Machine Guns
Machine Gunsare repeating firearms that when triggered will load and fire automatically until their ammunition is exhausted. In 1861, the U.S. Army was offered its first machine gun: Wilson Ager's single‐barrel, hand‐cranked weapon, often called the “coffee mill” gun due to its resemblance to a coffee grinder. At the order of President Lincoln, a few Ager guns were purchased; however, mechanical problems and the opposition of chief of ordnance, Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley, blocked adoption of the gun.
Patented in November 1862 by Dr. Richard J. Gatling, early versions of the Gatling gun were rejected by the conservative Union Ordnance Department. Purchased in 1866, improved .50‐caliber and 1‐inch versions of Gatling's hand‐cranked, multibarred machine gun were intended for use in the close‐in defenses of coastal fortifications, frontier forts, and aboard ship. The .50‐caliber...
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