Gardner Gun
Pratt & Whitney · Machine Gun · Out Of Production · 1874
Also known as: Gardner machine gun, Gardner battery gun
Overview
The Gardner Gun is a hand-cranked, mechanically operated rapid-fire weapon invented in 1874 by William Gardner, a former Union Army captain, and manufactured by Pratt & Whitney. Operation is manual rather than self-loading: turning a side-mounted crank actuates a desmodromic cam mechanism that sequentially chambers, fires, extracts, and ejects cartridges in each barrel, fed from a vertical gravity hopper. Built in single-, two-, and five-barrel configurations, it was adopted by the British Army and Royal Navy as a lighter and mechanically simpler alternative to the Gatling gun, seeing colonial-era service before being superseded by true automatic machine guns such as the Maxim.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 24268 g (856.0 oz) |
| Action Type | Lever Action |
| Firing Mechanism | Hammer Fired |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Magazine Type | Internal |
| Muzzle Velocity | 390 m/s (1280 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 2365 J (1744 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 1800 m (1968 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 2700 m (2953 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 400 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Right Hand |
| Frame Material | Steel |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- .577/450 Martini-Henry · primary — also known as .577/450, .450 Martini-Henry, 11.43x60mmR
- .303 British — also known as .303 Mk VII, 7.7x56mmR, .303 Enfield
Features
- Firing modes: Manual
- Feed systems: Gravity Hopper, Vertical Feed Magazine
- Features: Hand Cranked, Multi Barrel, Gravity Hopper Feed, Carriage Mounted, Tripod Mounted
Variants
- Gardner Gun (single barrel) — Single Barrel
- Gardner Gun (two barrel) — Two Barrel
- Gardner Gun (five barrel) — Five Barrel
Service history
Operators
- British Army · adopted 1882
- Royal Navy
- United States Navy
Conflicts
- Mahdist War (1881-1899)
- Anglo-Egyptian War (1882)
Production
Production years: 1874-1900
Produced by Pratt & Whitney in the US and under license in Britain; exact totals undocumented
Origin
Country of origin: United States
Designer: William Gardner
Discontinued: 1900
Notes
The two-barrel model was the most common British service configuration. Because firing depends entirely on how fast the operator turns the crank, the action is classified as manually operated rather than automatic. Most famously associated with the British colonial campaigns in Sudan, where a Gardner gun jammed at the Battle of Abu Klea (1885).
Background
A Gardner gun famously jammed at the Battle of Abu Klea in 1885 during the British campaign to relieve Gordon at Khartoum - a failure immortalised in Henry Newbolt's poem 'Vitai Lampada' with the line 'The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead', conflating it with the better-known Gatling gun.