Gatling, Richard Jordan (1818–1903)
US inventor of a rapid-fire gun. Patented in 1862, the Gatling gun had ten barrels arranged as a cylinder rotated by a hand crank. Cartridges from an overhead hopper or drum dropped into the breech mechanism, which loaded, fired, and extracted them at a rate of 320 rounds per minute.
| It was used in the US Civil War and in the Indian Wars that followed the settling of the American West. It was the precursor of the machine gun. |
| Gatling was born in North Carolina; from 1870 his main factory was in Hartford, Connecticut. He manufactured other machines of his invention: for sowing, for breaking hemp, a steam plough, and a marine steam ram. |
