BAM BAM BAM!!! THEIR ARMY IS FALLING APART! RELOAD THAT GATLING GUN!!! Dr.

Richard Jordan Gatling will be famous for making a rapid fire machine gun called the Gatling gun. Dr. Richard Gatling was a medical doctor and had 48 patents. He was remembered for inventing the revolving battery gun. This gun was known as the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun had 6 barrels mounted on a revolving frame. It fired up to 320 rounds per minute. The United States purchased most of these guns in 1865. And over the next few years the major armies of Europe also purchased these guns. Dr. Richard Gatling worked as a fisherman, court clerk, teacher, and store keeper. He later founded the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1862. Dr. Gatling was also elected first president of an American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers in 1891, serving for only 6 years. In addition to guns, Dr. Gatling manufactured machines for sowing and breaking hemp, a steam powered tractor, and a marine steam ram. Dr. Richard Gatling was born in Coma, North Carolina in 1818. Richard Gatling was a son of a farmer and inventor. Dr. Gatling received his MD in 1850 but never practiced medicine. Richard loved to invent things to help his father on the farm. Even though Richard Gatling received his MD, he was more interested in inventing machines. When Richard Gatling was 36 he moved to St. Louis where he worked in a dry goods store and invented a rice sowing machine and a wheat drill. The introduction of these machines did much for the agricultural system in the country. Later on, Dr. Gatling had chicken pox and became interested in medicine. He graduated from the Ohio Medical College in 1850 with an MD. When Richard Gatling read or encountered something and saw a need for improvement in that area it stimulated his interest and desire to improve it. Like the toilet for example, Dr. Gatling patented an improved version of the toilet Sometimes, when I am at gymnastics, I am more interested in playing baseball. Just like when Dr. Gatling got his MD but still liked to invent more. Throughout history people have been trying to improve weapons so that they have an advantage over their enemies. Dr. Gatling had a different idea, during the Civil War he saw that more soldiers died from disease then from fighting. He wanted to invent a weapon that could fire fast enough so that one man could fight as well as 100 men. This he believed would reduce the size of armies and also reduce the number of deaths caused by disease and battle. Dr. Gatlings weapon was created during the Civil War (1861 1865) between the ages of Manifest Destiny and the Gilded Age. Gatlings inspiration for the mechanism of his Gatling gun came from an earlier invention that used a gravity fed hopper to plant seeds. The Gatling gun was used during the civil war, but not enough to have any significant impact on the outcome of that war. The Gatling gun was used during the Spanish American War and the attack on San Juan Hill was the first time that an American Army used close support machine guns in an attack on an enemy position. The Gatling gun did not have a direct impact on our way of living but it did have a significant impact on industrialized societies relations with non-industrialized societies. This was important because industrial societies fought with the people of nonindustrial societies to gain control over materials for industry. Industrial societies had a

great advantage and could use small armies against greater numbers of non-industrial peoples with weapons like the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was very effective in allowing Europe to expand its colonial empires. The British used Gatling guns against the Zulus in South Africa, and the Mahdists in Sudan. This was also important because the Zulus still had arrows and spears. So when they charged the Gatling gun could shoot them down. The Gatling gun allowed small European armies to successfully defeat massed attacks from their non-industrialized opponents. When I have nerf wars with my sister and I have better weapons, I have a better chance of defeating her even when she attacks me. Just like when British had the Gatling gun and the Zulus were just being defeated because the Zulus still had arrows and spears. Dr. Gatling was successful in making his inventions like the Gatling gun, a screw propeller, rice sowing machine and a wheat drill. Dr. Gatling also improved the toilet, bicycles, and the steam cleaning of raw wool which also helped. But he was probably most famous and remembered for inventing the Gatling gun. Dr. Gatling was successful with the Gatling gun. A lot of armies used the Gatling gun like the Americans, British, and the Europeans. The Americans used the Gatling gun on angry mobs during strikes and in battles like, the battle of San Juan Hill. The British used the Gatling gun in the Zulu wars. Some problems with the Gatling gun include that it jams too often, it is too big and heavy to easily turn and change its direction of fire (it is mounted on the same carriage that is used for cannon). The Gatling guns that were used during the Spanish American War weighed 594 pounds, had a range of 1000 yards, and were mounted on a swivel that allowed it to change its direction of fire. It is also a complex machine, and the soldiers who use it need to be trained to maintain and fix it. The Gatling gun had a useful life of about 49 years, from 1862 to 1911.The Maxim gun which eventually replaced the Gatling gun weighed about 130 pounds and some of that weight would be due to the water which was used to cool the Maxim gun. Thats almost 400 pounds lighter and makes it possible for two men to move the Maxim gun, while the Gatling gun would require a horse to be moved long distances and perhaps four or five men to move it shorter distances. The Maxim gun was also truly automatic and did not require a handle to be turned for firing. I once had an idea for an invention that would make a spaceship go faster so humans can travel to planets faster. Then, when astronauts go into space they wouldnt be limited to the moon but could easily travel to other planets like Mars, Saturn, and other things. This is different from Dr. Gatlings invention because he wanted to invent a gun that would allow armies to be smaller and then there would be less death from disease and fighting. But my invention would help people to explore and learn more in space. So it is an invention to help scientists, while Dr. Gatlings invention was to help armies. Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling created a weapon that changed the world but not in the way that he wanted it to. First Gatling probably wanted his gun to influence the outcome of the Civil War but in America the Gatling gun was used to frighten strikers.

Dr. Gatling does not seem very smart in wanting to make a gun to reduce armies, battle leaders want to have bigger armies and better weapons than their enemies so that they can defeat them easier. When armies get more complex weapons, like the Gatling gun was in its time, they need more soldiers to maintain, support and repair those weapons. Bibliography: 1) Keller, Julia, Mr. Gatlings Terrible Marvel The Gun that Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It Viking 2008 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun 3) http://www.spanamwar.com/Gatling.htm