December 18, 2023

Richard Gatling

Richard Jordan Gatling was born September 12, 1818 in Maney's Neck, North Carolina, U.S. He was an American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, a crank-operated, multibarrel machine gun, which he patented in 1862. A hand-driven machine gun, the Gatling gun was the first firearm to solve the problems of loading, reliability, and the firing of sustained bursts.

Gatling's career as an inventor began when he assisted his father in the construction and perfecting of machines for sowing cotton seeds and for thinning cotton plants. Gatlings path to revolutionizing war was not a linear path. Becoming interested in the study of medicine during an attack of smallpox, Gatling completed a course at the Ohio Medical College in 1850. In the same year, he invented a hemp-breaking machine, and in 1857 a steam plow. His mechanical mindset and tendency to solve problems led him to enter the firearms industry.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War he devoted himself at once to the perfecting of firearms. In 1861 he conceived the idea of the rapid-fire machine gun that is associated with his name. By 1862 he had succeeded in perfecting the weapon; but the war was practically over before the federal authorities consented to its official adoption.

Gatling improved on the original six-barrel, .58 caliber version of the gun, which fired 350 rounds a minute, by designing a ten-barrel, .30 caliber model, which fired 400 rounds a minute. The U.S. Army adopted the Gatling gun in 1866, and it remained standard until it was replaced in the early twentieth century by the Maxim single-barrel machine gun.

One of the first uses of the Gatling Gun outside of using it against Native Americans was its use against the Samurai in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion. This was popularized in the film starring Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. A re-engineered version of the Gatling Gun is still in use by the US military today. A modern, helicopter-mounted version of the Gatling gun, the Vulcan minigun, was widely used by the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War. The minigun, popularly known as 'Puff, the Magic Dragon' for the flames and smoke emitted from its muzzle, fires at the staggering rate of 6,000 rounds per minute, enough to decimate an entire village in one burst.

Richard Jordan Gatling lived a long life into his eighties and died February 26, 1903.

Did you know?

Richard Gatling had Utopian dreams that were in stark contrast to developing efficient killing machines. He actually hoped that the tremendous power of his new weapon would discourage large scale battles and show the folly of war. He was convinced that the Gatling Gun would save lives. As with most Utopian dreams, he was wrong about this.


Thanks for reading,

The Editor

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