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Article: The death of Richard Gatling: February 26th, 1903. (Months Past).(Biography)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- February 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE INVENTOR OF the most efficient mass killing machine of its time lived to the age of eighty-four and died in his bed. Richard Jordan Gaffing came from a well-to-do family of planters in North Carolina. He took after his father in having a flair for machinery and in his twenties he invented a screw propeller for ships, only to find that someone else had invented it just before him. He next produced a machine for planting rice, wheat and other crops, went into business in St Louis, Missouri, to manufacture it and invented other agricultural machines which contributed to the mechanisation of American agriculture.
The American Civil War turned Gatling from the ...