Hat 8180 Colonial Wars Gardner Gun

The Gardner Gun was an American mechanical "machine gun" from the second half of the 19th century. The weapon was equipped with 1, 2 or even 5 barrels, depending on the version, and its caliber was 11.4 mm. One version of this rifle in 1877 was able to fire a projectile with an initial velocity of 390 m / s.

The Gardner Gun was developed in 1874 by William Gardner (hence the name of the gun), who was a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War (1861-1865). The first tests for the American armed forces took place in 1875, which recommended further development of the weapon by the Pratt and Whitney company and improvement of the trigger and the repeating mechanism in particular. However, despite successful attempts and the introduction of many improvements, the US military showed little interest in the new weapon. A completely different attitude was taken by the British army and navy, in which the company Pratt and Whitney demonstrated the new weapon in the early 1880s. It is worth adding that the 5-barrel Gardner Gun was used by the British at the Battle of Abu Klea in 1885.