Richard Jordan Gatling: The inventor behind the Gatling gun
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November 04 / 2023
From diseases to bullets
November 04 represented a special day in 1862. Inventor Richard Jordan Gatling filed a patent that he believed would change war forever.
It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine gun which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease would be greatly diminished.[1]
— Richard Jordan Gatling
During the Civil War, Richard Jordan Gatling realized that diseases killed more soldiers than bullets. In 1861, he hatched the idea of developing a weapon that would increase a man's rate of fire a hundredfold.
It was the birth of the Gatling gun.
Richard Jordon Gatling, who was born in Hertford County, North Carolina on September 12, 1818, devoted himself to inventing at a young age.[2]
At the age of 21, he developed a screw propeller for steamships. Unfortunately, he did not know that a gentleman named John Ericsson patented such an invention already months earlier.[3]
Despite the setback, he remained true to his ingenuity and at the age of 36 developed machines to make farming easier. But his inventions alone could not finance his livelihood, so he worked in the County Clerk's office, among other jobs, and for a short time worked as a teacher. Later he also labored as a merchant.[4]
Gatling erlangte 1850 sogar einen Abschluss als „Doctor of Medicine“ (M.D.), als er ein erweitertes Interesse an der Medizin entwickelte. Der Grund der hier genannt wird, ist, dass er die Pocken überlebte und daher anfing zu studieren. Allerdings praktizierte er nie als Arzt, sondern blieb weiterhin als Erfinder tätig.[5]
From Seed Planter to Tool of War:
The Birth of the Gatling Gun
As the American Civil War broke out, Gatling became increasingly involved with firearms and especially with perfecting them.[5]
During the war, a large part of the armament for infantry soldiers mainly consisted of muzzle-loading weapons. These weapons had a very slow rate of fire, as they had to be reloaded after each shot. In order to be able to fire faster in combat, the infantry formed lines so that shots could always be fired alternately per line set up.
Thus, many soldiers were necessary to dominate in battle, because this increased the firepower and thus the chance to win a battle. The infantry was supported by soldiers of artillery ("cannoneers") and cavalry on horseback.
Diese Ausgangssituation bildete die Grundlage für die Überlegungen Gatlings, der für sich die Frage beantworten musste: „Wie schaffe ich effizientere Feuerkraft mit weniger Soldaten?“
His ideas became reality when Gatling developed the first Gatling gun in 1861 - during the first year of the war - based on a seed planter prototype of his earlier inventions.[3]
As early as 1862, he founded the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, to market his groundbreaking invention. He filed the patent for his Gatling gun on November 04, 1862.[6]
But the beginning was rough - a fire in a factory destroyed the first six weapons.[5]
But how did the Union Army react to a gun that was now capable of firing several hundred rounds per minute?
A weapon that was to make history
Beim anfänglichen Modell der Gatling-Gun aus 1862, wurde ein Verbund aus sechs Läufen, die im Kreis angeordnet waren, durch eine Kurbel in Rotation gebracht. Durch das Kurbeln lädt jeder Lauf eine einzelne Patrone aus dem oben angebrachten Magazin und feuert den Schuss ab, wenn eine bestimmte Position erreicht war. Die leere Hülse wurde unten links ausgeworfen und der Lauf konnte abkühlen, bis er durch die Rotation wieder die obere Position erreichte. Eine weitere Patrone wurde durch die Schwerkraft in den Lauf geladen und der Zyklus begann von vorn.[7]
A Gatling gun in the western hobby scene
The 1862 model thus achieved a rate of fire of about 200 rounds per minute. Later versions already achieved a rate of fire of about 400 rounds per minute.[8] With a crew of four, the final version of the Gatling Gun was taken into service.[5]
Obwohl die Gatling-Gun während des Bürgerkriegs entstand, wurde sie kaum eingesetzt. Gatling wurde von einigen Teilen der Bevölkerung als „Copperhead“ bezeichnet, doch seine Verbindung zur konföderierten Regierung wurde nie bewiesen, auch wenn sein Geburtsort in North Carolina lag. Tatsächlich lebte er auch nicht im Süden während des Bürgerkriegs.[9][3]
It was not until 1866, a year after the end of the American Civil War, that the American government officially purchased Gatling guns.[3]
Before that, a total of only 13 were sold, 12 of which went to General Benjamin F. Butler, and one became the property of Admiral David Dixon Porter. Both belonged to the Union Army.[3]
Therefore, today it is assumed that the Gatling gun was used very little during the American Civil War. However, it is easy to understand the horrors that the weapon left behind on the battlefield when it was used.
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The gun's true history was written years later, long after the American Civil War had ended. One of the decisive factors was a new discovery that was about to conquer the masses: electricity.
From inventor to seller
In 1870, Gatling sold his patents to Colt. However, he remained president of the Gatling Gun Company until its complete takeover by Colt in 1897.[3]
In Canada, the use of the Gatling gun is documented in 1885, at the time of the Northwest Rebellion. A soldier of the Connecticut National Guard used a privately purchased Gatling gun, together with the Canadian military against the Métis and indigenous peoples of Canada.[10]
In 1893, Gatling revolutionized his invention once again with an electric motor that provided an impressive rate of fire at 3,000 rounds per minute.[11]
The legacy of the Gatling gun
It was not only the USA or Canada that made use of the Gatling gun. There is evidence that the weapon was used against other indigenous peoples and groups, especially during European colonization, including the South African Zulu, nomadic Bedouins of the Middle East, or the Central Asian Turkmen - to name just a few.[10]
The hand-crank Gatling gun was finally declared obsolete by the US Army in 1911. But decades later, the electrically powered concept saw a rebirth in the M61 Vulcan, as well in the minigun.[5]
Although Richard Jordan Gatling's original invention received relatively little attention during the American Civil War, he nevertheless laid a distinctive foundation for the further development of this type of weapon.
His original thought that his invention would greatly reduce the danger posed by combat can only be left uncommented upon today, 161 years after his patent was filed.
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