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James Puckle (1667–1724) was an English inventor, lawyer and writer from London chiefly remembered for his invention of the Defence Gun (better known as the Puckle Gun), a multi-shot gun mounted on a stand capable of (depending on which version) firing nine rounds per minute. The "Puckle Gun" is sometimes considered the first machine gun and resembles a single-barrelled Gatling Gun. His best-known literary work—which was reprinted as recently as 1900—was The Club, a moral dialogue between a father and son.
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The Puckle gun
In 1718, Puckle demonstrated his new invention, the Defence Gun, a tripod-mounted, single-barreled flintlock weapon fitted with a multishot revolving cylinder, designed for shipboard use to prevent boarding. The barrel was 3 feet (0.91 m) long with a bore of 1.25 inches (32 mm) and a pre-loaded "cylinder" which held 11 charges and could fire 63 shots in 7 minutes at a time when the standard soldier's musket could at best be loaded and fired three times per minute.
Puckle demonstrated two versions of the basic design: one, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant, designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square bullets, which were considered to be more damaging and would convince the Turks of the "benefits of Christian civilization".1
The "Puckle Gun" failed to attract investors and never achieved mass production or sales to the British armed forces. One newspaper of the period observed following the business venture's failure that "those are only wounded who hold shares therein."
According to the Patent Office of the United Kingdom, "In the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain, the law officers of the Crown established as a condition of patent that the inventor must in writing describe the invention and the manner in which it works." James Puckle's 1718 patent for a gun was one of the first to provide such a description.
Blackmore's British Military Firearms 1650–1850 lists "Puckle’s brass gun in the Tower of London" as illustration 77.
The Puckle Gun is featured in Tony Harrison's play Square Rounds.
Works
- The Interest of England considered in an essay upon wooll, our woollen manufactures, and the improvement of trade : with some remarks upon the conceptions of Sir Josiah Child. (1694)
- England's interest, or, A brief discourse of the royal fishery in a letter to a friend (1696)
- A new dialogue between a burgermaster and an English gentleman (1697)
- England's way wealth and honour in a dialogue between and English-man and a Dutch-man. (1699)
- The club; or, A gray cap for a green head. A dialogue between a father and son. (1713)
References
External links
- Puckle's 1718 patent
- Works by or about James Puckle in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
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- This page was last modified on 27 October 2008, at 11:45.
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