Thomas Briggs invented a wire stitching machine and founded the Boston Wire Stitch Company in 1896. Even though later it focused primarily on industrial stitching machines, the company manufactured its first Desk Stapler in 1914.On the 3rd of April 1928 Thomas Briggs was granted a US patent for the invention of an improved method for packaging wire staples. The staples would be aligned on a strip of tissue paper and then sprayed with a glue which would fix them together. In 1931, the strip of paper went away and the staples were fixed only with glue (US Patent No. 1,792,235). Marketed as “Frozen Staples” these sticks were identical to the feed magazines for hand-stapling and wire-stitching machines sold today, permitting fast and multiple fixations.  

During the Second World War, the company joined the New England Small Arms – a corporation of manufacturers who transformed their civilian goods factories to producing parts of weapons. The parts would be assembled only later in a finished product – the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles. This assault rifle was fed by a detachable box magazine containing 20 rounds. It had two possible fire rates of 450 and 650 rounds/min.The M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles were successfully used in a strategy called “Walking Fire” where infantry would attack entrenched enemy positions by walking and firing without stopping, advancing in unison. This strategy required an abundance of ammunitions and a great speed of loading for a next shot.  

This fire can be delivered from shoulder, but it is just as effective if delivered with the butt of the rifle halfway between the belt and the armpit. One round should be fired every two or three paces. The whistle of the bullets, the scream of the ricochet, and the dust, twigs and branches that are knocked from the ground and the trees have such an effect on the enemy that his small-arms fire becomes negligible.

As I have stated, even if we fail to put out the mortars and artillery, the most foolish thing possible is to stop under such fire. Keep walking forward. Furthermore, the fact that you are shooting adds to your self-confidence, because you feel that you are doing something, and are not sitting like a duck in a bathtub being shot at.

(General George S. Patton, The War as I Knew It)  

The New England Small Arms Corporation produced a total of 188,380 M1918 rifles, or 90% of the total wartime production of 208,380.