arsenal

n.

1. A governmental establishment for the storing, development, manufacturing, testing, or repairing of arms, ammunition, and other war materiel.
2. A stock of weapons.
3. A store or supply: an arsenal of retorts.

[Italian arsenale, from obsolete arzanale, darsena, from Arabic aṣ ṣinā'a, manufacture, industry, and dār-aṣ-ṣinā'a, place of manufacture : dār, house (from dāra, to turn, revolve) + al-, the + ṣinā'a, manufacture (from ṣana'a, to make).]

Arsenals are places for the manufacturing and stockpiling of arms and ammunition specifically, as opposed to the general stores that all branches of the armed forces require. The need for centralized control over arms saw arsenals concentrated within royal palaces or other places of importance in the ancient world. Excavations at Heraklion in Crete have revealed evidence of rooms containing stocks of arrowheads and swords etc. in large earthenware jars. The locating of such equipment under what appears to be large state rooms is a clear indication of how politically important such control was.

Arsenals were originally designed for the storage of weapons for relatively small armies and were increasingly deployed at strategic locations within a country. Their existence and purpose gradually developed to include manufacture as well as simple stockpiling. Indeed the word arsenal probably derives from the Arabic for workshop, before passing into French and subsequently English.

Although possibly one of the most famous arsenals in the world, the Venice Arsenal was quite distinct from those maintained for land armies. In essence a huge naval dockyard, the Venice Arsenal was begun in 1104 and was used to arm and maintain the large fleet of Venetian war galleys. There is some evidence to suggest that its design was based upon the circular dockyard built by the Phoenicians at Carthage. The arsenal was a huge undertaking, being continually expanded until the later part of the 17th century, and, employing over 4, 000 workers, it was probably the largest industrial undertaking in medieval Europe. As an example of Venetian state power important foreign visitors were treated to the spectacle of the arsenal rigging and arming a war galley in less than twenty minutes.

During the early modern period arsenals served as repositories for artillery and engineering equipment but gradually became more varied. By the middle of the 16th century French arsenals and the Ordnance Office in England were responsible for the issuing of cannon and equipment to field armies. The Ordnance Office subsequently developed control over all professional gunners and the artillery pieces located in fixed fortifications and garrisons. With the increasing number of firearms as a proportion of an army, arsenals took charge of infantry weapons as well. The rise in the diversity of types of firearm and calibre had produced a haphazard system of equipping which resulted in some serious operational inefficiencies. The English Ordnance Office attempts at standardization led to the issuing of its first standard patterns in 1631. When the manufacture of gunpowder became a matter of state concern as well, it too was stored in arsenals.

Most arms during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries were of private manufacture so as well as ensuring adequate numbers were stored, arsenals became responsible for their quality. Standard patents and guidelines were issued. In England Henry VIII standardized artillery calibres as did Maximilian I in Germany and Henri II in France. Inspectors checked the quality of the metal used in manufacture in addition to calibres, inflicting penalties for sub-standard pieces. Powder also became part of the inspectors' remit during the 17th century in France, while in England the following century saw the Ordnance Office extend its role as more work was put out to private contract.

The siting of arsenals was also of enormous strategic importance. On continental Europe, arsenals were located in frontier fortresses. Metz and Strasbourg oversaw France's eastern border while arsenals at La Fère and Douai looked to threats from the north and Grenoble in the Alps covered the border with Savoy. Prussia's strategic situation during the 18th century necessitated the siting of arsenals to respond to threats in the east, west, and south. These were supported by a central arsenal located in Berlin. In contrast England located her arsenals at places from which the army could be despatched overseas, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull, as well as Woolwich on the Thames. These were augmented by smaller establishments in every county for the use of the militia. The infant United States chose the site of its first national arsenal at Harper's Ferry, in its Virginia heartland. A 1794 act ‘for the erecting and repairing of arsenals and armories’ authorized its construction, and work began in 1799. Although, at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah, close to abundant water supply and well sited from the point of view of national defence, Harper's Ferry proved vulnerable to civil strife. In 1859 the abolitionist John Brown attacked it in an effort to seize the 100, 000 weapons stored there. During the American civil war it was often in the front line, changing hands eight times and being almost totally destroyed by the war's end.

The effects of industrialization in England and on the continent witnessed arsenals becoming greater centres of manufacturing as well as storage. The centralization of a state's military activities during this period initially saw a reduction in the amount of contracts to private industry. Locations also moved to take advantage of labour availability and better communications leaving the confines of fortification and moving to towns and cities.

Woolwich Arsenal (the area in south London from which Arsenal football team took its name before moving north of the river) was probably the largest covered factory structure in the world at the time of the industrial revolution. At its peak the largest of its four blast furnaces could process 16 tons of metal at a time for the highest quality castings. Woolwich had begun life as the Royal Laboratory Carriage Department and Powder House of Tudor times, being renamed the Royal Arsenal by George III in 1805.

As centralized arsenals became more concerned with the manufacture of arms and ammunition so the creation of divisional and corps districts exploiting conscription on the continent dispersed stores to regional arsenals. This was mirrored in England by the establishment of regimental depots after the Cardwell army reforms.

But as the demand for arms and munitions grew, the old arsenal system gave way to an increasing reliance on private arms manufacturers, initially for parts to be assembled in the arsenals, but soon for whole weapons systems. Enormous private industrial concerns were able to ‘spin off’ their steel-making for commercial use into weapons and, even though in collusion with one another, could beat the state-run enterprises on price not merely for warships but for minor items like buttons. In Britain, the Second Boer War revealed serious, structural deficiencies in the state-run production of ammunition, and these were to be magnified by the enormous demands of WW I.

The arsenals never recovered their dominant position, even though there were serious problems of quality control when manufacturers with no background in arms production were pressed to enter the field. France lost over 600 field guns in 1915 through premature explosion, and on the Somme in 1916 some 30 per cent of British shells proved to be duds. This was resolved by appointing new co-ordinating ministries or agencies rather than by reviving the arsenals' old monopoly, because only manufacturers who could turn their efforts post-war to civilian applications provided the flexibility to cope with the wildly excessive overcapacity that must afflict any specialist arms manufacturer as soon as peace is declared.

— Jon Robb-Webb

n. 1. a collection of weapons and military equipment stored by a country, person, or group: Britain’s nuclear arsenal.

2. a place where weapons and military equipment are stored or made.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

1. Building for the manufacture and storage (or storage alone) of weapons and ammunition of all kinds, e.g. the vast building in Venice.

2. Dockyard with buildings for the reception, construction, and repair of ships.

IN BRIEF: A site where ammunition is stored.

The general took an inventory of his arsenal.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - arsenal, våbendepot, våbenlager

Nederlands (Dutch)
arsenaal, wapenrusting

Français (French)
n. - arsenal, collection d'armes

Deutsch (German)
n. - Arsenal, Waffenkammer

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - οπλοστάσιο, οπλαποθήκη

Italiano (Italian)
arsenale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - arsenal (m) (Mil.)

Русский (Russian)
арсенал, склад, вооружение

Español (Spanish)
n. - caudal, arsenal, almacén de armas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - arsenal

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
军械库, 兵工厂

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 軍械庫, 兵工廠

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 무기고, 비축

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 兵器庫, 造兵廠, 兵器工場, 兵器廠

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مؤسسه صناعه الأسلحه, مستودع اسلحه, مخزن, مستودع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מחסן-נשק, מפעל נשק ממשלתי‬

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