Instead of being manually dumped into the hopper, the new magazine would fit and lock into the feed hopper, and included a flat spring on the side which prevented cartridges from falling out of the magazine unless it was secured in the gun, at which point the spring was lifted up and out of the way (similar to a Madsen or Johnson LMG magazine). Gatling Gun tin cartridge box Early 1862 Gatling with prominent hopper (gun at photo by ) Box Magazine With the introduction of the 1871 Gatling, the tin cartridge boxes were replaced by a true early box magazine. These boxes were not magazines in the modern sense, as they had no springs or followers, and were used simply to pour cartridges into the gun’s hopper.
To assist in loading, cartridges could be fed into the hopper from very simple purpose-made tin boxes, which held 40 rounds each. It was cast into the action cover, and could be continuously topped off by the assistant gunner while the gunner aimed and fired the gun. Let’s take a look at them all, shall we? Hopper The first Gatling guns used a very simple hopper to feed ammunition. The Gatling was one of the very first high rate of fire guns, though, and it inspired an impressive number of inventors to develop feed systems. Most firearms are designed around a single specific feeding mechanism, sometimes with variants made for two types (like mag-fed and strip-fed Hotchkiss LMGs). 577/450 Martini-Henry calibre Bira gun, based upon the Gardner gun but with dual barrels, an overhead drum magazine, and designed in Nepal.The Gatling Gun is interested for many reasons, and one of them is the variety of feeding mechanisms that were developed and used with it. It saw action in the Mahdist War (in Sudan), notably at the Battle of Abu Klea, where its mechanism proved vulnerable to the environmental conditions of loose sand and dust. The Army adopted the weapon, although its introduction was delayed because of opposition from the Royal Artillery. When operator-induced errors were taken into account, there were only 4 malfunctions in 10,000 rounds fired. During these tests a five-barrelled Gardner gun fired 16,754 rounds before a failure occurred, with only 24 stoppages.
#1874 gatling gun blueprints weapon series
The British Army then took an interest in machine guns and after a series of trials selected the Gardner gun. Gardner remained in England to supervise the construction of the weapons. The Admiralty were so impressed by the demonstrations that they adopted the weapon and purchased the rights to produce it in England. However the Army declined to purchase.Īt this point, the British Royal Navy, which had successfully deployed the Gatling gun, became interested in the weapon, and Gardner was invited to England to exhibit his invention. The weapon performed well, and they recommended that the Army buy a limited number for field evaluation, noting the low cost of the weapon. On 15 January and 17 March 1880 duplicate tests were conducted at Sandy Hook proving ground in front of an Army review board. While the test was not without issues the weapon managed to fire 4,722 rounds before the first stoppage, and after the stoppage was resolved it fired approximately 5,000 rounds without incident. The weapon fired a total of 10,000 rounds during the test, taking a total elapsed time of 27 minutes 36 seconds, with breaks between firing to resolve an issue with one of the extractors. On 17 June 1879 a further demonstration was carried out at the Navy Yard, during which the weapon was presented by Francis A. 45 calibre (11.4 mm) version of the weapon, which determined its muzzle velocity to be 1,280 feet per second (390 m/s). During 1877 additional tests took place with a. Parkhurst added many improvements to the gun's firing mechanism which made it more reliable. The army attended the tests, but showed no interest in the weapon. Parkhurst, an engineer at Pratt and Whitney. After producing a prototype he went to the Pratt and Whitney company, who after a year of development produced a military version of the weapon.Ī demonstration to officers at the United States Navy yard in 1875 was successful, however they recommended that Pratt and Whitney continue with development of the system, incorporating improvements to the feed system, which were designed by E.G.
The Gardner machine gun was invented in 1874 by William Gardner of Toledo, Ohio formerly a captain in the Union army during the American Civil War.
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