William Crozier

William Crozier (February 19, 1855 – November 11, 1942) was a career United States Army officer in the Ordnance Corps and the 11th Chief of Ordnance.

Early life Born at Carrollton, Ohio on February 19, 1855, Crozier was the son of Robert Crozier (1827–1895), Chief Justice of Kansas in 1863–1866, and a United States Senator from December 1873 to February 1874. William Crozier married Miss Mary Hoyt Williams (1864–1955) in England on October 31, 1913; the only daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Hoyt Williams and the late Charles Augustus Williams (1829–1899) of New London and Washington, and the sister of the Hon. William C. Williams (1862–1947), commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island (1902–1905/1910–1914). General Crozier is buried in Arlington National Cemetery Section East Site S-28 with his wife Mary Hoyt Crozier (née Williams).

Crozier graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1876, and was appointed a second lieutenant in the 4th Artillery. Hugh L. Scott, Eben Swift, James Parker and George Andrews were among his classmates. He then served on the Western frontier for three years against the Sioux and Bannock Indians.

Career From 1879 to 1884 Crozier was instructor in mathematics at West Point, and was superintendent of Watertown Arsenal from 1884 to 1887.

In 1888 he was sent by the War Department to study recent developments in artillery in Europe, and on return he was placed in full charge of the construction of gun carriages for the army. With General Adelbert R. Buffington, a future Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army, he invented the Buffington–Crozier disappearing gun carriage (1893). He also invented a wire-wound gun, and perfected many appliances connected with heavy and field ordnance.

Crozier presided over adoption of the M1911 and the obscure M1909 Benét-Mercié light machine gun, as well as the replacement of .30 Army Gatling Guns. He also oversaw and authorized donation and sale of various condemned cannon for use in town centers, soldier's monuments, and posts for fraternal organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic. His Notes on the Construction of Ordnance, published by the war department, were used as text-books in the schools for officers, and he also authored several other important publications on military subjects.

Crozier was promoted to major general in July 1918 and retired from the Army on 1 January 1919.

Gantt chart In 1917, after inspection of factories in which Henry Gantt had installed his methods, Crozier, then Chief of Ordnance, retained Gantt as a consultant on production, first at the Frankford Arsenal, and then, immediately after the April declaration of war, in the Ordnance Department at Washington.

Large orders had been placed with arsenals and other manufacturing plants for the production of arms and munitions, but it was difficult to get a comprehensive idea of what progress was being made in the filling of these orders. Quantities had suddenly jumped from hundreds to millions, and it was impossible to convey by means of typewritten tables the significance of such unusual quantities or the time necessary to produce them. Charts of the usual type were unsatisfactory because they did not sufficiently emphasize the time and because of their bulk, since only one item could be put on a sheet.