See Also: Gatling gun(medicine)
Gatling(dictionary)
Gatling gun(encyclopedia)

Gatling gun (sh)




Hand-cranked multi barrel rotary gun.

It was invented by Richard J. Gatling (1818-1903) during the American Civil War. Making use of the newly invented brass cartridge, he assembled a cluster of 10 barrels, each of which was fired and reloaded during rotation by a crank. The barrels were loaded by gravity and the action of the cartridge container, and the spent cartridge cases were ejected. Without equal in the era of single-shot guns, it could fire as many as 3,000 rounds per minute. It became obsolete in the 1880s when the invention of smokeless powder led to development of a truly automatic machine gun.