Friday, October 3, 2014

William Morgan Thomas

He was mentioned in the comments of a previous post.

And I don't know enough about him.  Still don't.

He falls in an era on US history in between areas I was more interested in and I haven't fully fleshed out those gaps in my knowledge.  So I concentrate on a Browning or a Garand and am not as strong with a Samual Colt or a William Morgan Thomas.  But I should be. 

The internet doesn't proffer up a lot of info on the history of Union Metallic Cartrdige without some digging.

But they made a lot of the cowboy loads before a new renaisaance of ammo came about in the beginning of the 20th Century.   I know their stuff from reproduction 19th century Sears or Montgomery Wards catalogs printed more recently.  They are chockablock with old ammo box top 'images.'

But precious little on the web.  About the man or the ammo company.  Apart from him being the chief ballistician. 

What a GREAT job title.  Chief Ballistician.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The 1998 Gun Digest has a nice article on Mr. Thomas. This should be easily available on the used market. I want to say that he was covered in an earlier edition of the now defunct Guns Illustrated annual, but I'll need to do some digging. If I remember correctly, the December 15, 1923 edition of The American Rifleman published Thomas' obituary, listing his many cartridge credits. His celebrity status was such that he was dubbed "UMC" Thomas, a nickname that he adopted by using it as his signature.

Unknown said...

This link will take you a 1912 vintage book covering the history of UMC.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433009097894;view=1up;seq=1

Unknown said...

Here is a more recent history of Remington-UMC that has additional information on UMC Thomas.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015058502991;view=1up;seq=1