The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-02-20
THE GATLlNG GUN.
The Inventor Tells of the Origin of Hi
Destructive Weapon.

The Inventor Tells of the Origin of His
Destructive Weapon.
Among the conspicuous and inter-
esting figures which have appeared
about the Capitol is that of the famous
inventor of the Calling gun, DR.. Cat
ling, of New Haven, Conn. DR.. Cat
ling is now about seventy-eight years
old, and yet appears as fresh as if still
in the prime of life. He is a well-pre-
served old man, dignifed, courteous
and at times extremely jovial. He re-
lated "reminiscences of the war, and
how he came to invent his celebrated
gun. At that time he was living in
indianapolis, although he is q native
of North Carolina. He. was a resident
of the Hoosier capital about twenty
five years. In speaking of how he
came to see the necessity for the great
invention. he said: CATER the war
was well established, upon almost
every train that arrived at the city
there were brought back from ten to
twenty-five bodies of soldiers. 1t was
my daily practice to go to the depot
almost every morning. There l
found on one side of the Car great long
lines of rough wooden boxes contain
ing the bodies of many a young hero
who had lost his life in the defense of
his country. l inquired from the
friends and such other persons as l
could get information from as to how
they had died. Strange as it may ap-
pear, and to my utter establishment, l
discovered that nine out of ten had
died from some disease, fever or some
thing of that kind, and it is hardly
safe to say that even one out of ten had
met his death in battle. It occurred
to me then that there were too many
men in the army, and some way should
be devised whereby gun could be in
vented that would do the duty of say
some twenty-five or thirty men. This,
of course, would reduce the number of
soldiers, and at the same time perform
the duty of more than were already
enlisted then went to work upon
my gun. l had thought about it, of
course, sometime before, but had never
given it that close consideration until
made the discovery of the many deaths.
According to the estimates made since
the war it has been determined that
it required about seventy-five tons of
lead to kill one man, or, in other
words, seventytive tons of lead had
been nodded and put into bullets and
utilized where one man was killed. !
realize now that if my gun had been
perfected at that time as it is now,
there would not have been the number
| Of deaths from exposure, and fever,
and various other diseases to which
the soldier was naturally exposed,
from the fact that there would not
have been necessity for such large
number of men in the army"
At this point Mr.. Thomas, of the
committee, remarked that DR.. Cat
| ling had been great civilizer. You
have made warfare, through the in
vention of your gun. thing to be
dreaded, rather than encouraged. In
fact, no army can stand for any length
of time against the Calling gun"
The Doctor said that he was now
working upon a gun that would be
able to discharge 5000 rounds in a
minute, and the gun could also be
worked a great length of time without
becoming heated. 1t is not improba-
BILE that the committee will make ar
rangements for the purchase of few
of these guns to mount upon the new
| vessels that are being constructed.
! Washington Letter.