This Day in History: American inventor Richard Gatling died on this day in 1903 (he was born in North Carolina). Gatling was best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, which is considered to be the first successful machine gun.
Gatling invented the Gatling gun after he noticed that a majority of the soldiers fighting in the Civil War died because of disease rather than gunshots. In 1877, he wrote: "It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine - a gun - which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease [would] be greatly diminished."
The first Gatling Guns were operated by a hand-crank, but the US Army replaced that with an electric motor in 1893 which could shoot 3,000 rounds per minute.
Gatling also patented inventions to improve toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, and many other fields.
You may also be interested in 220 Books on the American Civil War on DVDrom 1861-1865
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