Richard Gatling: The Inventor of the Machine Gun The machine gun made by Richard Gatling deserves to be in the Invention Hall of Fame because it pushed defensive technology in war years ahead of what it would have been if it had never been invented. Richard Gatling was the inventor of the machine gun. He lived between 9/12/1818 and 2/26/1903. The machine gun was first invented and used in 1862 during the Civil War. The machine gun used in the Civil War was the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was a hand-driven machine gun and was the first to solve loading problems, reliability, and sustained burst fire. It had ten rotating barrels, so the heat from the bullets fired would spread between the barrels instead of just one barrel overheating and melting.
