The Rafael Repeater-- Part 2

From Wikipedia.

James Richard Haskell (1843-1897) was an American inventor and co-inventor of a multi-charge gun intended to increase muzzle velocity on big cannons.  In 1854 (at age 11?) began experiments with a steel, breech-loading cannon.

In 1862, along with French inventor George Raphael (also reported as named Rafael, a supplier of revolvers and swords to the Union Army, Haskell invented and constructed a rapid-fire machine gun which became known as the "Rafael Repeater" which was mounted on a light artillery carriage and fired standard bullets.

They secured a meeting with Abraham Lincoln, who arranged to have John A. Dahlgren conduct tests at the Washington Navy Yard.  The gun's range and accuracy proved remarkable and it fired 40 shots in twenty seconds.  Inventor of the USS Monitor John Ericsson was also there and very impressed.

The gun was tested again in April 1863 and considered a better weapon than the Gatling Gun, but was never put in production.

Good Thing for the South.  --Old Secesh

The Rafael Repeater-- Part 1

In my Civil War Navy blog, I wrote about President Lincoln going to the Washington Navy Yard this date to witness the testing of a new weapon on this date, August 7th, 1862, 150 years ago.  Secretaries Seward and Stanton accompanied him and Navy man Dahlgren ran the tests.

This was to be more of an Army weapon than Navy had if been put into production, so, I am writing about it in this blog.

I did some more research and in one place saw that the Rafael repeating cannon was impractical and did not see common use, but Lincoln was known for being very keen on mechanical marvels of any sort.

I found quite a bit of information in Wikipedia in a biography on James Richard Haskell.

His Connection Next.  --Old Secesh