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Article: Machine Guns
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. 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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MACHINE GUNS
MACHINE GUNS.
The first machine gun, the
mitrailleuse,
was designed in 1851 in Belgium, but the weapon is largely a product of American inventors. In 1862 Dr. Richard J. Gatling patented a gun with six barrels that rotated around a central axis by a hand crank. Conservative officers rejected Gatling's invention during the Civil War, but the army purchased 100 improved Gatling guns in 1866. The Gatling gun nevertheless occupied only a minor position as an auxiliary artillery weapon. Hiram S. Maxim, an American engineer, patented the first automatic machine gun in 1884. Maxim's gun
—
smaller, lighter, and easier to operate than the Gatling
—
proved to be an ...
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Article: INFORMATION ISSUED BY U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE FOR NORTHERN ...
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