The 1-inch Nordenfelt gun was an early rapid-firing light gun intended to defend larger warships against the new small fast-moving

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...

s in the late 1870s to the 1890s.

Description

The gun was an enlarged version of the successful rifle-calibre Nordenfelt hand-cranked "machine gun" designed by

Helge Palmcrantz Helge Palmcrantz (July 7, 1842 – November 22, 1880) was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. Biography Palmcrantz was born at Hammerdal in Jämtland, Sweden. He was the son of Per Gustaf Palmcrantz (1806–1905) and Lovisa Ulrika Nordenmark ...

and was intended to combine its rapid rate of fire with a projectile capable of deterring attacking torpedo boats. The gun fired a solid steel bullet with hardened tip and brass jacket: under the terms of the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, exploding shells weighing less than 400 grams were not allowed to be used in warfare between the signatory nations. 1-InchNordenfelt4BarrelGunNavalActionDrawing

1-InchNordenfelt4BarrelGunNavalActionDrawing

The gun was used in one, two and four-barrel versions. The ammunition was fed by gravity from a hopper above the breech subdivided into separate columns for each barrel. The gunner loaded and fired the multiple barrels by moving a lever on the right side of the gun forward and backwards. Pulling the lever backwards extracted the fired cartridges, pushing it forward then loaded fresh cartridges into all the barrels, and the final part of the forward motion fired all the barrels, one at a time in quick succession. Hence the gun functioned as a type of

volley gun A volley gun is a gun with multiple single-shot gun barrel, barrels that shoot projectiles in volley fire, either simultaneously or in succession. Although capable of unleashing intense firepower, volley guns differ from modern machine guns in ...

, firing bullets in bursts, compared to the contemporary

Gatling gun The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyc ...

and the true

machine guns A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

which succeeded it such as the

Maxim gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian M ...

, which fired at a steady continuous rate. The gunner was occupied with manually operating the loading and firing lever, while the gun captain aimed the gun and operated the elevation and training handwheels.

Ammunition

File:1-inchNordenfeltCartridgeMkVIDiagram1894.jpg,

Surviving examples

* A 4-barreled gun at United States Army Ordnance Museum, MD, USA
A 4-barreled gun in The Gardens, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia

* ttp://www.ammsbrisbane.com/documentation/nordenfelt_3.html A 2-barreled gun at Queens Park, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia * A 2-barrelled gun at the Australian War Memorial museum, Canberra ACT Australia. * A 4-barrelled gun at the Tower of London * A 5-barrelled gun at

Chatham Historic Dockyard The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, South East England. Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km²) and was one of the Royal Navy's main faciliti ...

* A 2-barreled 1in gun at the QEII Army Memorial Museum Waiouru New Zealand. * A 4-barrelled 25mm gun at the

Royal Norwegian Navy Museum The Royal Norwegian Navy Museum (Norwegian: ''Marinemuseet'') is a museum documenting the history of the Royal Norwegian Navy. It is located at the former main naval base of Karljohansvern in Horten. The museum was founded by C.F. Klinck on 24 Au ...

in Horten.

Notes and references

Bibliography

Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE

External links