In the military history of mankind there are not so many samples of small arms, which, without a doubt, can be called legendary and iconic: the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Nagan revolver, FN FAL rifle, Thompson submachine gun. If we talk about machine guns, then the Gatling machine gun is undoubtedly one of the legendary models of weapons.
In 1862, Richard Gatling, the son of an American farmer and a doctor by training, received a patent for a new type of multi-barreled quick-fire weapon, which is often called the first modern machine gun. It was tested during the Civil War in the United States and very soon received the eloquent nickname "death carousel." In 1866, the Gatling machine gun was adopted by the US Army. This weapon was liked not only by the US military. Subsequently, the Gatling machine gun was purchased for the armed forces of Great Britain, Turkey, Spain and Japan.
By the way, the first on the European continent "gatling" bought the Russian army.
Gatling constantly improved his offspring: the machine gun became more and more reliable and rapid-fire. It should be noted that the later modifications of the machine gun are not too similar to the first model of “gatling”, patented in 1862. The machine gun of the Gatling system managed to make a lot of war, especially it was actively used in colonial wars. However, by the end of the 19th century, single-barrel machine guns began to displace it, the design of which used the recoil energy of the barrel.
However, the history of the Gatling machine gun did not end there: after World War II, electric motors were installed on multi-barreled machine guns. Such "death carousels" are still actively used in aviation and in the navy today, their rate of fire simply terrifies.
Gatling machine gun is popular today. However, only among fans of historical weapons and Hollywood film producers. Today, few films in the western genre do without this six-barreled charismatic symbol of steampunk.
Totally unkind doctor
Richard Jordan Gatling was born in 1818 in the family of an ordinary farmer. Since childhood, the boy showed a craving for technology and was fond of invention. Already at the age of thirteen, he had made a seeder of a new design and even received a patent for it. He later graduated from the Medical College, but did not stop developing various mechanical wonders. On account of Gatling several types of seeders and propeller of the original design.
However, he made his main project a little later: in 1862, Gatling received a patent No. 36836 for a new rapid-fire small-caliber gun, which forever left his name in the history of weapons.
The new deadly machine gun is a rather strange invention for the doctor, but Gatling had an explanation for this. He dreamed of creating a new rapid-fire weapon that would allow one person to replace a hundred soldiers on the battlefield. In his opinion, this would allow abandoning huge armies and significantly reducing the number of casualties in wars. This kind of logic looks "a little" strange. After the death of the inventor, the American magazine Scientific American issued an obituary in which were the following words: "This man had no equal in kindness and cordiality. It seemed to him that if the war becomes even more terrible, then the nations will finally lose their desire to resort to arms" .
It cannot be said that Gatling was the first to come up with the idea of multi-barreled small arms, she was known since the Middle Ages. After the invention, the multi-gun shells were sunk into oblivion. However, in the second half of the XIX century, an increase in the rate of fire of small arms again became relevant. The fact is that the effective shot firing range was 500-700 meters, but at that distance the gunners were already vulnerable to the aimed fire of the newest long-range rifles. One of the solutions to the problem was mitraleza, which had several dozen fixed gun barrels. But such installations were very cumbersome and weighed a lot, a fundamentally different solution was needed.
The main merit of Gatling was not the invention of multi-barreled weapons (it was known for a long time) and even the location of the barrels “in a revolving manner” (such a scheme was used in handguns for a long time), but the creation of a fundamentally new design for cartridge supply and cartridge extraction.
It should be noted that the first Gatling cradle did not use unitary cartridges, but special steel cartridges into which a paper cartridge and a capsule were inserted. Such a system worked quite effectively, but was extremely inconvenient. The charges for the machine gun had to be equipped by hand, they weighed a lot, and they also had to be constantly cleaned from gunpowder.
Therefore, in 1863, Gatling redid his machine gun for firing unitary ammunition, which was much cheaper and more convenient. At this time, the US Civil War continued, and the inventor offered his brainchild to the northerners. Despite the successful demonstration, the weapon was never put into operation, although several samples of the machine gun did hit the front and showed themselves quite well.
After the end of the Civil War (in 1865), the Gatling machine gun was adopted by the American army. In 1866, the US military made the first order for 100 new weapons. It was manufactured by the company Colt, "Gatling" was given the designation Model 1866.
These machine guns were used not only on land, they were also installed on warships. Later, the "Gatling" began to successfully sell to other countries: they became interested in England and Russia. The British used machine guns during the suppression of the uprising in Egypt (1883), with their help they staged a real bloodbath for the rebels. In Russia, the Gatling machine guns were converted to chambered "riders" and put into service.
It should be noted that multi-barrel systems were very popular in the second half of the XIX century. In the footsteps of Gatling went a lot of gunsmith designers, a similar scheme was used not only to create new machine guns, but also in the development of small-caliber guns. A typical example is the Hotchkiss gun (five 37-mm trunks), which has long been operated in the Russian fleet. Yes, the Gatling machine gun itself was repeatedly subjected to modernization, they were engaged in the improvement of these weapons in many countries of the world.
However, in 1883, the world recognized the name of another American, Hiram Maxim, and became acquainted with his invention. After that, the star of "gatling" gradually began to roll. New single-barrel machine guns used smokeless powder, they were easier, faster, and easier to manufacture.
Device description
The machine guns of the Gatling system had a different number of barrels, from four to ten. Their rate of fire was about 200 rounds per minute, and the firing range was about 1 thousand meters. The range of machine guns surpassed the artillery guns existing at that time. "Gatling" could have a different caliber: from 12 to 40 mm.
The machine guns of the Gatling system were distinguished by large bulkiness and considerable weight, so they were usually installed on gun carriages. It is for this reason that the Gatling machine gun is often referred to as artillery systems and is called the "canister". Although this name is common and has become familiar, it is not correct: this weapon is still a machine gun.
"Gatling" had a block of rotating barrels, the cartridge supply unit was above it. The cartridge from the holder under the action of gravity just lowered into the barrel, which at that moment was at the top point. Then the dowel pinned the cap and a shot occurred. The barrel with the used sleeve went down, where its extraction took place at the lowest point. Also by gravity.
The drive of the machine gun was manual, one of the members of the calculation simply rotated the handle. Of course, fully automatic weapons are better, but such a scheme was a big step forward. In addition, the first automatic machine guns were not very reliable, so that against them, the “gatling” looked pretty good.
Even such a mechanical recharge provided a decent rate of fire, which seemed to contemporaries a real breakthrough. In addition, the use of several barrels at once solved the issue of overheating: each barrel accounted for only a fraction of the used ammunition, and during the rotation natural cooling occurred.
The rebirth of "multi-streamers"
The first attempts to install an electric drive on a Gatling machine gun were made at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. The experiment turned out quite successful, the rate of fire of weapons increased to 3 thousand shots per minute. However, such indicators at that time were not particularly needed, so they refused from the practical implementation of this project. In addition, the electric motor significantly increased the already rather big weight and dimensions of the machine gun.
Only after the Second World War did they return to the idea of creating a multi-barreled high-speed machine gun. Fierce air battles between Soviet and American fighter jets in the skies of Korea showed the ineffectiveness of the existing cannon and machine gun weapons of aircraft. The fire contact lasted a few seconds, during which it was necessary to release the maximum amount of lead on the enemy. Single-barrel guns could not provide the necessary rate of fire - their barrel quickly overheated. It was then that the good old gatling was remembered.
The revival of the multi-barrels involved the American company General Electric. They say that its designers at the time of work took old machine guns directly from museums. Electric motors were connected to them, and the rate of fire increased to several thousand rounds per minute.
The result of the survey was the appearance of the famous six-barrel 20-mm cannon M61A1 Vulcan, which has a firing rate of 6 thousand rounds per minute. And it was only the first swallow. In the 60s, the six-barreled M134 Minigan machine gun (7.62 mm caliber) and the GAU-8 / A (30 mm) aircraft cannon appeared with even higher technical characteristics. The latter is installed on the main American attack aircraft A-10 Thunderbolt, which can turn any armored target into a sieve in seconds.
Installing a 20-mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon on aircraft was not easy: the designers had to contend with the resonance that arose due to its enormous rate of fire, as well as take care of the reliable attachment of the gun.
Multi-barreled weapon systems were successfully developed with the USSR. They were used as air defense systems and installed on combat aircraft (Su-24 and MiG-31) and helicopters (Mi-24).
