Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War

By Anthony Smith

Book Overview

Richard Gatling, the one-time philanthropist, had been stung by growing competition. In 1881 he published a forthright challenge in the Army & Navy Journal. The Gatling Gun Many articles have recently appeared in the press, claiming the superior advantages of the Gardner and other machine guns over the Gatling gun. In order to decide which is the best gun, the undersigned offers to fire his gun against any other gun, on the following wagers, viz.: First, $500 that the Gatling can fire more shots in a given time, say one minute. Second, $500 that the Gatling can give more hits on a target, firing, say one minute-at a range of 800 or 1,000 yards. The winner to contribute the money won to some charitable object. The time and place for the trials to be mutually agreed upon. R.J. Gatling of Hartford, Conn. No one took up the challenge, possibly because the various purchasers of these guns had made up their own minds about the merits of the rival weapons. Nevertheless, of all the rapid-firing guns in business at the time, the Gatling had pride of place. It was seeing service all over the world, and perhaps Gatling should not have bothered to express such apparent nervousness. What he did not know, and could not then know, was that an electrician working out of New York City would soon serve as the greatest rival of them all. Three years after that gamble had been published in the Journal, Hiram Stevens Maxim would be travelling to Europe. There he would appreciate quite how many nations were rattling sabres at each other, and hear his friend's advice that, if he wished to make money, he should help their citizens kill each other. And that is what he did. The 'greatest mechanician of all' would change warfare dramatically, and the first fully automatic machine gun would eclipse all others.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312934777
• ISBN13: 9780312934774
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Interesting and Well Researched.

I wont repeat the details contained in the other reviews. The book is well-written, the topic is interesting, and I learned a lot about some inventors who get very little attention from scholars. This is a dandy book to take along on vacation or a business trip. It gets 5 Stars from me for being what a book is supposed to be...entertaining and informative.

The Gun that Ruled During War

"Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War" is at times slow, but interesting and worth reading nonetheless. Anthony Smith does not simply document the history and development of the machine gun; he tells the story of early American ingenuity and entrepreneurship. He writes about warfare and the voraciousness of various countries vying for power and of others struggling to maintain supremacy. Anthony Smith tells the history of a fledging United States that welcomed any innovations that would produce more for less. Smith writes of how Samuel Colt revolutionized and perfected mass production to the point where artisanship was replaced by factory production. Anthony Smith illustrates the industrialization of American society during the 1800s. He describes an early case of female discrimination whereby women were segregated from men while manufacturing cartridges - a dangerous undertaking. Smith gives the reader well documented biographical insights on important American machine gun inventors, such as James Puckle, Richard Gatling, Samuel Colt, Hiram Maxim, John M. Browning, Isaac Lewis and others. Smith discusses the various motives behind these inventors. Some of these men invented and perfected their machine guns for diverse reasons: some, like Richard Gatling, invented the Gatling to save lives during America's Civil War while others, like Hiram Maxim, and Samuel Colt created their weapons for fame and fortune - while others simply wished "to make a pile of money". The author illustrates how the Winchester 73 may have won the West, but it was the machine gun that decided the fait of men during full-scale battles. Smith clearly documents the evolution and capabilities of the machine gun and the role it played during wars in Europe, Asia, Africa . . . and the "war to end all wars" - World War I - a war where millions of soldiers and civilians perished by the indiscriminate rapid-firing machine gun. The reader will learn of countries that were fascinated with the machine gun and willing to purchase it in the thousands - countries like Egypt, China, France, Russia, which purchased the largest quantities, while the British army procured the least - the British army resisted all innovations in military tactics. However, Britain would learn that "if attrition of an enemy was required, they [the machine gun] could do the job very satisfactorily". Moreover, the machine gun did do the job satisfactorily in the Russo-Turkish, Franco-Prussian, and Zulu, as well as in other wars. Nevertheless, the machine gun had "severely fractured the old style of warfare, with romance, glory, and precious pageantry"; this has all but disappeared according to some British military leaders. Although Anthony Smith's book "Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War" is at times slow, it is still worth reading; it will give readers a good understanding of the men and the inventions that changed not j