Inventor Machine Weapon Richard Jordan Gatling
A long time ago in a war, many soldiers used the traditional weapon but everything changed after Richard Jordan Gatling invented the first machines weapon. A lot of weapons such as AK47, sniper, and bazooka are the example of weapons that use machines. Richard Jordan Gatling was born on September 12, 1818, in Hertford Country, north of Carolina United States. Richard was a man from farmer family and also an innovator of weapon machine. Richard was a very creative person in the field of discovery. Others of his inventions were such as a double-acting hemp break in 1850, the steam plow in 1857, a marine steam ram in 1862, and a gunmetal alloy.
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| Gatling Gun |
In 1861, the United States civil war broke out. This war raised the attention of Richard, he wanted to create something. Richard was very concerned about the soldiers who set out on the front line but returned home only carrying injuries, illness, or even returning to death. Richard then had the initiative to make something that could help the suffering of the soldiers. Experiments were made several times. Then in 1861, Richard managed to make a weapon that named Gatling gun, considered to be the first successful machine gun. This weapon could fire 200 bullets per minute.
Richard showed the results of his design but this new design then was patented on May 9, 1965. The gun was not used officially during the war. He also had offered to sell the gun to anyone including the Confederacy and foreigners. Many Gatlings were sold to England, Austria, Russia, and to South American nations. Until about 1900, the weapons were used in small wars. The U.S. Army used them against the American Indians. Until now, Richard Jordan Gatling is known to the world as the inventor of machine guns. Along with the rapid technological developments, machine guns are also developing rapidly with new technologies now. Even, the most sophisticated machine guns now can fire hundreds of thousands of bullets per minute.