United States in the twenty-first century. However, few, if indeed any, have specified in what sense this comparison can be made. This paper attempts to fill this gap with a detailed analysis of the strategic parallels between the Anglo-German rivalry then and the China–US competition now through the lens of the Crowe Memorandum. The author argues that the basic parallel between the rise of Germany and the rise of China lies in the challenges they posed or pose to the dominant maritime power and system leader – Great Britain then and the United States today. This parallel also explains the similarity between the Triple Entente initiated by Great Britain prior to 1914 and the Rebalance to Asia launched by the United States in 2011. Furthermore, as in the case of the Anglo-German rivalry before 1914, the most crucial problem underlying the mounting China–US competition in recent years has been America’s deepening apprehension about the development of China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) and naval capabilities. This development, from the US perspective, is threatening to deprive the US of its most crucial instrument to influence the strategic equilibrium on the East Asian littorals. Based on the lessons of the Anglo-German rivalry prior to 1914, the essay also examines the potential for mitigating, if not eliminating, the mounting competition and misgivings between China and the United States.     

Naval policy and national strategy in France, 1933–1937

This article argues that French naval policy‐makers were slow to adjust to the changed strategic landscape of the 1930s. During the 1920s France did not face a serious land or air threat. Defence policy‐makers were therefore able to devote a large portion of the defence budget to rebuilding French maritime power. But when the Depression and the rise of Nazi Germany overturned the strategic situation in Europe, policy‐makers adjusted by giving priority to land and air rearmament and by placing ever greater emphasis on securing an alliance with Great Britain. The French naval establishment resisted this trend unsuccessfully. The frustration of naval planning increased the resentment and mistrust of both the Third Republic and Great Britain that characterised naval attitudes before and particularly during the Second World War.     

The Future of Insurgency

This article examines Great Britain's role in South Vietnam in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Great Britain and the United States certainly did not enjoy a special relationship in South Vietnam, but it is also true that some British officials did manage to exert a real influence on the policy choices of the kennedy administration. The most important obstacle to the development of effective policies in South Vietnam was not the limits of British influence on the US but the inability of both Britain and the US to influence the actions of the Diem regime in Saigon.     

The royal sword-cutlers of 68 St James's Street and some notes on the London retail trade

Abstract

This paper presents new facts and information on the various sword-cutlers who occupied one of the most notable trading sites for swords and military accoutrements in the West End of London in the 18th and 19th centuries; and also discusses various aspects of the retail trade in the capital at a time when Britain was emerging as the world's foremost trading nation and colonial power.     

The myth of the mangonel: torsion artillery in the Middle Ages

Abstract

Medieval siege artillery has been a subject of fascination since the antiquarians of the 19th century re-discovered the Middle Ages and then re-created it as an image of their own imagination, in the process generating many false ideas. Most of these myths have been corrected. But one that remains to this day is that the torsion-powered late Roman onager lived on for another millennium in the form of the mangonel.     

Claude Blair 1922–2010

Abstract

The historic displays at the Tower Armouries underwent two significant rearrangements during the nineteenth century. Undertaken by two noted antiquarian scholars, Dr Samuel Meyrick in 1826 and James Robertson Planché in 1868, the underlying circumstances that led up to these developments have not been fully considered; neither has the role played by the Storekeeper’s Department at the Tower in this process. Yet at precisely the same time as these changes were being made the Storekeeper’s Department was becoming more expert in its own collections, acquiring new objects, conducting research, and playing an active part in the scholarly and museological developments of Victorian Britain.     

Allies at arm’s length: Redefining Egyptian–Soviet relations in the 1967 Arab–Israeli war

This article examines Egyptian–Soviet relations in the run up to the 1967 Arab–Israeli war. It argues that Egypt and the Soviet Union stumbled into brinkmanship with little coordination and no agreement on common objectives or goals. The article demonstrates how frustration and mutual disappointment were recurring features of the interactions between the two allies during the critical weeks prior to the war. In doing so, the article exposes new aspects of how Cairo and Moscow managed their alliance and assesses what that means to our understanding of the origins of this transformative war. These conclusions challenge revisionist accounts that attribute the start of the war to Egyptian–Soviet collusion and some traditional narratives that present the Soviet Union as an enterprising risk-taker invested in regional brinkmanship. The article draws heavily on Egyptian and Arabic language sources to examine Egyptian–Soviet interactions during this key period of Middle Eastern history.     

对加强综合性大学中师范学院建设的一点思考

在20世纪末我国兴起的新一轮高等院系调整中,众多原本独立的师范院校或教育学院并入新组建的综合性大学中。新时期我国中小学教师的培养,在很大程度上是由综合性大学中的师范学院承担的。如何认识这类师范学院的发展,加强这类师范学院的建设,这是综合性大学实现自身发展需要认真对待的问题。我国基础教育的新发展对全面提高教师质量提出了新的要求,这也对综合性大学加强师范学院建设提出了新要求。     

自补偿液体静压精密转台轴承设计与实验

设计了一种用于精密转台的新型自补偿圆锥形液体静压轴承,并完成了轴承的制造与性能测试。采用流量平衡原理推导了轴承设计公式,得到了轴向和径向的最优刚度及其优化条件,计入制造误差对轴承承载性能进行了仿真,并测试了轴承的刚度和回转精度。结果表明:轴承刚度受到节流间隙与承载间隙的流阻比以及油腔间内流系数影响,流阻比存在最优值,而内流系数越小,对刚度越有利;计入制造误差的仿真模型能够有效预测轴承刚度范围。     

Tailored to the Times: The Story of Casimir Zeglen’s Silk Bullet-Proof Vest

Abstract

The invention of silk bullet-proof fabric, a response to growing violence and anarchy, and intended to protect politicians and public figures, as well as police officers and soldiers, is discussed in the wider context of the world’s political situation at the turn of the 19th century. The complex question of the ownership of this innovation is addressed and the reasons for its commercial failure are discussed. The ballistic properties of silk bullet-proof fabric are evaluated and the impact of this invention on the future development of soft armours is considered.     

James Farmer and Samuel Galton,the Reality of Gun Making for the Board of Ordnance in the Mid-18th Century

Abstract

A brief introduction to gun making in Birmingham in the 18th century and the Farmer and Galton gun-making businesses and their military products is presented. The collections of Galton Papers held by Birmingham Archives and Heritage and University College London are used to focus on the Farmer and Galton experience in relation to key matters associated with military gun making: the feast and famine phenomena in the supply of arms for the many wars of the 18th century; and standards of inspection including the use of gauges and proof.     

从《道连·葛雷的画像》看心理学在科学与艺术中的作用

作为19世纪末唯美主义最著名的代表人物,奥斯卡.王尔德是一位联结传统与现代的作家。《道连.葛雷的画像》既是他的小说,也是一部批评之作,集中体现了他的美学观点。这部小说从心理学的角度批评了维多利亚时代自然科学的无能,并把艺术提升到至高无上的地位。     

The Hidden Factors that Turned the Tide: Strategic Decision-Making and Operational Intelligence in the 1973 War

This article analyzes the quality of the Egyptian and Israeli intelligence advice and decision-making process in the October 1973 War as key factors that determined its course. Following a background to the subject, we focus on the 9–13 October standstill stage, in which Sadat decided, despite his generals’ advice, to renew the Egyptian offensive. Effective Israeli intelligence collection about the coming attack, which was well used by the decision-makers, saved Israel from accepting an undesired ceasefire. The result was the 14 October failed Egyptian offensive that turned the tide of the war and led to Israeli military achievements at the war’s final stage     

An analysis of the Washington naval agreements and the economic provisions of arms control theory

During the Cold War, two contending hypotheses dominated theories concerning the economic impact of anus control. The first suggested that when certain prerequisites were fulfilled, arms control agreements served to promote lasting reduction in military spending. The second asserted that instead of promoting savings, arms control encouraged diversion of resources to more advanced and expensive weapons, thus driving defense spending higher. Through the examination of the impact of the Washington Naval Agreements on naval expenditure during the 1920s, this paper provides empirical evidence to support the latter of these competing hypotheses. The United States, Great Britain, and Japan all realized economic savings after signing the Washington Naval Agreements. However, these savings soon eroded as the powers developed more advanced weapons‐systems.     

Kevlar fabric reinforced polybenzoxazine composites filled with silane treated microcrystalline cellulose in the interlayers: The next generation of multi-layered armor panels

The design of astonishing combinations of benzoxazine resins with various fillers is nowadays of great interest for high quality products, especially in ballistic armors. The objective of this study is to investigate a new hybrid material prepared as multi-layered composite plate by hand lay-up technique. Different composites were manufactured from Kevlar fabrics reinforced polybenzoxazine, which was filled with silane treated microcrystalline cellulose (MCC Si) at various amounts in the interlayers. The developed materials were tested for their flexural, dynamic mechanical and ballistic performance. The aim was to highlight the effect of adding different amounts of MCC Si on the behavior of the different plates. Compared to the baseline, the dynamic mechanical and bending tests revealed an obvious decrease of the glass transition of 21 °C and a notable increase in storage modulus and flexural strength of about 180 %and17%, respectively, upon adding 1% MMC Si as filler. Similarly, the ballistic test exhibited an enhancement in kinetic energy absorption for which the composite supplemented with 1% MCC Si had the maximal energy absorption of 166.60 J. These results indicated that the developed panels, with interesting mechanical and ballistic features, are suitable to be employed as raw materials to produce body armor.     

The pitfalls of learning from historical experience: the British Army’s debate on useful lessons for the war in Afghanistan

Why do armies often fail to transmit and coherently apply lessons from their past? Using the concept of ‘layered organizational culture’, this article formulates a pioneering theoretical argument to explain how military organizations learn from their historical experience. Analysing empirical material from internal debates within the British Army, the article observes an inherent incompatibility between lessons gleaned from, on the one hand, the Anglo-Afghan Wars and, on the other hand, British counterinsurgency campaigns after 1945. This is less a result of actual differences in the external context but of changing organizational ‘filters’: different layers of military organizational culture result in different ways of selecting and transmitting relevant lessons from warfare experience. Older and newer cultural layers can interact and thus contribute to incoherent strategy-making in the present. This argument is illustrated by reviewing the layering process within the British Army since the 19th century. The article shows a shift from emphasizing the specificity of local contexts towards the application of universal principles. This has contemporary relevance: co-exisiting yet incompatible historical lessons contributed to significant incoherence in operational strategy during the initial months of the British deployment in Afghanistan in 2006.     

Capacity allocation with machine duplication in semiconductor manufacturing

The manufacturing process for a computer chip is complex in that it involves a large number of distinct operations requiring a substantial lead‐time for completion. Our observations of such a manufacturing process at a large plant in the United States led us to identify several tactical and operational problems that were being addressed by the production planners on a recurring basis. This paper focuses on one such problem. At a tactical level, given a demand forecast of wafers to be manufactured, one specific problem deals with specifying which machine or machine groups will process different batches of wafers. We address this problem by recognizing the capacity limitations of the individual machines as well as the requirement for reducing operating and investment costs related to the machines. A mathematical model, which is a variation of the well‐known capacitated facility location problem, is proposed to solve this problem. Given the intractability of the model, we first develop problem specific lower bounding procedures based on Lagrangean relaxation. We also propose a heuristic method to obtain “good” solutions with reasonable computational effort. Computational tests, using hypothetical and industry‐based data, indicate that our heuristic approach provides optimal/near optimal solutions fairly quickly. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005