6 barrels the reason for this is so that the weapon can fire a sustained rate of fire without overheating the gun. the barrels spin keeping the weapon cooler than a single barrel weapon. this weapon can fire roughly 50 r/pm with relative accuracy
The original Gatling gun had six to ten barrels which rotated and fired independently. This was one of the earliest machine guns made.
Gatling gun
The first ones had six barrels that used .58-caliber ammunition.
Hand cranked, multiple barrels
A Gatling Gun works by using a series of rotating barrels to rapidly fire bullets. A motor is used to load and spin the barrels which allows for a high rate of fire with reduced heat buildup.
Gatling gun rates of fire depend on caliber, number of barrels and whether electric or hand powered.
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."
Richard J. Gatling invented the Gatling gun in 1861. The gun was a hand-cranked, rapid-fire weapon that revolutionized warfare. Gatling's design featured multiple barrels that rotated around a central axis, allowing for sustained firepower. Gatling's innovation significantly increased the rate of fire compared to traditional single-shot firearms of the time.
Multiple barrels arranged around a common center, barrels turn around that center as they fire.
A minigun is a modern variant of the Gatling gun, which is a multi-barrel weapon that uses rotating barrels to rapidly fire ammunition. The main difference lies in the mechanism of operation: a minigun is electrically driven and capable of firing at a much higher rate of fire compared to a traditional Gatling gun, which is manually operated. Additionally, miniguns are typically used in aircraft and mounted on vehicles for anti-personnel or anti-materiel purposes, while Gatling guns are more historical and often used in stationary or naval applications.
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.
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