From Michael Brady
You state that Hiram Maxim invented the machine gun
(17 February, p 50). Not
so. That honour goes to his countryman Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903), who
invented and, in 1862, patented the multi-barrel, crank-operated machine gun
that first saw service in the American Civil War. Thereafter, armies throughout
the world adopted the gun and many improvements were made to it. Electric and
gas-operated models of the 1890s could fire 300 rounds a minute. The last
Gatling guns were manufactured in 1911.
The Maxim gun of the 1880s was an improved design, as it had a single barrel
and was fully automatic. Manufactured by Vickers, it also was known as the
Vickers-Maxim gun, or sometimes just the Vickers gun.
Oslo
