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 25 mm (0.98 in). 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 0.45 in (11 mm)) gun.
8-453: 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
16-497: A cadet in his father's regiment , where he worked doing land surveying . After a couple of years he left the regiment to study at the Technological Institute of Stockholm, later known as KTH Royal Institute of Technology . In partnership with his brother-in-law, Theodor Winborg (1832–1918), Palmcrantz founded a small workshop on Vollmar Yxkullsgatan 25, Södermalm , Stockholm . As number of employees increased along with
24-641: Is exhibited in the Romanian Naval Museum in Constanța . Helge Palmcrantz Helge Palmcrantz (July 7, 1842 – November 22, 1880) was a Swedish inventor and industrialist . Palmcrantz was born at Hammerdal in Jämtland , Sweden. He was the son of Per Gustaf Palmcrantz (1806–1905) and Lovisa Ulrika Nordenmark. His father was a captain in the Jämtland Ranger Regiment . He was enlisted as
32-652: 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
40-566: The Swedish Defense Minister; G. R. Abel. After a couple of modifications and improvements, he patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun and it was bought into the Swedish army. The same year, the machine-gun was exhibited at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair . To reach international success, Palmcrantz met industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt (1842–1920) in 1875 and the latter's company became his British agent. They agreed to market
48-599: 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
56-459: The machine gun under the then well known Nordenfelt brand and his second model would later be known as the Nordenfelt machine gun after his financial backer. It was Nordenfelt who convinced Palmcrantz to increase the caliber of his gun to one inch, making it a suitable weapon for use against the growing threat of torpedo boats . Palmcrantz succumbed to an early death from a bleeding ulcer . He
64-450: The production volume, he moved to a new factory on Kungsholmen , Stockholm, where they manufactured firearms , reaping machines , mowers and other agricultural equipment of their own design. The Palmcrantz factory, Palmcrantzska Fabriken , would later be built on Lövholmen , Stockholm. In 1868, the first version of his machine gun was finished and a demonstration of its capacity was held on Ladugårdsgärdet , Stockholm in front of
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