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Jean Cantius Garand (; January 1, 1888 – February 16, 1974) was a Canadian-American designer of firearms best known for creating the first successful semi-automatic rifle to be widely used in active military service, the M1 Garand. ==Biography== Garand was one of twelve children born on a farm near St. Rémi, Quebec.〔All the Garand in North America have Pierre Garand (~1643 - 1700) from Rouen France, as common ancestor. See also Pierre Garand, Canadian modern singer.〕 His father moved to Jewett City, Connecticut, with the children when their mother died in 1899. The children were employed in a textile mill where Jean learned to speak English while sweeping floors. They lived near a gun club target range, and shooters left their rifles at the Garand home between matches. Jean and his brothers learned to shoot, and one of his brothers operated a shooting gallery. Jean learned machinist skills while working at the textile mill; and was hired by a Providence, Rhode Island, welding factory in 1909. He found employment with a New York toolmaking firm in 1916, and resumed rifle practice at the shooting galleries along Broadway. His fondness for machinery and target shooting blended naturally into a hobby of designing guns, which however took a more vocational turn in 1917. That year the United States Army took bids on designs for a light machine gun, and Garand's design was eventually selected by the War Department. Garand was appointed to a position with the United States Bureau of Standards with the task of perfecting the weapon. The first model was not built until 1919, too late for use in World War I, but the government kept Garand on in a position as consulting engineer with the Springfield Armory. In this position he was tasked with designing a semi-automatic infantry rifle and carbine. Designing the rifle took several preliminary designs and quite a bit of detail work stretching over fifteen years to perfect the model to Army specifications. The resulting M1 Garand was patented by Garand in 1934 and began mass production in 1936. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Garand had designed and built a prototype bullpup rifle. It fired the same cartridge as the M1 rifle, but the magazine, action and shape were completely different. It was a select-fire design, and had a firing rate of about 600rpm. When Garand retired in 1953, the second version of the T31 was incomplete, and remained so. The project was scrapped, and the gun was retired to the Springfield Armory museum in 1961. For his work with the Springfield Armory, Garand was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 1941, and the first Medal for Merit (together with Albert Hoyt Taylor) on March 28, 1944. Garand never received any royalties from his design. A bill was introduced in Congress to award him $100,000 in appreciation, but did not pass. Garand remained in his consulting position until his retirement in 1953, and died in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1974. Garand married French Canadian widow Nellie Bruce Shepard (3 Aug 1900 - 25 Feb 1986) on 6 Sep 1930 in Albany, NY. She had two daughters by her previous marriage, and they had a daughter and a son of their own.〔1930 US Census; 7 Apr 1930; Springfield, MA; Sheet 5B; line 98〕〔1940 US Census; 16 Apr 1940; Springfield, MA; Sheet 13B; line 72〕〔Wedding announcement; The Springfield Republican; 5 Oct 1930; page 6〕〔John C. Garand obituary: The Springfield Republican; 17 Feb 1974; page 62〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Garand」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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