The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-27
Inventor Of the Calling Gur,, Grain
Drill and other Devices Which
Have Benefited Many.
BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS CAREER
STUDIED MEDICINE AND WORKED
ON INVENTIONS WHILE HERE.
"Reminiscences Of His Visit 60 Europe
His Impressions of Crowned
Heads-Married I'm This City.


day at the home OF his son-in-law, Hugh u.
Penteeost At 1:i5 O'Clock DIR. Calling re-
turned 10 the home of his son-in-law from a
trip down town on business al the Offices or
the Scientific American. Being eighty-four
years old, and accustomed to resting after
any physical effort. he told his. daughter,
Mrs. Pentecost. he would lie down. Shortly
afterwards he commenced 10 breathe heav-
lily and Physician was called, who admin
istered strychnine, but 10 no avail, and Dr.
Calling died in his daughters arms a few
minutes afterwards.
Richard Jordan Calling was born In Hart
ford county. North Carolina. Sept. IL. 1873
While yet a boy he assisted his father in
perfecting a machine for sowing cotton seed
and another for thinning cotton plants. Be-
fore he was twenty-five years old he IN
vented screw for propelling water craft
and went to Washington to get a patent,
only 20 find that Ericsson was little ahead
of him.. He next invented machine for
sowing rice, which he subsequently devel-
oped into a wheat drill that was for many
years the best on the market. He was
pioneer in the idea of driiing-in seed by ma
chinery. About 1874 he came North. and at
tended medical lectures at Indianapolis and
Cincinnati. After taking a degree he To-
Gated in this city. Meanwhile he had in
vented machine for breaking hemp and
a steam pillow, which. however, was never
brought into USE He devoted considerable
time to perfecting his wheat drill and put
ting IL on the market. 1t took many medals
at various state fairs. and It's inventor re-
ceived a gold medal from the American In
stitute and one from Crystal Palace, Lon
don.
But DR.. Gatling's greatest invention, and
the one with which his name is inseparabiy
connected. was the Calling gun. At the be-
ginning of the war, when soldiers were
marching in and out OF Indianapolis. he
conceived the idea of inventing a mechan-
ical gun which should be at once very de-
structive and a labor-saving machine. His
first gun, and the first one ever constructed
on that principle. was constructed in lndi-
annapolis and tested in the spring of 1862
in the presence Of army officers and private
firing three hundred shots per minute In
the fall of that year DR.. Calling gave an
order for six guns TO be manufactured by
Miles Greenwood sc Co. then Leading h nrm
to the attention of the government, but
the Washington authorities were so slow In
appreciating its merits that II was not
adopted as an arm In the military service
until after the close of the war. In 1866
the government ordered one hundred Of
the guns on trial. -f 49,
INTRODUCED ABROAD.
Meanwhile. DIR. Calling had visited Eu-
rope 10 introduce the gun there. as did also
the late General Love, of Indianapolis and
by 1870 1t had been adopted by England,
Russia. China. Turkey and Egypt. II IL
now in use in nearly every army in the
world, and is manufactured at Hartford.
Conn, Birmingham. England. and at other
points.
An article in Self Culture Of October.
1899, had this to say OF DR.. Gatling's trials
and final success with his gun:
mo categorical recital of the doctors
them. Some little flaw in the workman
ship. laborer's haste TO go to dinner, a
slip of a machine-and the gun hangs fire,
balks or is refractory In some other re-
superciliously--it is just what they ex.
pected! The banker who lends the aeces-
sary. funds fails to see results coming
quickly enough and begins TO put on the
thumbscrews: the manufacturer really
cannot go ahead without such or such a
payment in advance. An expensive trip to
fluential gentlemen have TO be wined and
dined. The secretary Of war is very busy
and begs 10 be excused; he will see the
gentleman next week. The inventor IL
referred to so-and-so-some conceited
young lieutenant who makes him dance
attendance until the embryo general has
finished his mornings paper: Then more
tests. Everything turns out lovely: but
there ensues an interminable wait before
the approval comes; IL has bsen hung up
somewhere. All. lifes weary struggle! To
be sure, they say, there Is a silver lining
to every black cloud. though many are
the black clouds that have seemed set
black on both sides However. the gov
and the doctor saw his silver lining First
one government. then another made in
auiries about the gun. In 1867 its inventor
xpan RI urha he &C. 1t.
turn and made much OF. The Prince OF
Wales personally assisted him I'm firing
tests at Woolwich. He was made an hon.
orary member of the Reform and Devon
shire clubs; he hob-nobbed with Gladstone
and the Duke of Cambridge: and ne was
so impressed by the English people that
American alliance exists than the inventor
OF the Calling gun.
NAPOLEON WAS INTERESTED.
I'm Paris. at the exposition. Napoleon III
spent two hours with him examining the
gun. and the Empress Eugene fired one
with her own .ily-white hands. Despite
these attentions the doctor does not seem
to have been favorably impressed with the
Emperor. whom. however, he characterizes
as "a shrewd little chap He was much i'm
pressed by Alexander III OF Russia. "A plain,
unassuming gentleman who not only or
dered guns, but personally escorted tie In
ventor through the Winter Palace let him
handle the crown jewels and touch the iron
bed upon which the great Nicholas died.
and otherwise made himself agreeable dur
ing the doctors two months stay In his
domains. Not only did the powers of Eu-
rope order guns, but so did China Japan
Siam. Egypt and the South American conn-
tries A machine gun that spread deva sta
ton I'm a swath wider than company OF
infantry. and fired inch bullets at the rate
of LOO a minute (to-day, fired electrically.
its speed is slightly in excess OF 1900 per
minuteD was revelation TO most foreign
experts. and no Christian or other power
could long Withstand the temptation OF
moving down its Christian or othe foes at
any such rate and by machinery Under
these circumstances DIR. Calling soon piled
up a bank account that gave promise OF
being inexhaustible. even by railway
routes; at least, he so proposed, but the
account and his fond imaginings. His
agents fieeced him. his friends borrowed
from him and his acquaintance had sure
things for him TO invest In.
He made half a dozen other trips to Eu-
rope, always meeting with as phenomenal
success and as hearty receptions as ne ex-
perienced upon his first visit. and HIS
"reminiscences of those trips were most in
teresting. His recollections OF events I'm
American history and his quaint anecdotes
(for he was most humorous. never worried
and was ready and watchful for a
Joke or repartee) would I'LL a volume of re-
spectacle size and cover a considerable
period in our history. for. remember he
cast his first vote for William Henry Har.
rison.
DIR. Calling spent several years In ex-
perimenting with a one-piece gun of large