Details
GATLING, ROBERT J., inventor of the Gatling gun. Typed letter signed ("R.J. Gatling," with elegant flourish) as President of the Gatling Gun Co., to [Samuel] Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Conn., 11 July 1885. 1 page, 4to, on Gatling Gun Co. stationery, typed in purple ink. Boldly signed.
GATLING TO COLT, ORDERING A SPECIAL MODEL GUN
A letter from one celebrated arms-maker to another. Gatling requests Colt's firm to "Please construct for us, at your earliest convenience, a model gun, like those last furnished to the United States, but using the spring extractor..."
Robert J. Gatling (1818-1903) invented his rapid-fire machine gun in 1862 by contriving a cluster of ten barrels, each of which rotated by crank and was loaded and fired once during a complete rotation. Without equal in the era of hand-operated machine guns, the Gatling gun could fire 3,000 rounds per minute if externally powered.
GATLING TO COLT, ORDERING A SPECIAL MODEL GUN
A letter from one celebrated arms-maker to another. Gatling requests Colt's firm to "Please construct for us, at your earliest convenience, a model gun, like those last furnished to the United States, but using the spring extractor..."
Robert J. Gatling (1818-1903) invented his rapid-fire machine gun in 1862 by contriving a cluster of ten barrels, each of which rotated by crank and was loaded and fired once during a complete rotation. Without equal in the era of hand-operated machine guns, the Gatling gun could fire 3,000 rounds per minute if externally powered.