Failure™ Magazine

Richard Gatling: Shooting Star

Richard Gatling and the invention of the Machine Gun.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under History, Science & Technology

Did Gatling really believe his gun would save lives—that it would be a tool of peace?
He absolutely did. It’s hard for us to believe today but in many ways his basic philosophy has been borne out. He had a twofold idea. His first idea was that if you reduced the number of men required to fight a war, you would have fewer casualties. If you could send ten men to do the work of what a hundred had done—that’s what a battery gun did, it replaced men on the battlefield—you would have fewer casualties.

His second idea was, if you create a weapon that is fearsome to behold, the other side will be intimidated and give up. That’s what happened at the end of World War II with the atomic bomb. But the idea of a weapon as a deterrent was a new idea [in the mid-19th century], and that was very much Gatling’s motivation as well.

When did the U.S. Army finally begin using the Gatling gun?
After the Civil War. In 1866 the Army said, Fine, we’ll use it. By that time, some of the ordinance officers had been replaced with younger counterparts who were more willing to look at innovative weaponry. And the Army did use it throughout the last part of the 19th century, as did armies all over the world.

Is it true that George Custer had the opportunity to have Gatling guns on hand at the Little Bighorn but chose not to use them?
He did. Some thought this was yet another symbol of Custer’s fatal pride and hubris. But there is some thought that in that circumstance the Gatling gun might not have been useful because of the very uneven and craggy terrain. At that time, Gatling guns were carried by two-wheeled vehicles called limbers and they were difficult to move around. Moving them into place would have been problematic.

How was the Gatling gun received outside the U.S.?
Very well. Gatling sold his gun in more than 50 countries. For several decades it was the machine gun that everybody wanted. Then, as often happens, Gatling became a victim of his own success. Once other engineers and inventors looked at it, they stroked their chins, reverse engineered it and altered the design. Many imitators came along and by the end of the century he was having a tough time.

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