Richard Jordan Gatling was born of a successful planter, slaveowner and inventor on the family plantation in Como, Hertford County, North Carolina, on September 26, 1818. He inherited from his father a genius for machines and aided his father on the farm with his designs of cotton- and rice-sowing machines and a wheat drill. He was highly educated and spent some time as a teacher and a merchant while filling his spare time with tinkering with machines and designs.
At the age of 21, he perfected a design for a steamboat screw propeller only to find out that John Ericsson was granted a patent for the same thing a few months prior. At 36, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he actually built his designs for the agricultural technologies. After he struggled through a case of smallpox, he tried his hand at medicine; he graduated with an MD from Ohio Medical College in 1850, even thought he never used it for his love of inventing.
When the Civil War broke out, Gatling relocated to Indianapolis, where he began work on his most famous invention, the gun that takes his name: the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was a hand-cranked "machine" gun with six barrels on a central shaft that had a high rate of fire and almost never jammed or overheated. It didn't see much action during the Civil War, but the combat it did experience changed the course of the Civil War dramatically. By the end of the Civil War, however, it began seeing the end of its fame with the introduction of the first fully-automatic "Maxim Machine Gun," invented by Hiram Maxim, that required no human interaction other than pulling the trigger. During the Gatling's prime, though, it was the supreme power in the class of battlefield firearms. In 1893, however, before the Gatling gun fell from favor until between the World Wars and after WWII, Gatling patented a new electric motor used to cycle the barrels of the weapon, upping the RPM of the monster machine; it didn't catch well at the time.
In 1862, the same year the Gatling was patented and a year after the War started, Gatling founded the Gatling Gun Company. Gatling was also successful enough in business to offer his hand in marriage to Jemima Sanders, 19 years younger than he and the daughter of a prestigious physician; they married on October 25, 1854. Jemima's younger sister Zerelda was married to Indiana Governor David Wallace, a Free Mason.
Gatling continued to patent inventions and improvements for toilets, bicycles, wool refinement and production, pneumatic power, and more. In 1891, he was elected to president of the American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers, serving for six years. While he was still quite wealthy when his genius left the world, he had gained and lost several small fortunes in bad investments.
Before he died, he moved back to St. Louis to form a new company to manufacture his steam-powered tractors. While visiting his daughter's residence in New York City to visit and speak to his patent agency, Gatling died at his daughter's home on February 26, 1903. He legacy lies at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
At the age of 21, he perfected a design for a steamboat screw propeller only to find out that John Ericsson was granted a patent for the same thing a few months prior. At 36, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he actually built his designs for the agricultural technologies. After he struggled through a case of smallpox, he tried his hand at medicine; he graduated with an MD from Ohio Medical College in 1850, even thought he never used it for his love of inventing.
When the Civil War broke out, Gatling relocated to Indianapolis, where he began work on his most famous invention, the gun that takes his name: the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was a hand-cranked "machine" gun with six barrels on a central shaft that had a high rate of fire and almost never jammed or overheated. It didn't see much action during the Civil War, but the combat it did experience changed the course of the Civil War dramatically. By the end of the Civil War, however, it began seeing the end of its fame with the introduction of the first fully-automatic "Maxim Machine Gun," invented by Hiram Maxim, that required no human interaction other than pulling the trigger. During the Gatling's prime, though, it was the supreme power in the class of battlefield firearms. In 1893, however, before the Gatling gun fell from favor until between the World Wars and after WWII, Gatling patented a new electric motor used to cycle the barrels of the weapon, upping the RPM of the monster machine; it didn't catch well at the time.
In 1862, the same year the Gatling was patented and a year after the War started, Gatling founded the Gatling Gun Company. Gatling was also successful enough in business to offer his hand in marriage to Jemima Sanders, 19 years younger than he and the daughter of a prestigious physician; they married on October 25, 1854. Jemima's younger sister Zerelda was married to Indiana Governor David Wallace, a Free Mason.
Gatling continued to patent inventions and improvements for toilets, bicycles, wool refinement and production, pneumatic power, and more. In 1891, he was elected to president of the American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers, serving for six years. While he was still quite wealthy when his genius left the world, he had gained and lost several small fortunes in bad investments.
Before he died, he moved back to St. Louis to form a new company to manufacture his steam-powered tractors. While visiting his daughter's residence in New York City to visit and speak to his patent agency, Gatling died at his daughter's home on February 26, 1903. He legacy lies at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.