![]() ![]() ![]() The sliding breech mechanism was operated by a lever. This gun had 25 barrels, mounted flat on a light metal platform. It was publicly demonstrated in front of the Stock Exchange Building in New York City in the hope of interesting private capital in manufacturing it for army use. 58 gun was builtīillinghurst Requa Battery Gun. Perhaps the weapon most in keeping with the acceptable idea of producing volley fire was the Requa battery. These establish, beyond doubt, if one accepts the United States Patent Office definition, that "Machine Guns" were used in battle by both Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War. The great lengths to which they all went in attempting to market their weapons resulted in many reliable records. The professional standing of the distinguished endorsers was used as a warranty of the product. By this they hoped to prove that their weapon merited trial. When they produced a reliable weapon, they arranged to have its performance witnessed and endorsed by public officials and retired officers of high rank. ![]() The civilian inventors realized they had a difficult sales problem. The military authorities refused to be interested in anything beyond some means of producing volley fire, similar in arrangement to the early organ gun. The effect of the failure of the Colt revolving rifle was to turn development of new weapons entirely over to civilians.
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