Richard Jordan Gatling ( born September 12, 1818 - February 26, 1903 ) is an American inventor, doctor, and holder of more than fifty patents.
| Richard Jordan Gatling | |
|---|---|
| Richard Jordan Gatling | |
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| Birth name | |
| Date of Birth | September 12, 1818 |
| Place of Birth | Hertford , North Caroline |
| Date of death | February 26, 1903 ( 84) |
| A place of death | New York , New York |
| A country | |
| Occupation | inventor |
| Autograph | |
The most famous invention is Gatling's card-holder , a multi-barrel rapid-fire weapon (1862), powered by the muscular strength of a shooter and possessing a rate of 400-3000 rounds per minute. Currently, artillery, aviation and rifle systems with a rotating barrel block are called the Gatling scheme (in particular, the 20-mm six-barreled gun M61 "Volcano ", the 30-mm seven-barreled gun GAU-8 Avenger , the 7.62-mm six-barreled machine gun M134 "Minigun" " , 23-mm six-barreled gun GSH-6-23 , etc.) The main difference between artillery systems built according to the Gatling scheme from others is a very high rate of fire (3000-12000 rounds per minute), achieved mainly due to the uniform load distribution on all gun barrels during the execution of od th cycle and get rid of the overheating problem.
Biography
Richard Gatling was born in Hertford County ( North Carolina ) in a farmer's family. He was fond of invention since childhood. At the age of 21, Gatling created a new design screw for steamboats, not knowing that the same invention had already been patented just a few months before by John Ericsson. Living in North Carolina, he worked in the county clerical office, taught at the school for some time, and became a merchant. At the age of 36, Gatling moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked at a grocery store and invented a rice seeder and wheat seeder. The introduction of these machines has largely contributed to the fundamental changes in agriculture in the country. After suffering smallpox, Gatling became interested in medicine. In 1850 he graduated from the Medical College in Cincinnati , Ohio , receiving the title of Doctor of Medicine. Although he had a doctor’s degree in medicine, he never practiced medicine; he was more interested in the career of an inventor. At the start of the Civil War, Gatling lived in Indianapolis , Indiana. There, he devoted himself to improving firearms. Gatling had a fairly successful business in the early 1850s and married Jemima Sanders, the daughter of a prominent Indianapolis doctor who was 19 years younger than Gatling. They played a wedding on October 25, 1854. Her younger sister Zerelda was married to Indiana Governor David Wallace. An active member of his Masonic lodge, Gatling was a member of Center No. 23.
November 4, 1862 receives a patent for a multi-barrel high-speed weapon Revolving Battery Gun. A feature of the invention was the proposed revolving layout of the trunks, the original mechanism for feeding cartridges and ejection liners.
Throughout his life, Gatling patented inventions for improving toilets, bicycles, steam cleaning raw wool, pneumatics, and many other fields. He was elected the first president of the American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers in 1891, and was six years old. Despite the fact that he was still quite wealthy at the time of his death, he spent part of his fortune thanks to his investments. In recent years, Gatling has returned to St. Louis, Missouri, to create a new company to produce his steam plows or tractors. Arriving in New York to his daughter and visiting his patent office, Gatling died at his daughter's house on February 26, 1903 . He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.
His contribution was noted by the US Navy during World War II, when the Fletcher - type destroyer DD-671 was baptized by the USS Gatling.
After Gatling's death, Scientific American published an obituary: “This man was second to none in kindness and warmth. It seemed to him that if the war became even more terrible, then the peoples would finally lose their desire to resort to arms . ”