Colorized Footage of the Inventor Testing the World’s First Machine Gun in 1897

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Saed News: The first machine gun was invented by American inventor Richard Gatling.

Colorized Footage of the Inventor Testing the World’s First Machine Gun in 1897

According to SAEDNEWS, the first machine gun of this type was invented by the American inventor Richard Gatling. The barrels of the “Gatling gun” were rotated manually using a hand crank, which is why it was not considered an automatic weapon. The first true automatic machine gun was the Maxim gun, invented in 1884, which reloaded itself after each shot using the pressure generated by gunpowder gases. Modern Gatling guns are powered by electric motors.