Event of 1862: Richard Jordan Gatling patents the Gatling gun in the United States.
- When
- 1862
- Where
- United States; Indianapolis, Indiana
- Episodes
- 3
Richard Jordan Gatling, an American inventor, patented the Gatling gun in the United States on November 4, 1862. This event marks the formal recognition of his 1861 invention, which is considered the first successful machine gun. The patent established legal rights for the device, facilitating its commercial production through the Gatling Gun Company founded in Indianapolis.
Episodes
- Company Founding
Gatling founded the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1862 to market the patented gun.
- Patent Grant
Richard Jordan Gatling received a patent for the Gatling gun in the United States on November 4, 1862.
- Factory Fire
The first six production guns were destroyed in a factory fire in December 1862.
Background and detail
Background. Richard Jordan Gatling was an American inventor born in North Carolina in 1818. He developed various mechanical devices, including a screw propeller and steam plow, before focusing on firearms. In 1861, coinciding with the start of the American Civil War, he invented the Gatling gun, a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm designed for cooling and synchronized firing.
Patent and Commercialization. Gatling secured a patent for his invention on November 4, 1862. To market the gun, he founded the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1862. However, the first six production guns were destroyed in a factory fire in December 1862, highlighting the challenges of early commercialization.
People involved
- Richard Jordan Gatling · Inventor and Patent Holder
Sources
- Richard Jordan Gatling Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
- Gatling gun Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.