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Nordenfelt gun

{{About|the rifle-caliber "machine gun"|the anti-torpedo boat gun|1-inch Nordenfelt gun|the naval gun|QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt}}

{{Infobox weapon

| name = Nordenfelt gun

| image = Nordenfelt machine gun 10 barrels.jpg

| image_size = 300

| caption = Nordenfelt 10 barrel rifle-calibre machine gun (with ammunition feed slots removed). Musée de l'Armée, Paris.

| origin = United Kingdom

| type = Organ gun

| is_ranged = yes

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| designer = Helge Palmcrantz

| design_date = 1873

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File:Thorsten Nordenfelt. Svensk ubåtspionjär.jpg ]]

File:10BarrelNordenfeltGunInNavalAction.jpg

File:5BarrelGardnerGunRoyalNavy.jpg with a Nordenfelt 5-barrel rifle calibre gun, 1890.]]

The Nordenfelt gun was a multiple-barrel organ gun that had a row of up to twelve barrels. It was fired by pulling a lever back and forth and ammunition was gravity fed through chutes for each barrel. It was produced in a number of different calibres up to {{convert|25|mm|abbr=on}}. Larger calibres were also used, but for these calibres the design simply permitted rapid manual loading rather than true automatic fire. This article covers the anti-personnel rifle-calibre (typically {{convert|0.45|in|abbr=on}}) gun.

Development

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 cartridges, fired 3,000 rounds of ammunition in 3 minutes and 3 seconds without stoppage or failure.

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.

At least one Nordenfelt was re-activated for the 1966 film Khartoum and can be seen firing in the river boat sequence.

The Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology in Koblenz has one of this specimen in its collection.

Another one is exhibited in the Romanian Naval Museum in Constanța.

Users

  • {{flag|Brazil}}{{Cite web |title=ArmasBrasil - Metralhadoras Nordenfelt |url=http://www.armasbrasil.com/SecXIX/declinio/ArmasFogo/mtr_nordenfelt.htm |access-date=2022-09-21 |website=www.armasbrasil.com}}{{Cite web |title=Metralhadora Nordenfelt - Sala de Armas |url=https://www.saladearmas.com/noticia/metralhadora-nordenfelt |access-date=2022-09-21 |website=Metralhadora Nordenfelt - Sala de Armas |language=pt-br}}
  • {{flag|United Kingdom|name=British Empire}}
  • {{flag|Chile}}{{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=Gabriele |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956263929 |title=Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-83 : Chile, Peru & Bolivia |date=2016 |others=Giuseppe Rava |isbn=978-1-4728-1406-7 |location=Oxford |oclc=956263929}}
  • {{flagicon image|Flag of Muhammad Ali.svg}} Egypt
  • {{flag|Kingdom of Montenegro}}: Seven were in use at the time of the Balkan Wars.{{Cite book |last=Jowett |first=Philip |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/842879929 |title=Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912-13 : the priming charge for the Great War. |date=2012 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-299-58155-5 |oclc=842879929}}
  • {{flag|Peru}}
  • {{flag|Portugal|1830|name=Portuguese Empire}}{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950611553 |title=Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts |date=2017 |others=Timothy J. Stapleton |isbn=978-1-59884-837-3 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |pages=533 |oclc=950611553}}
  • {{flagicon image|Early_20th_Century_Qajar_Flag.svg}} Qajar Iran: Had a battery of four guns in the 1890s.{{Cite book |last=Farrokh |first=Kaveh |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/651902140 |title=Iran at war, 1500-1988 |date=2011 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84603-491-6 |location=Oxford |oclc=651902140}}
  • {{flag|Qing Empire}}{{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=Gabriele |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1350351894 |title=Armies of the first Sino-Japanese War 1894-95 |date=2022 |others=Giuseppe Rava |isbn=978-1-4728-5130-7 |location=Oxford |oclc=1350351894}}
  • {{flag|Uruguay}}{{Cite journal |last=Del Pino |first=Alberto |date=January 2008 |title=La Ametralladora Nordenfelt y su uso en el Ejército Nacional |journal=Revista Armas y Letras |issue=139–158}}
  • {{flag|Kingdom of Spain}}

== Conflicts ==

  • Egyptian-Ethiopian War{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=John P. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/808492529 |title=Khedive Ismail's army |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-64595-9 |location=London |oclc=808492529}}
  • War of The Pacific
  • Mahdist Wars{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950611553 |title=Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts |date=2017 |others=Timothy J. Stapleton |isbn=978-1-59884-837-3 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |pages=388, 606 |oclc=950611553}}
  • Revolution of Quebracho
  • Jebu War{{Cite web |title=The Soldier's Burden |url=http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/204201.html |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=www.kaiserscross.com}}
  • Philippine-American War
  • Federalist Revolution
  • Revolta Da Armada
  • First Matabele War{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950611553 |title=Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts |date=2017 |others=Timothy J. Stapleton |isbn=978-1-59884-837-3 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |pages=42 |oclc=950611553}}
  • First Sino-Japanese War
  • War of Canudos{{Cite book |last=Da Cunha |first=Euclides |title=Os Sertões |pages=105, 112}}
  • Revolution of 1897
  • Boxer Rebellion{{Cite web |title=THE GUNS OF THE BOXER REBELLION: PART I: Righteous Fists vs. Magazine Rifles. - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+GUNS+OF+THE+BOXER+REBELLION:+PART+I:+Righteous+Fists+vs.+Magazine...-a0625862368 |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}
  • Balkan Wars

See also

= Weapons of comparable role, performance and era =

References

{{no footnotes|date=September 2016}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

  • George M. Chinn, [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/MG/index.html The Machine Gun. History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons], Volume I, Washington, 1951.
  • C. Sleeman, "The Development of Machine Guns", The North American review, Volume 139, Issue 335, October 1884
  • Ellis, John. 1975. The Social History of the Machine Gun. New York: Pantheon Books.

External links

{{Commons category|Nordenfelt machine guns}}

  • [http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/99835 Handbook for Gardner and Nordenfelt rifle calibre machine guns. 1889, 1891]
  • [http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/99827 Handbook of the 0.45 inch 5 barrel Nordenfelt guns, marks I and II, 1888] at State Library of Victoria
  • [http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/109917 Handbook of the 0.45 inch, 5-barrel Nordenfelt guns, Marks I and II 1894] at State Library of Victoria
  • [http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/114042 Handbook for the 0.303" Nordenfelt 3-barrel, and Gardner 2-barrel, converted from 0.4 and 0.45" M.H. chamber (magazine rifle chamber) : mounted on carriages, field, machine gun, infantry and carriage, parapet, machine gun. London : H.M.S.O. 1900]
  • [http://www.victorianshipmodels.com/antitorpedoboatguns/Nordenfelt/index.html Animations and technical descriptions of 2, 4 and 5-barrel Machine Guns] (Requires QuickTime and not suitable for slow-speed links)
  • [http://www.cerberus.com.au/videos/callvideo.html#nordenfelt Nordenfelt Video]—video of Nordenfelt machine gun firing
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyG6vobtUeI video of mechanism]

{{Multiple Barrel Firearms}}

{{VictorianEraBritishNavalWeapons}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordenfelt gun}}

Category:Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom

Category:Early machine guns

Category:Multi-barrel machine guns

Category:Weapons of the Ottoman Empire