Inventor, born in Maney's Neck, North Carolina, USA. The son of a planter, he taught at a school and ran a country store, but he was observant of the agricultural practices all around him and spent his time inventing such devices as a rice-sewing machine (patented 1839) and a steam plough (1857). By 1862 he had received a patent for a rapid-fire multi-barrel weapon; technically speaking it was not a machine-gun because it had to be powered by a hand crank in the early models (by an electric motor in the improved model). Only a few Gatling guns were put into use at the end of the Civil War but it was adopted by the US Army in 1866. It could fire c.600 rounds per minute and was used by the army and navy up through the Spanish-American War. Gatling worked on its improved versions and then returned to working on agricultural machinery, inventing a motor-driven plough in 1900.
Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling (September 12, 1818 – February 26, 1903) was an American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, the first successful rapid-repeating fire arm.
The son of farmer and inventor Jordan Gatling, Gatling was born in Hertford County, North Carolina and by the age of 21 had invented the screw propeller for steamboats, only to discover it had recently and independently been patented by John Ericsson.
He founded the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1862. In the interim, he further developed the device, and while experimenting with improvements, he devised electric motor powered Gatling cannons of various sizes. Modern versions of these were put into use on flying gun platforms in the later half of the 1900s, as well as being used by some ground forces. The hand-cranked Gatling gun was declared obsolete by the United States Army in 1911.
In his later years, Gatling patented improvements related to toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, and many other fields.
Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling died at his home in New York City on February 26, 1903.
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