ORDNANCE MEMORANDA No. 17
GATLING GUNS
(1874)
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, Washington, 1874
The very rare 1874 1st edition of the Ordnance Memoranda No. 17 - Gatling Guns, a US government report on the accuracy and standardization of the Gatling gun, invented by Richard J. Gatling (1818-1903) in 1861. Gatling guns are considered the first successful machine guns and forerunner to the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. Gatling wrote that he invented it to reduce the size armies, thus reducing deaths by combat and disease. The Gatling was one of the earliest machine guns which revolutionised warfare in the mid to late 19th century. But by the mid 1890’s the Gatling-type hand-cranked weapons had been rendered obsolete by the vastly superior new generation of fully automatic recoil-operated Vickers-Maxim machine guns.
Ordnance Memoranda No. 17 was produced to show the results of the tests carried out in 1873 as part of the process to ‘decide upon the caliber of guns to be tried, and the ammunition to be used, in the experiments and tests of two Gatling guns of large caliber for flank-defense of fortifications’. It includes a description of the gun and its mechanism, ammunition, and specifications. There are also extensive reports of the various trials and results of the tests carried out, including firing at different distances, penetration and effects achieved with various types of ammunition, etc.
The volume is illustrated with line drawings of parts of the mechanism, ammunition, and feed case, two photographic plates of the Gatling gun, and diagrams showing the trial firing results.
The Gatling Gun: was a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903). It was an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling's operation was based on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing-reloading sequence. As the handwheel is cranked, the barrels rotate, and each barrel sequentially loads a single cartridge from a top-mounted magazine, fires off the shot when it reaches a set position, then ejects the spent casing out of the left side at the bottom, after which the barrel rotates back to the top position and is gravity-fed a new round. James George Accles, previously employed by Colt from 1867–1886, developed a modified Gatling gun c.1888 known as the Accles Machine Gun. Around 1895 the American Ordnance Company acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute this weapon in the Americas. It was trialed by the US Navy in December 1895, and was said to be the only weapon to complete the trial out of five competing weapons, but it was not adopted by US or any other armed forces.
The Gatling gun saw occasional use during the American Civil War, which was the first time it was employed in combat. Gatling guns were famously not used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as "Custer's Last Stand", when General Custer chose not to bring Gatling guns with his main force. It was later used in numerous military conflicts, including the Anglo-Zulu War, and the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American War. The Gatling gun was used most successfully during European colonial campaigns against indigenous warriors mounting massed attacks - including the Zulu, the Bedouin, and the Mahdists. Imperial Russia also purchased 400 Gatling guns and used them against Turkmen cavalry and other nomads of central Asia. The British Army first deployed the Gatling gun in 1873-74 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and used them extensively during the last actions of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war. The Royal Navy also used Gatling guns during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War.
Condition:
In good condition. The boards are in good condition, with general signs of use, wear to the edges, corners and spine, and some marks. The binding and hinges are good and secure. The text is in very good condition with some minor foxing to the title page, a few minor marks, and some small archival paper tape repairs to the inner margins of a few pages. The photographic plates and illustrations are in very good condition. There is a decorative bookplate illustrated with an engraving of a Gatling Gun on the front endpapers, with the name ‘Peter G. Smithurst’.
Published: 1874
Illustrated with line drawings, diagrams and 2 photographic plates
Red boards with gilt titling
Dimensions: 235mm x 300mm
Pages: 112
