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The British Army first deployed the Gatling gun in 1873-74 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and extensively during the last actions of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war. [40] The Royal Navy used Gatling guns during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. [23] Gatling guns were used by Egyptian forces both on sea and land, and saw combat in Sudan and Abyssinia.
Large numbers of Gatling guns were purchased from the United States and were used by Western European powers in colonial wars in Africa, India, and Asia. Twenty-five Gatling guns also saw active service in French hands during the Franco-Prussian war, in early 1871. They performed particularly well at an engagement at Le Mans in western France.
Gatling invented the Gatling gun after he noticed that a majority of the soldiers fighting in the Civil War were lost to disease rather than gunshots. In 1877, he wrote, "It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine 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 ...
The first successful assault rifle was the StG 44, introduced during World War II by the Germans. It was the first firearm to occupy the gap between rifles and submachine guns. The assault rifle was more powerful and had longer range than the submachine gun, but was less powerful and shorter range than standard rifles.
Imperial Russia purchased 400 Gatling guns against Turkmen cavalry and other nomads of Central Asia. [84] The British Army first deployed the Gatling gun in 1873–74 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and extensively during the latter actions of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war. [85] The Royal Navy used Gatling guns during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. [86]
The Gatling gun was a field weapon, first used in warfare during the American Civil War and subsequently by European and Russian armies. The design was steadily improved; by 1876 the Gatling gun had a theoretical rate of fire of 1,200 rounds per minute, although 400 rounds per minute was more readily achievable in combat.
This is an extensive list of antique guns made before the year 1900 and including the first functioning firearms ever invented. The list is not comprehensive; create an entry for listings having none; multiple names are acceptable as cross-references, so that redirecting hyperlinks can be established for them.
The most successful of those designs was the Broadwell ring invented by American engineer Lewis Wells Broadwell (who worked as a sales agent for the Gatling Gun Company in Europe) in early 1860s and widely applied (without a license) by the Krupp company on their breech-loaders.