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8 Responses to “Rapid fire guns”

1. The Duck Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 11:17 am

   Thanks for the Link!!

2. Chas Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 11:36 am

   There was also the Belton, which used superposed loads. Wiki says there no existing examples, but I recall seeing one on the cover of American Rifleman.
   They also had rapid fire cannon during the Revolutionary War, which I saw at the Saratoga Battlefield museum. If I recall, it was called a “pierrier” (French – pierre means rock, so “rock thrower”). The cartridge looked just like a beer mug complete with handle. It was placed into a recess in the breech and locked forward with a wedge tapped in behind it. Fire, knock the wedge out, put a fresh pre-loaded “mug” in place, secure with wedge and fire again. Fast and nasty with buckshot or grapeshot at close range against a line of Redcoats.
   The idea that the Founding Fathers had no idea of fast firing weapons is more self-serving ignorance from anti-gunners.

3. nk Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 1:20 pm

   Rapid fire with blackpowder is almost a contradiction in terms because it does not take more than a few shots for the burned powder to start clogging everything.

4. GuardDuck Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

   nk,

   The gatling gun used black powder. Henry repeaters as well.

   At a demonstration of the Gardner gun at the United States Navy yard in 1879:

   The weapon fired a total of 10,000 rounds during the test, taking a total elapsed time of 27 minutes 36 seconds, with breaks between firing to resolve an issue with one of the extractors. While the test was not without issues the weapon managed to fire 4,722 rounds before the first stoppage [1], and after the stoppage was resolved it fired approximately 5,000 rounds without incident.

   Not bad for black powder huh?

5. Weer'd Beard Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 3:40 pm

   Weren’t some of the Maxim guns Black Powder too?

6. Diomed Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 6:33 pm

   Since Poudre B wasn’t invented until 1884, the Maxim prototypes would have to have been black powder (unless he was using guncotton).

7. nk Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

   Ok, I was not clear. Agreed. Obturation, i.e. the brass cartridge, solved a great deal of the fouling problem in the action. The invention of the primer caps, too, before that, because the fulminate could punch through the fouling in the touchholes, unlike “flash in the pan” in the flintlocks.

8. Beaumont Says:
   January 30th, 2010 at 12:31 am

   I think Judge Creekmore has one of each. The man’s collection is flat-out amazing.

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