The Nordenfelt Gun was a multiple barrel machine gun that had a row of up to twelve barrels. It was fired by pulling a lever back and forth. It was produced in a number of different calibres from rifle up to 25 mm (1 inch). Larger calibres were also used, but for these calibres the design simply permitted rapid manual loading rather than true automatic fire.
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The weapon was designed by a Swedish engineer, Helge Palmcrantz. He created a mechanism to load and fire a multiple barreled gun by simply moving a single lever backwards and forwards. It was patented in 1873.
Production of the weapon was funded by a Swedish steel producer and banker (later weapons maker) named Thorsten Nordenfelt, who was working in London. The name of the weapon was changed to the Nordenfelt gun. A plant producing the weapon was set up in England, with sales offices in London, and long demonstrations were conducted at several exhibitions. The weapon was adopted by the British Royal Navy, as an addition to their Gatling and Gardner guns.
During a demonstration held at Portsmouth a ten-barrelled version of the weapon, firing rifle calibre bullets fired 3,000 rounds of ammunition in 3 minutes and 3 seconds without stoppage or failure.
The weapon also had relatively impressive performance: During testing in Brazil, a 38 mm (1.5 inch) calibre Nordenfelt gun penetrated deeper into a 5 cm (2 inch) thick iron plate than a 88 mm (9-pounder, 3.5 inch calibre) gun at the same range.
However, with the development of the Maxim gun the weapon was eventually outclassed. Nordenfelt merged in 1888 with the Maxim Gun Company to become Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company Limited.
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