Gatling Gun: The first Machine Gun
Richard Jordan Gatling and Gatling Gun
Staff Person: Nanette Hardison
Description:
This remarkable invention, which was a revolving battery gun with a firing capacity of 250 rounds per minute invented in 1865, was the creation of a Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling who was born on September 12, 1818, here in North Carolina in Hertford County. An inventor of mostly agricultural devices, Gatling conceived the idea of making a machine gun that would largely remove the necessity of large armies in the hope of putting an end to war. His desire was born from witnessing the terrible sight of wounded soldiers in the early years of the Civil War. Sadly, the Gatling Gun, as it was to be known, did not end war itself rather it changed warfare since it serve as a phototype for more deadly weapons in the future.
Richard Jordan Gatling and Gatling Gun
Source: Gatling: A Photographic Remembrance by E. Frank Stephenson, Jr. Ahoskie, NC: Meherrin River Press, 1993. E. Frank Stephenson, Jr., Collection (#692), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Additional information can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling
Click on the images of the Gatling Gun and Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling to see an enlarged version of them.