Any number of "arsenals" manufactured weapons (The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, the Spandau arsenal etc. etc.). When damaged, weapons returned to the manufcturer (the "arsenal") were .... ?
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Any number of "arsenals" manufactured weapons (The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, the Spandau arsenal etc. etc.). When damaged, weapons returned to the manufcturer (the "arsenal") were .... ?
yeah.. not sure if Woolwich really qualifies as it was established in 1671 as "Woolwich Warren", then well over a century later in 1805 it was renamed "Royal arsenal" on the suggestion of King George III. Since then it became more a centre of manufacture and research with up to many dozen different purposes and even contractors operating within the "arsenal" area.
An interesting snippet directly from the history,
"In 1886 workers at the Arsenal formed a football club initially known as Dial Square after the workshops in the heart of the complex, playing their first game on 11 December (a 6-0 victory over Eastern Wanderers) in the Isle of Dogs. Renamed Royal Arsenal two weeks later (and also known as the 'Woolwich Reds'), the club entered the professional football league as Woolwich Arsenal in 1893 and later became known as Arsenal F.C., having moved to north London in 1913. Royal Ordnance Factories F.C. were another successful team set up by the Royal Arsenal but only lasted until 1896."
So, reading from it's history an arsenal can be a football club, home of a cadet centre, Royal Carriage Manufacturer, "The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society" (a food buying association that ran for 115 years with up to half a million members), and also built steam railway locomotives! as well as housing numerous groups to do with research and manufacture of wartime armaments and explosives. The story says the arsenal housed the Royal Gun Factory... so the guns were not made by an arsenal, rather by a factory within the compound known as the arsenal. I take all the info as saying Woolwich Arsenal was the name of the area, much like any industrial zone.
So many and so varied are were the services provided under the banner of Woolwich Arsenal, I have to wonder if it wasn't the forerunner to today's modern malls!
Oh, and anyone can rearsenal as many spandaus as they like. They aren't Lee Enfields. Thats one point of the matter at hand, just because for instance America calls their magazines "clips" doesn't make the terminology correct across the board.
Homer... I am looking for a pic of a force matched minty mixmaster... just for you :bash:
At times like these I turn to my school boy Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
I have done so now with the word "arsenal" I find:
ars'enal, (noun). Public establishment for storage or manufacture of weapons and ammunition. Derived from Arabic = workshop.
This is another illustration of the American propensity for turning a noun into a verb.
It's our language, we only let you borrow it for a bit.