"Gatling" redirects here. For other uses, see Gatling (disambiguation).
For the film, see Gatling Gun (film).
Gatling gun
1876 Gatling gun kept at Fort Laramie National Historic Site
Type
Rapid-fire gun, hand-cranked machine gun
Place of origin
United States
Service history
In service
1862–1911
Used by
See Users
Wars
American Civil War Boshin War Indian Wars Franco-Prussian War[1] Anglo-Ashanti War Ethiopian-Egyptian War Haw Wars Satsuma Rebellion[2] Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) Second Anglo-Afghan War Anglo-Zulu War War of the Pacific Argentine Civil Wars Russian conquest of Central Asia Kiriji War Mahdist War Anglo-Egyptian War Colombian Civil war of 1884-1885[3] Northwest Rebellion Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887-1889[4] Revolution of the Park[5] Argentine Revolution of 1893[6] Revolta da Armada[7] First Sino-Japanese War[8] Second Matabele War[9] Spanish–American War Philippine–American War Boxer Rebellion Colorado Labor Wars Russo-Japanese War (limited)[10][11] 1907 Honduran Conflict Mexican Revolution[12] Battle of Blair Mountain
Production history
Designer
Richard Jordan Gatling
Designed
1861
Manufacturer
Eagle Iron Works Cooper Firearms Manufacturing Company Colt Manufacturing Company American Ordnance Company
Produced
1862–1903
Specifications
Mass
170 lb (77.2 kg)[13]
Length
42.5 in (1,079 mm)
length
26.5 in (673 mm)
Crew
Four-man crew
Mitrailleuse Gatling modèle APX 1895
The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon.
The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing-reloading sequence. As the handwheel is cranked, the barrels rotate, and each barrel sequentially loads a single cartridge from a top-mounted magazine, fires off the shot when it reaches a set position (usually at 4 o'clock), then ejects the spent casing out of the left side at the bottom, after which the barrel is empty and allowed to cool until rotated back to the top position and gravity-fed another new round. This configuration eliminated the need for a single reciprocating bolt design and allowed higher rates of fire to be achieved without the barrels overheating quickly.
One of the best-known early rapid-fire firearms, the Gatling gun saw occasional use by the U.S. forces during the American Civil War, which was the first time it was employed in combat. It was later used in numerous military conflicts, including the Boshin War, the Anglo-Zulu War, and the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American War.[16] It was also used by the Pennsylvania militia in episodes of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, specifically in Pittsburgh. Gatling guns were also mounted aboard ships.[17]
^Smithurst, Peter, The Gatling Gun: Osprey Publishing (2015)
^"How the Samurai Ended During the Satsuma Rebellion".
^Sicard, Pedro (1925). Páginas para la historia militar de Colombia: Guerra civil de 1885. Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango: Press of the E.M.G. p. 119.
^Finaldi, Giuseppe, "A History of Italian Colonialism, 1860–1907: Europe’s Last Empire"(2016)
^"Las Gatling en el Ejercito y Armada Argentina". December 8, 2017.
^"Revolucion Radical de 1893".
^"ArmasBrasil - Metraladora Gatling".
^Esposito, Gabriele (2022). Armies of the first Sino-Japanese War 1894-95. Giuseppe Rava. Oxford. ISBN 978-1-4728-5130-7. OCLC 1350351894.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"THE ORDNANCE AND MACHINE GUNS OF THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY 1889 - 1896 Part One: 1889-1891".
^"Historical Firearms- The Gatling Gun".
^Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, "Anti-personnel Weapons"(2021)
^"Guns of Mexico's Freedom Fighters".
^Weight listed for Colt's Model 1877 10-barrel gun, w/o carriage or mount.
^"Gatling Gun – Facts & Summary". history.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016.
^Cite error: The named reference Parker, John H. 2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Chambers, John W. (II) (2000). "San Juan Hill, Battle of". The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Archived from the original on November 26, 2009. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
^1884 Picture of Gatling Gun on board 1875 US warship "Alliance"
The Gatlinggun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the...
Richard Jordan Gatling (September 12, 1818 – February 26, 1903) was an American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatlinggun, which is considered...
invented in the 1860s by Richard Jordan Gatling. He later replaced the hand-cranked mechanism of a rifle-caliber Gatlinggun with an electric motor, a relatively...
more famous counterpart the GatlingGun, saw only limited use. The Gatlinggun, patented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling, was the first to offer controlled...
The GatlingGun originally titled King Gun is a Western shot in 1969 in New Mexico that features then New Mexico Governor David Cargo in a small role....
rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large-caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly...
to claim the gun was unreliable, but in actuality the Gatling functioned surprisingly well." Hatch, 1997, p. 81: "...The [Gatling] guns were mounted on...
September 2010. Archived copy of US Patent #502,185 by R.J. Gatling, for an electric-powered Gatling-gun Wahl, Paul F; Toppel, Donald R (5 October 2005) [Arco...
The M197 electric cannon is a 20 mm three-barreled electric Gatling-type rotary cannon used by the United States military. The M197 electric cannon was...
escape the Gatling fire. Parker, John H. (Lt.), The Gatlings at Santiago, Middlesex, U.K.: Echo Library (reprinted 2006): The three Gatlingguns expended...
to hobbyist usage. In 1861, Richard Jordan Gatling invented the Gatlinggun, the first successful machine gun, capable of firing 200 gunpowder cartridges...
demonstrated a number of basic concepts that were employed in the design of the GatlingGun that was patented the following year. The design, as patented, consists...
rotary-barrel firearm is the Gatlinggun, invented by Richard Jordan Gatling in 1861, and patented on 4 November 1862. The Gatlinggun operated by a hand-crank...
However, a battery-powered "trigger crank" (and by extension Gatlinggun) is a machine gun as was determined by the ATF in 2004. However, as with all private-letter...
long-range weapons, the Gatlinggun was tested against the Vickers machine gun in eliminating 18 targets with 250 rounds. The Gatlinggun scored a 13/18 kill...
than previous rapid-firing guns, such as the manually cranked Mitrailleuse, Gatling, Gardner, or Nordenfelt. The Maxim gun was water cooled, allowing...
such as the 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatlinggun used in some current fighter jets and the larger 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger Gatlinggun used in the A10 Thunderbolt II...
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