Inventor of the Gatling Gun, Dr. Richard J. Gatling was at the very best sadly naive. His hope for this horrendous gun was that warfare would cease to exist, as facing such a destructive force would be pure suicide.
The first patent was issued for the Gatling Gun in 1861. A six barreled revolving gun that could fire up to 200 shots per minute. For its time, this was a hailstorm of lead that would out shoot anything on the battlefield.
As an operator cranked the handle, the six barrels would pass by a point where a shell would drop in, and be fired. As the barrels continued revolving it would eject the spent cartridge and have a moment or so to cool before its next turn to fire came up as the barrel rotated.
In 1876 the outcome of the battle of the Little Bighorn might have ended differently if the Gatling Gun was present. Col. Custer felt the Gatling Gun and its required equipment was to bulky and heavy to haul in rough terrain. Further more he felt he would lose face with the Indians with such a deadly and powerful weapon.
The bulk and weight of this monster of destruction brought it to an early end. Declared obsolete in 1911 by the military, it dropped from sight until the 1950’s. Renewed interest in the Gatling gun brought it to new heights in its ability to raise havoc against our fellow man.
Because of its ability to withstand continual fire at rapid speeds, modern day versions were developed as weapon systems for todays military aircraft. Gun ships, helicopters, and even fighter planes make use of Gatling technology.
There is the 20mm Vulcan, capable of 6,000 rounds per minute, or the tank killing Avenger 30mm gun found in the nose of the A10 Thunderbolt. More commonly referred to as the Warthog, its seven barrel gun is the most powerful in use today.
The 7.62mm Minigun was used on helicopters during the Vietnam war. When matched with C-130 cargo planes, the terror from the sky is unimaginable. Called a Red Tornado because of the red tracers that followed down the fire storm of lead that was able to stay concentrated on a target. By circling their objective, the result is a never ending massive amount of lead being poured into a small area.
With an external drive system for the barrel, if a shell misfires it’s simply ejected with the spent shells and the wrath of fire continues uninterrupted. The fastest Gatling style weapon in the arsenal today is a beauty that will send off 10,000 shells per minute, the GSh-6-23 uses a gas-operated drive system.
If Dr. Gatling had any idea how violent his weapon would become, surly he would have gone a different direction in his attempt to lessen the numbers of wounded during the battles of war.
Information for this article was obtained at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun and www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1957/6/1957_6_48.shtml
