science

Melvin Johnson

Melvin Johnson is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Melvin Johnson rather than just read about it. In short: Melvin Maynard Johnson Jr. (August 6, 1909 – January 9, 1965), nicknamed Maynard Johnson, was an American designer of firearms, lawyer, and United States Marine Corps officer.

Key takeaways

Melvin Johnson belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Melvin Johnson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Melvin Johnson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Melvin Maynard Johnson Jr. (August 6, 1909 – January 9, 1965), nicknamed Maynard Johnson, was an American designer of firearms, lawyer, and United States Marine Corps officer.

Biography Born into an affluent Boston, Massachusetts, family, he was commissioned into the Marine Corps Reserve in 1933 as a Second Lieutenant and completed Harvard Law School in 1934. Johnson designed a recoil-operated rifle (M1941 Johnson rifle) while serving for the Marines as an observer at the Army's Springfield Armory in 1935. Johnson received four U.S. patents on various design features. He also designed the Johnson Light Machine Gun, derived from the M1941 rifle, which was used in limited numbers during World War II and the M1947 Johnson auto carbine, also derived from the M1941 rifle and M1941 light machine gun. He co-authored the 1942 book Weapons for the Future, which is part of the Infantry Journal series. The other author was Army Ordnance Corps member Charles T. Haven. Throughout the war, Johnson put up a lot of effort to promote his machine gun and rifle. Johnson transferred to the Army Ordnance Corps Reserve from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1949 and rose to the rank of Colonel. In 1949, Winchester bought the Johnson Automatics corporation and employed Johnson for a short period. While at Winchester, Johnson was employed alongside "Carbine" Williams though it is unknown if they worked on the same projects. He was later appointed as weapons consultant to the Secretary of Defense in 1951. Johnson's patents were used by Armalite on the AR-10, AR-15, and later M16 rifles. Johnson was hired by Armalite as a consultant to promote their rifle incorporating his bolt design. Johnson also worked to improve the M1 Carbine eventually developing the 5.7mm MMJ (commonly known as .22 Spitfire) cartridge, unsuccessfully submitting it to the U.S. Ordnance Department as a cost effective alternate cartridge conversion for the M1 Carbine. Such conversions are easily accomplished by replacing the barrel, or relining the barrel with a .22 caliber liner and restoring the gas port, as well as adding a caliber specific feed ramp. In 1963, he then started Johnson Arms, Inc. to make, sell, convert, and promote M1 Carbines using his 5.7mm MMJ cartridge. While on a business trip to New York City in 1965, Johnson died of a heart attack. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Designs Johnson's practice was to give all of his weapons a "pet" nicknames.

1938 "Taft-Peirce" self-loading rifle M1941 rifle: Betsy M1941 light machine gun: Emma M1947 auto carbine: Daisy Mae M1 Carbine in his 5.7 MMJ cartridge: Spitfire

References

Further reading Canfield, Bruce N. (2002). Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns. Andrew Mowbray. ISBN 1931464022.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Melvin Johnson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Melvin Johnson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Melvin Johnson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Melvin Johnson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Melvin Johnson

In research: Melvin Johnson appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Melvin Johnson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Melvin Johnson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1909 births, 1965 deaths, Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Melvin Johnson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Melvin Johnson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Melvin Johnson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Melvin Johnson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Melvin Johnson in simple terms?

Melvin Maynard Johnson Jr. (August 6, 1909 – January 9, 1965), nicknamed Maynard Johnson, was an American designer of firearms, lawyer, and United States Marine Corps officer.

Why does Melvin Johnson matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Melvin Johnson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Melvin Johnson.