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Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything And The Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It (2008)

by Julia Keller(Favorite Author)

2.82 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0670018945 (ISBN13: 9780670018949)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: This book describes the life and times of Richard Gatling. He was born into a slave holding family in North Carolina, but moved west to seek his fortune. Gatling was always a tinkerer and inventor. He had many patents and devices including seed drills and steam plows. He was moved by the carnage of the Civil War to invent his gun in the hopes it would reduce the size of armies. Keller uses his story to frame the times and describe how free spirited American inventors, driven by idealism to improve mankind, AND turn a profit, shaped the American dream. She also emphasizes the role of the U.S. patent office in this enterprise. Jefferson set it up so it was cheap and easy to patent ideas and devices, unlike the case in Europe where the expense left the field only to th... moree rich. Also brought out is how the machinegun reshaped the western world’s view of war. The efficient slaughter by the machine wiped gallant single combat right off the map. There is a lot of interesting ideas and information in this book. However, the book is not well written and in particular is internally very redundant as the author goes over the same ground multiple times.
review 2: Keller, Julia. MR. GATLING’S TERRIBLE MARVEL: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It. (2008). ****. There really wasn’t much to say about Mr. Gatling’s life, so the author talks about the world around him to put some meat on his lean bones. First we learn that Gatling was an inveterate dabbler, and, ultimately an inventor. He started out with inventions in the agricultural field. One of his early inventions was a “wheat drill,” which I have no idea as to what that is. Doesn’t matter. It made him rich. He went on to invent lots of other things, amassing a total of 43 patents in his life. Next, since we are talking about inventions and patents, the author describes the then current state of the U.S. patent system. It was a wide-open range for tinkerers back then, and a way for many of them to become rich on their ideas. This was the period (early to mid-18th century) when America was expanding, both geographically and mentally. We learn of the “Roaring 40s,” a period of rampant westward expansion, and of the belief in America’s manifest destiny. People were interested in science and education as evidenced by the growth of the Lyceum program, the establishment of the periodical “Scientific American,” and the emergence of women into national prominence. Patents seemed to be the key that unlocked and protected all of these new technologies. It was also ironic that our first great American nurse, Clara Barton, was a clerk in the patent office when she left to serve the soldiers battling in Cuba. Travel was also becoming more modern. The days of horse travel were being eliminated or drastically reduced – especially through the use of the river boats. But, river boats had their drawbacks, too. First off, they were dangerous, and a relatively high rate of accidents – from boiler explosions to sinking after hitting river obstructions – made their use less than safe. They also fostered the transmission of communicable diseases by crowding a heterogeous group of people into one place. This was especially the case with smallpox, which spread along the river towns like wildfire. Mr. Gatling managed to contract that disease and remained scarred from it the rest of his life. His rational for inventing his famous gun was that it would decrease the number of soldiers needed to repel any given enemy and, hence, decrease the number of soldiers subject to death on the battlefield – at least the ones behind his gun. He applied the principles he used in his agricultural implements, especially seed planting devices, to design his gun such that the loads for each barrel could be fed into each one as it rotated around a central axis. He started out using paper cartridges, since that was what was in use at the time, but switched to metal bullets once they became available. Gatling was a strong marketing man, too. He literally pushed his product in every venue available to him. His success was a long time coming, however, for two main reasons: an earlier version of the machine gun, known as the Ager gun, poisoned the well because of its mechanical problems, and the attitude of soldiers towards new armament – even though Mr. Lincoln was enamoured of it. The Gatling gun was essentially never used during the Civil War, other than at the siege of Petersburg, where it was used frivolously as opposed to tactically. Its first use was by the New York authorities in the Draft Riots of 1863, where it tended to suppress rioters as soon as they saw it. After the war, however, Gatling managed to sell his weapon to the Army and to a number of foreign countries, and ultimately became successful again. He finally sold the rights of manufacture to the Colt company in Hartford, where he ultimately moved, and died in Februatry of 1903. His body was shipped back to his home in Indianapolis, where it was interred. The Gatling Gun was effectively used in WW I, but was ultimately replaced by newer designs of machine gun, including the Maxim Gun, which worked on the recoil system for loading, and the Lewis Gun, which was gas operated. Recommended. less

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