""We have got the Gatling Gun"" Topic

"Although the American Gatling 'machine' gun had been patented in 1862, the British had not made great use of it, and the Afghan war saw it still in a trial phase, despite its use in the 1874 Asante Expedition, and its parallel use in Zululand.

Lieutenant John Adye came from a family of Royal Artillery men (his great-grandfather had entered the R.A in 1757, his grandfather in 1799, and his father in 1836) and was initially sent to India to teach a battery about the new 'screw guns' that were to make their first appearance in Afghanistan. As the new guns were greatly delayed, and after giving a lecture or two on their general principles, he was requested to take on a Gatling gun command instead, which is where the following story begins. He didn't get to see the unit in action as he came down with typhoid fever in June and was eventually invalided to England.

had not been very long at Rawul Pindi when a telegram was received from Colonel Murray1 asking if Lieutenant Adye knew anything about Gatling guns. Now my knowledge of them was confined to the facts that a Gatling consisted of a number of rifle barrels stuck together, surmounted by a sort of drum, or cartridge carrier, which, with the barrels, was actuated by a handle which, turning, made the barrels revolve, supplied them with cartridges from the drum, and fired each barrel in turn. Of the detailed mechanism of the machine I knew nothing, but I did not hesitate to reply that I was well acquainted with the Gatling gun, for I guessed what was the object of the enquiry…"
Full article here.
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Amicalement
Armand

My understanding was that it was an uncertain weapon.
The British used it in the Sudan but jamming was a definite problem with hordes of Haddendoah charging down on you.

Yes, the Gatling Model that used a .45 round did suffer from a deserved reputation for jamming in action.

HOWEVER… this was due to the ever penurious Army's refusal to buy Gatling's own ammunition for the weapon and instead use their own .45 Boxer round which was made from inferior brass that became soft and tore apart during the extraction phase of fire once the barrels became hot enough.

Tests of the Gatling using its own more robust ammunition produced enormously high (if short term) rates of fire with little or no jamming.

The gun design was a total success and most effective/efficient man-powered gun design until Mr. Maxim had a better idea….

TVAG

@ Virtual.

Interesting. Thanks for the information re; ammo.

"Inferior Brass"

I would suggest that it was OK for the use with the British rifles but that the specification did not match that required for the Gatling mechanism.

Hence not Inferior just Unsuitable.

" not inferior, just unsuitable"

Might lead us, just for fun, into a discussion on the effect of jammed rounds in Martini Henrys at Isandlwana, or indeed the quality of steel used in British bayonets of the same period.

Some things ( like military procurement) don't change much in 130 years!