Gun Digest 2011. Dan Shideler

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СКАЧАТЬ the local firearms factories. This was the actual birth of the fabulous High Standard Company. It started out as a small shoestring operation, but then Swebilius purchased the now-bankrupt Hartford Arms Company for less than $1,000. This was the beginning that started High Standard in the handgun manufacturing business, and it allowed Swebilius to produce a clone of the Diehm-designed Hartford Arms Model 1925 .22 semi-automatic pistol. It was ultimately to became the very successful High Standard Model B and the beginning of a long list of various High Standard .22 models. At the time of Swebilius’s death from cancer in 1948, High Standard had produced over a quarter of a million .22 pistols of various models. It can be truly said that High Standard’s birth and growth were largely due to the dynamic energy, dream and guidance of Carl Gustave Swebilius.

      His rapid success was due to his ability to recognize and select key men of outstanding ability to build the framework of the rapidly expanding gun company. In one of his first moves in the new company, he hired George Wilson, Sr. from the defunct, recently-purchased Hartford Arms Co. Wilson was a very experienced and capable gun designer with years of know-how in the manufacturing business. His addition to the newly-formed High Standard Co. to manufacture handguns came from his previous experience at Hartford Arms producing Diehm pistols.

      Swebilius had a burning desire to produce and aid the allied forces with their war effort at the outset of World War II. To this end, Swebilius enlisted the help of Jack Owsley, who had many influential contacts in England. He was able to convince the British Purchasing Commission that High Standard could be a major supplier to their desperately-needed .50 caliber machine gun program. They responded immediately, and High Standard was awarded a contract for 12,000 Browning aircraft guns with an advance of $6 million. With very large contracts in their pocket, High Standard was able to secure local bank financing to build a new factory on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden. They were able to purchase the very latest machine tools and equipment for massive machine gun production. Needless to say, this was all they needed to greatly expand in rapid order from a small, modest, pistol manufacturer of 250 employees to one of the largest and most respected players in the gun industry with a work force of 4,000!

      The US Army soon became High Standard’s main customer and the company responded by outproducing all other suppliers of .50 caliber Browning Aircraft machine guns. This included such giants as Colt, Savage, and General Motors. At the same time they also supplied the army with .45-caliber barrels for the 1911-A1 service pistol and thousands of model HD B .22 pistols for training and recreation purposes. They also manufactured and supplied over 2,000 Model HD-MS pistols equipped with silencers for the Office of Special Services. The OSS guns were used for clandestine operations. Wartime production of High Standard was 228,000 .50-caliber aircraft machine guns.

      During the war Swebilius was the second highest salaried citizen in the United States. A congressional investigation revealed that High Standard’s price to the government for the.50 caliber machine gun was considerably less than any of the other contractors for the same gun. Suffice it to say they must have done something right!

      After the end of the war, the massive buildup of military equipment slowed to a virtual standstill. At that time, High Standard’s management decided to become a major player in the commercial arms business by increasing their own handgun product line and to establish a long-time agreement to produce an economy line of shotguns and rifles for the Sears, Roebuck Co. Sears was unusally successful in promoting these products through their massive coast-to-coast merchandising network under the trade name of J.C. Higgins. [Editor’s note: “J C Higgins” was not a made-up brand name, like “Betty Crocker” or “Aunt Jemima.” John C. Higgins (1908-1964) was the head of Sears, Roebuck’s Chicago accounting office and their chief comptroller. – DMS]. The agreement with the Sears, Roebuck Company was for them to invest a substantial sum of capital annually in the Research and Development group to design, build, and test new Sears firearms products and to create the new tooling required to produce these guns.

      Carl Swebilius hired an old friend from Winchester, Fred Humiston, to head the newly-formed High Standard research department. Fred was a gun designer from the old school who created his new designs on milling machines and lathes rather than on the drawing board. The modern age of CAD-CAM and computers had not yet arrived, of course.

      (Historical footnote: The heavily-publicized Hollywood film Carbine Williams film starring Jimmie Stewart gave credit exclusively to David “Marsh” Williams for designing the US M1 Carbine. Not so. The carbine was hurriedly designed by several members of the Winchester engineering group with Fred Humiston as the key designer. It was actually the Humiston-designed carbine and not the Williams design that was tested and approved by the government for wartime mass production and use. Knowledgeable Winchester engineering personal and executives know that Fred Humiston and not Williams was actually the main person in the carbine’s development and acceptance. An excellent report in a June 6, 1951, article by Edwin Pugsley, the chief of engineering of Winchester at that time, clearly establishes and verifies the carbine’s true story and the extent of Williams’s involvement.)

      Humiston’s High Standard Research and Development department was started with three designers and two excellent ex-Winchester tool makers. Their initial duty was concerned with manufacture and design of Sears product. After about a year, in 1956, the gifted Fred Humiston passed away from cancer, and vice president George Wilson Sr. appointed me as his replacement.

      The R&D workload increased considerably as High Standard took on experimental government contracts from Springfield Armory and the Detroit Tank Arsenal for the design of the T-152 and T-153 tank machine gun. A new design of the T-3 double action 9mm pistol with a twin stack feed was also required for the armed services. In addition to the added military research, the R&D department was required to continue with the Sears commercial gun design program. This expansion obviously required increased R&D personnel, so the workforce was expanded to 10 designers and six tool makers, plus the use of subcontractor tool companies. It was during this period that I designed, built and tested the world’s first gas-operated autoloading shotgun. This unique shotgun was produced by High Standard as the Supermatic and the Sears JC Higgins Model 60.

      Many thousands of the Higgins Model 60 Sears guns were sold. It employed the patented hollow gas piston which surrounded the magazine feed tube, thus allowing greater magazine capacity without lengthening the forend stock. High Standard enjoyed a fine reputation for creative design and excellent workmanship in that era.

      The momentum and drive of the of the original High Standard company were sadly missing with the deaths of Carl Swebilius, George Wilson Sr., Fred Humiston, and a number of management and key employees who either resigned or retired at that time. I went to the Bellmore Johnson Tool Co. as chief engineer, in which capacity I designed the .22 caliber Whitney Wolverine sporting pistol, the 12-gauge Browning BPS pump shotgun (see above), and the .45 Winchester Magnum Wildey gas-operated pistol. Harry Sefried, after designing the popular Sentinel .22 revolver in the High Standard R&D department, went to the Sturm-Ruger Co. as the Chief Engineer and designed a number of Ruger’s finest guns, including the famous 10-22 rifle, several of the Ruger revolver models and the Mini-14 .223 caliber rifle.

      In 1968 the original High Standard top management had changed and they decided to sell the company. It was acquired by the Leisure Group, a non-firearms company selling sporting goods equipment. A turbulent period followed. The original High Standard facilities in Hamden were moved to the Leisure Group location in East Hartford in 1976. in 1978 the property changed again with a buyout of the Leisure Group. In 1984 the assets were sold by the buyer.

      Corporate stagnation followed until 1993 when a progressive, up-to-date company bought High Standard and completely reorganized it. The new owner is the High Standard Manufacturing Company, Inc., of Houston, Texas.

      This new owner invested in facilities and the very latest technology and equipment. In 1994 They began to ship the newly manufactured High Standard .22 pistols. They are dedicated to returning the High Standard reputation and quality back to equal СКАЧАТЬ