In 1864 Doctor Gatling demonstrated an electric motor action-drive automatic rifle on a gun carriage for one Abraham Lincoln at Abe's house on Pennsylvania Ave. The weapon operated then at 1,500 rounds per minute with a vertical magazine feed. It was not used in the civil war but saw action in the Indian wars later, and in the Sp-Am war briefly. Most field implementations used a hand crank and drum magazine, and would achieve 800 to 1,200 rounds per minute. The high reliability and lower weight of the new Maxim and Browning single barrel automatic fire units, in spite of their much lower fire rate, encouraged their adoption of these weapons instead for general infantry support and vehicle mounting. The bulk and weight of the multi barrel weapon, despite its marked natural cooling advantage, worked against its continued use in the services.
When a really high rate of fire was needed many years later for ground support from vulnerable aircraft, the idea was proposed by a military consultant of using a multi barrel rifle, which would could fire at a terrific rate of speed, and not have excessive barrel wear or heating. Thus the various multi barrel configurations based on the old Gatling action were rolled out to make slow and previously vulnerable aircraft literal hedgehogs of fire. This offensive method of operation became sufficient in itself to repel enemy attack and make difficult close to enemy extractions of troops possible in relative safety.
EC<:-} |
