Hertford County,MC
The gatling gun was invented by Richard Gatling in 1861 (it was a common weapon in the American civil war, i must add).
Dr. Gatling started it all
Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861.
Many folks credit Dr. Gatling.
September 12, 1818 Grady Haeffelin
Dr. Richard Gatling was the inventor of the Gatling Gun which used revolving barrels to achieve a high rate of fire. The principle was revived in the 1960's and is still used today. Gatling refused to sell his gun to the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the US Army was not interested, but after the War the US Army adopted the gun. Gatling, a medical doctor by trade, was ironically inspired to invent the Gatling Gun for humanitarian reasons, so as to make war more efficient, thus reducing the appalling casualties as a result of disease. Gatling patented numerous nonlethal inventions and improvements to existing inventions, but none as famous as the Gatling Gun.
The Gatling Gun was invented in the USA by Dr. Richard Gatling, but other countries bought them and used them. General Gorloff who purchased them for the Russian Army renamed them Gorloff Guns, and a gatling gun is known as a gorloff gun in Russia today. Also, any machine gun or automatic cannon which now uses Gatling's principle of revolving barrels can be called a gatling with a lower case "g."
Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling also invented a screw propeller, a cotton planter and a steam plow in addition to his famous Gatling gun which the US Patent office termed a machine gun. It was not a machine gun in the modern use of terms, however.
Hertford County, N.C., on Sept. 12, 1818
Dr. Richard J. Gatling. See link for history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun
Chris Gatling's birth name is Chris Raymond Gatling.
Richard Jordan Gatling