Editing Richard Jordan Gatling
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==Life== | ==Life== | ||
− | Gatling was born in | + | Gatling was born in Hertford County, North Carolina, in 1818. At the age of 21, Gatling created a screw propeller for steamboats, without realizing that one had been patented just months prior by John Ericsson.<ref name="findagrave.com">[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1433 Richard Jordan Gatling (1818 - 1903) - Find A Grave Memorial]</ref><ref>Keller. Page 60.</ref> While living in North Carolina, he worked in the county clerk’s office, taught school briefly, and became a merchant. At the age of 36, Gatling moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he worked in a dry goods store and invented a rice-sowing machine and a wheat drill (machines to aid in planting rice and wheat, respectively).<ref name="bookrags.com">[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-jordan-gatling/ Richard Jordan Gatling Biography]</ref> The introduction of these machines did much to revolutionize the agricultural system in the country.<ref name="nndb.com">[http://www.nndb.com/people/592/000104280/ Richard Jordan Gatling]</ref> |
− | + | After an attack of smallpox, Gatling became interested in medicine. He graduated from the Ohio Medical College in [[1850]] with an MD. Although he had his MD, he never practiced; he was more interested in a career as an inventor.<ref name="findagrave.com"/><ref name="nndb.com"/> | |
− | + | At the outbreak of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Gatling was living in Indianapolis, Indiana. There he devoted himself to the perfection of firearms. In [[1861]], the same year the war started, he invented the [[Gatling gun]].<ref name="findagrave.com"/> A year later, he founded the Gatling Gun Company. | |
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− | At the age of 36, Gatling moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he worked in a dry goods store and invented a rice-sowing machine and a wheat drill (machines to aid in planting rice and wheat, respectively).<ref name="bookrags.com">[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-jordan-gatling/ Richard Jordan Gatling Biography]</ref> The introduction of these machines | + | |
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By the early 1850s, Gatling was successful enough in business to offer marriage to Jemima Sanders, 19 years younger than Gatling and the daughter of a prominent Indianapolis physician.<ref name=autogenerated1>Keller. Page 134.</ref> They married on [[October 25]], [[1854]]. Her younger sister Zerelda was married to David Wallace, the governor of Indiana. An active member of his Masonic Lodge, he was member of Center Lodge No. 23.<ref>[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/inauthors/view?docId=VAC0992&chunk.id=d1e432&toc.id=d1e432&brand=ia-books;query= A History of masonry in Indianapolis]</ref> <ref>http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/get/iudl:844741/SCREEN</ref> | By the early 1850s, Gatling was successful enough in business to offer marriage to Jemima Sanders, 19 years younger than Gatling and the daughter of a prominent Indianapolis physician.<ref name=autogenerated1>Keller. Page 134.</ref> They married on [[October 25]], [[1854]]. Her younger sister Zerelda was married to David Wallace, the governor of Indiana. An active member of his Masonic Lodge, he was member of Center Lodge No. 23.<ref>[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/inauthors/view?docId=VAC0992&chunk.id=d1e432&toc.id=d1e432&brand=ia-books;query= A History of masonry in Indianapolis]</ref> <ref>http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/get/iudl:844741/SCREEN</ref> | ||
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Later in his life, Gatling patented inventions to improve toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, and many other fields. He was elected as the first president of the American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers in [[1891]], serving for six years. Although still quite wealthy at the time of his death, he made and lost several fortunes by his investments. | Later in his life, Gatling patented inventions to improve toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, and many other fields. He was elected as the first president of the American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers in [[1891]], serving for six years. Although still quite wealthy at the time of his death, he made and lost several fortunes by his investments. | ||
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While being most known for inventing the [[Gatling gun]], Gatling invented and patented a number of other inventions. His inventions include a screw propeller and a wheat drill (a planting device) in [[1839]], a hemp break machine in [[1850]], a steam plow (steam tractor) in [[1857]], the Gatling gun in 1861, a marine steam ram in [[1862]], and a motor-driven plow (tractor).<ref name="bookrags.com"/> | While being most known for inventing the [[Gatling gun]], Gatling invented and patented a number of other inventions. His inventions include a screw propeller and a wheat drill (a planting device) in [[1839]], a hemp break machine in [[1850]], a steam plow (steam tractor) in [[1857]], the Gatling gun in 1861, a marine steam ram in [[1862]], and a motor-driven plow (tractor).<ref name="bookrags.com"/> | ||
− | + | ==Gatling gun== | |
{{Main|Gatling gun}} | {{Main|Gatling gun}} | ||
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::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.<ref>Paul Wahl and Don Toppel, '''The Gatling Gun''', Arco Publishing, 1971.</ref> | ::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.<ref>Paul Wahl and Don Toppel, '''The Gatling Gun''', Arco Publishing, 1971.</ref> | ||
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The gun was based on Gatling’s seed planter.<ref name="googleBooksKeller">Keller, Julia. Mr. Gatlings Terrible Marvel.</ref> A working prototype was developed in [[1861]]. In [[1862]], he founded the [[Gatling Gun Company]] in Indianapolis, Indiana to market the gun. The first six production guns were destroyed during a fire in [[December 1862]] at the factory. All six of them had been manufactured at Gatling's expense. Undaunted, Gatling arranged for another 13 to be manufactured at the Cincinnati Type Factory. | The gun was based on Gatling’s seed planter.<ref name="googleBooksKeller">Keller, Julia. Mr. Gatlings Terrible Marvel.</ref> A working prototype was developed in [[1861]]. In [[1862]], he founded the [[Gatling Gun Company]] in Indianapolis, Indiana to market the gun. The first six production guns were destroyed during a fire in [[December 1862]] at the factory. All six of them had been manufactured at Gatling's expense. Undaunted, Gatling arranged for another 13 to be manufactured at the Cincinnati Type Factory. |