Gardner gun The Gardner gun was an early type of mechanical machine gun . It had one or two barrel s , was fed from a vertical magazine or hopper and was operated by a crank . When the crank was turned , a feed arm positioned a cartridge in the breech , the bolt closed and the weapon fired . Turning the crank further opened the breechblock and extracted the spent case . Development . The Gardner machine gun was invented in 1874 by William Gardner of Toledo , Ohio formerly a captain in the Union army during the American Civil War . After producing a prototype he went to the Pratt and Whitney company , who after a year of development produced a military version of the weapon . A demonstration to officers at the United States Navy yard in 1875 was successful , however they recommended that Pratt and Whitney continue with development of the system , incorporating improvements to the feed system , which were designed by E . G . Parkhurst , an engineer at Pratt and Whitney . The army attended the tests , but showed no interest in the weapon . Parkhurst added many improvements to the gun ' s firing mechanism which made it more reliable . During 1877 additional tests took place with a . 45 calibre ( 11 . 4 mm ) version of the weapon , which determined its muzzle velocity to be 1 , 280 feet per second ( 390 m / s ) . On 17 June 1879 a further demonstration was carried out at the Navy Yard , during which the weapon was presented by Francis A . Pratt and Amos Whitney . The weapon fired a total of 10 , 000 rounds during the test , taking a total elapsed time of 27 minutes 36 seconds , with breaks between firing to resolve an issue with one of the extractors . While the test was not without issues the weapon managed to fire 4 , 722 rounds before the first stoppage , and after the stoppage was resolved it fired approximately 5 , 000 rounds without incident . On 15 January and 17 March 1880 duplicate tests were conducted at Sandy Hook proving ground in front of an Army review board . The weapon performed well , and they recommended that the Army buy a limited number for field evaluation , noting the low cost of the weapon . However the Army declined to purchase . At this point , the British Royal Navy , which had successfully deployed the Gatling gun , became interested in the weapon , and Gardner was invited to England to exhibit his invention . The Admiralty were so impressed by the demonstrations that they adopted the weapon and purchased the rights to produce it in England . Gardner remained in England to supervise the construction of the weapons . The British Army then took an interest in machine guns and after a series of trials selected the Gardner gun . During these tests a five - barrelled Gardner gun fired 16 , 754 rounds before a failure occurred , with only 24 stoppages . When operator - induced errors were taken into account , there were only 4 malfunctions in 10 , 000 rounds fired . The Army adopted the weapon , although its introduction was delayed because of opposition from the Royal Artillery . It saw action in the Mahdist War ( in Sudan ) , notably at the Battle of Abu Klea , where its mechanism proved vulnerable to the environmental conditions of loose sand and dust . There was also the . 577 / 450 Martini - Henry calibre Bira gun , based upon the Gardner gun but with dual barrels , an overhead drum magazine , and designed in Nepal .