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2007-06-08 13:01:04 · 9 answers · asked by SANCHA 2 in Arts & Humanities History

9 answers

He invented the first machine gun, depending on how you define "machine gun".

"Early rapid-firing weapons"

"Among first known ancestor of multi-shot weapons was created by James Puckle, a London lawyer, who patented what he called "The Puckle Gun" on May 15, 1718. It was a design for a 1 in. (25.4 mm) caliber, flintlock revolver cannon able to fire 9 rounds before reloading, intended for use on ships. According to Puckle, it was able to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Turks. While ahead of its time, foreshadowing the designs of revolvers, it was not adopted or produced."

"In the early and mid-19th century, a number of rapid-firing weapons appeared which offered multi-shot fire, and a number of semi-automatic weapons as well as volley guns. Volley guns (such as the Mitrailleuse) and double barreled pistols relied on duplicating all parts of the gun. Pepperbox pistols did away with needing multiple hammers but used multiple barrels. Revolvers further reduced this to only needing a pre-prepared magazine using the same barrel and ignitions. However, like the Puckle gun, they were still only semiautomatic."

"The coffee-mill gun of the Civil War featured both automatic loading and single barrel, only separated functionally from the modern machine gun by being hand-powered rather than using cartridges."

"The Gatling gun, patented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling, was the first to offer controlled, sequential automatic fire with automatic loading. The design's key features were machine loading of prepared cartridges and a hand-operated crank for sequential high-speed firing. It first saw very limited action in the American Civil War and was subsequently improved. Many were sold to other armies in the late 1800s and continued to be used into the early 1900s, until they were gradually supplanted by Maxim guns. The Gatlings were the first widely used rapid-fire guns and, due to their multiple barrels, could offer more sustained fire than the first generation of air-cooled, recoil-operated machine guns. The weight, complexity, and resulting cost of the multibarrel design meant recoil-operated weapons, which could be made lighter and cheaper, would supplant them. It would be another 50 years before the concept was again used to allow extremely high rates of fire, such as in miniguns, and automatic aircraft cannons."

"Machine gun : History" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_gun#History

2007-06-08 13:53:09 · answer #1 · answered by Erik Van Thienen 7 · 0 1

Not even close. The Chinese probably invented the first firearm, using the gunpowder that they had invented to propel rocks from a barrel. Mr. Gatling invented a rapid-fire device in the 1860's. Interestingly enough, since the Gatling Gun is a single-shot device (each barrel is loaded one at a time and brought into firing position where its contents are discharged) that is operated in a manner that does not use the energy from the previous shot to activate, it is legal to own by an ordinary citizen without any special license. This fact does not increase the danger to anyone as a Gatling Gun is rather large and unwieldy to operate. Mr. Gatling invented the device to make future wars impossible.

2007-06-08 20:14:30 · answer #2 · answered by MICHAEL R 7 · 2 0

No. The Gatling gun is an early machine gun. He invented rapidfire fully automatic weapons, but the first gun was used at the siege of Calais in the 1300s.

"It was not until the siege of Calais in 1347 that gunpowder was confined to a tube to make a gun."

Gatling lived in the late 1800s. This makes it impossible for him to have invented the first gun.

2007-06-08 22:32:16 · answer #3 · answered by Shenanigans Mahone OHooligan 2 · 0 0

No. Primitive rifles dating back to the late 1200s have been found. Gatling invented one of the most successful hand-powered (fully automatic self-reloading machine guns were not available until the First World War) machine guns in history. He did not invent the first gun, however. He was not born when it was made.

2007-06-08 20:56:34 · answer #4 · answered by John 3 · 0 0

No. Gatling invented the first of what were later called machine guns. Guns had been around for hundreds of years.

2007-06-08 20:05:16 · answer #5 · answered by TG 7 · 2 0

The Chinese invented gunpowdre. The Italians invented the gun. The Brits invented gun laws, and US invented the Wild West.

2007-06-08 20:14:32 · answer #6 · answered by manatee_cee 2 · 2 0

Master Janos Urban was a Hungarian Bell maker. One day he was trying out Schwarzpulver (black powder) invented by the German Monk Berthold Schwarz, in an overturned bronze bell. He mixed the formula as instructed and lit it wth a piece of hemp. His first test was a little less than satisfactory-there was not much of a Bang, just a searing flame. Next he added a stone and packed rags around it. He lit the fuse and...vroooom! Chickens, Cows and farmhands fled; the stone landed in a nearby field and made a large hole.

Master Urban improved on the bell shape by fashioning a lengthy tube of clay to fit around the stone, after which he poured bronze into the mould. By so doing he created a new weapon that was to revolutionise warfare-A cannon.

Packing his bags and bidding farewell to his family, Urban mounted his horse and travelled to Constantinople with his drawings to offer his invention to the Eastern Roman Emperor, Constantine XI Dragases. He never got to meet the Emperor. Court officials showed Master Urban and his invention the door.

Furious at this affront and lack of faith in his discovery, Urban began looking around for another prospective patron. This eventually led him to the court of Mahomet II, Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, who was about to embark on a campaign against the very emperor who had so shabbily treated Master Urban and his new-fangled contraption.

"Will it work?" enquired the Sultan.

"Your Magnificence", replied Urban "I will do my best to make sure it will."

"Master Urban," responded the Sultan with a sardonic smile, pointing at the forest of poles with a crop of heads planted outside his tent, "I'm certain that you will do better than that."

2007-06-09 03:02:56 · answer #7 · answered by Hobilar 5 · 0 0

No, he was an American who invented the first version of the modern machine gun.

2007-06-08 21:04:16 · answer #8 · answered by blacksheepmatt 2 · 0 0

No. The Chinese did.

2007-06-09 02:33:05 · answer #9 · answered by .45 Peacemaker 7 · 0 1

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