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The Puckle gun (also known as the defence gun) was a primitive crew-served, manually operated
flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...
patented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667–1724), a British inventor, lawyer and writer. It was one of the earliest weapons to be referred to as a " machine gun", being called such in a 1722 shipping manifest, though its operation does not match the modern use of the term. It was never used during any combat operation or war. Production was highly limited and may have been as few as two guns.


Design and patent

The Puckle gun is a tripod-mounted, single-barreled
flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
weapon fitted with a manually operated revolving
cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...
; Puckle advertised its main application as an anti- boarding gun for use on ships. The barrel was long with a bore of . The cylinder held 6 to 11 shots depending on configuration, and was hand-loaded with powder and shot while detached from the weapon. According to the Patent Office of the United Kingdom, "In the reign of Queen Anne, the law officers of the Crown established as a condition of grant that 'the patentee must by an instrument in writing describe and ascertain the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.'" This gun's patent, number 418 of 1718, was one of the first to provide such a description. T. W. Lee remarked, however, that "James Puckle's patent in 1718 contains more rhetorical fervor than technical rigor."


Two versions

Puckle demonstrated two configurations of the basic design: the first, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second, intended for use against the Muslim Turks, fired unconventional square bullets. The square bullets were considered to be more painful and would cause greater severe wounding. They would, according to the patent, "convince the Turks of the benefits of
Christian civilization Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the History of Western civilization, history and formation of Western society. Throughout history of Christianity, its long history, the Christian Church, Church has been a major source of so ...
". The weapon was also reported as able to fire shot, with each discharge containing sixteen musket balls.


Operation

The Puckle gun firing mechanism is similar to a conventional flintlock musket. After each shot, a crank on the rear of the threaded shaft that runs through the cylinder is turned, allowing the cylinder to be rotated by hand to the next chamber. Rotating the cylinder causes a slot-and-stud mechanism to close the firing pan on the previous chamber and open the next ready to be primed. The crank is then screwed tight again, locking the tapered end of the chamber into the barrel to form a gas-tight seal. The flintlock mechanism is then primed and the weapon fired by operating a long trigger lever which extended down to about the level of the operator's waist. To reload, the crank handle can be unscrewed completely to detach the cylinder, which can then be replaced with a fresh one. In this way it is similar to earlier breech-loading swivel guns with a detachable chamber which could be loaded prior to use. The cylinder appears to have been referred to as a "charger" in contemporary documentation. All known examples of Puckle guns have a folding
tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...
mount. The gun is balanced well on the tripod and can be elevated and traversed by the operator to aim it.


Production and use

A prototype was shown in 1717 to
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
's
Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...
, who were not impressed. At a later public trial held in 1722, a Puckle gun was able to fire 63 shots in seven minutes (approximately nine rounds per minute) in the midst of a driving rain storm. A rate of nine rounds per minute compared favourably to musketeers of the period, who could be expected to fire between two and five rounds per minute depending on the quality of the troops, with experienced troops expected to reliably manage three rounds a minute under fair conditions; it was, however, inferior in fire rate to earlier repeating weapons such as the Kalthoff repeater, which fired up to six times faster. The Puckle gun drew few investors and never achieved mass production or sales to the British armed forces. As with other designs of the time it was hampered by "clumsy and undependable flintlock ignition" and other mechanical problems. A leaflet of the period sarcastically observed of the venture that "they're only wounded who hold shares therein". Production was highly limited and may have been as few as just two guns, one a crude prototype made of iron, the other a finished weapon made from brass.
John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu Major-General John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, (1690 – 5 July 1749), styled Viscount Monthermer until 1705 and Marquess of Monthermer between 1705 and 1709, was a British Army officer, courtier and the fifth Grand Master of the Premier Gr ...
,
Master-General of the Ordnance The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...
during 1740–1749, purchased two guns for an unsuccessful expedition in 1722 to capture
St Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...
and St Vincent. While shipping manifests state "2 Machine Guns of Puckles" (sic) were among the cargo that departed from
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
, there is no evidence that the guns were ever used in battle.


Surviving examples

Two original examples are on display at former Montagu homes: one at Boughton House and another at Beaulieu Palace House. There is a replica of a Puckle gun at
Buckler's Hard Buckler's Hard is a hamlet in the civil parish of Beaulieu, in the New Forest district, in the county of Hampshire, England, on the banks of the Beaulieu River. With its two rows of Georgian cottages running down to the river, Buckler's Ha ...
Maritime Museum in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
. Blackmore's ''British Military Firearms 1650–1850'' lists "Puckle's brass gun in the Tower of London" as illustration 77, though this appears to have been a gun belonging to the former Montagu estate (at that point owned by the Buccleuch family) on loan to the Tower at the time. There is another example from China's Palace Museum in the
Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...
in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
. According to the official record, it was among the three Puckle guns that were given as gift to the
emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
in 1804. The Chinese named them ''lunzipao'' (轮子炮), meaning "wheel gun". The curators did not know its true origin, and mistook the
flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
as the sight, and that the gun was fired by a lit match. One example of brass Puckle gun was apparently bought by Tsar Pyotr I and delivered to Russia in 1718. Currently it resides in the collection of the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps in Saint Petersburg.


Similar guns


Collier revolver

Elisha Collier invented a flintlock revolver in 1814, nearly a hundred years after the Puckle gun (though examples of flintlock and matchlock revolvers exist much earlier, with the earliest known dating back to the 15th century). Unlike the Puckle, the cylinder of the Collier was not interchangeable, slowing reloading, but would have had a faster rate of fire for its five chambers due to the integral cylinder advancing of its
single-action A trigger is a mechanism that actuates the function of a ranged weapon such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow, or speargun. The word may also be used to describe a switch that initiates the operation of other non-shooting devices such as a t ...
revolver mechanism, self-priming mechanism, and the lack of a need to screw and unscrew the cylinder between shots.


Remington-pattern revolvers

During the period between the widespread adoption of the revolver, but prior to widespread use of cartridges, a common method of increasing reload speed was to replace a revolver's entire cylinder with another pre-loaded one, similar to the Puckle gun. This practice was primarily done on Remington revolvers, as their cylinders were easily removable and were held by a cylinder pin, unlike the early Colt revolvers which were held together by wedges that went through the cylinder pins.


Confederate revolving cannon

A single example of a two-inch-bore, five-shot
revolver cannon A revolver cannon is a type of autocannon, commonly used as an aircraft gun. It uses a cylinder with multiple chambers, similar to those of a revolver handgun, to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. Some examples are also power-driven, ...
was built and used by the
Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...
during the
Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the siege of Petersburg, it was not a c ...
. It was captured on 27 April 1865 by Union troops and sent for examination to the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
at
West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York (state), New York, General George Washington stationed his headquarters in West Point in the summer and fall of 1779 durin ...
.


In popular culture

In the 2014 video game '' Assassin's Creed: Rogue'', protagonist Shay Cormac has a total of four Puckle guns equipped on his ship, which replace the
swivel gun A swivel gun (or simply swivel) is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rot ...
s used in '' Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag''. However, these Puckle guns possess a comparatively high fire rate of around 120 RPM, in stark contrast to their historical inspiration. The player can upgrade the ship's Puckle guns over the course of the game to be more powerful and have larger breech cylinders to hold more ammunition. In the 2009 video game '' Empire: Total War'', players can use Puckle guns during real-time battles, among other types of foot artillery, after researching certain technologies.


Notes


References


Bibliography

*


External links

*{{cite web , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPC7KiYDshw , author= Forgotten Weapons , title=The Puckle Gun: Repeating Firepower in 1718 , date=25 December 2016 , website=YouTube Revolvers Early revolvers Flintlock repeaters