Gardner Gun

Machine gun consisting of two bolt guns placed side by side, and surmounted by a magazine. The bolts which drive the cartridge home, and carry the firing pin and extractor, are operated by a transverse shaft or lock cam turned by a hand crank. One bolt is made to advance while the other retires, except at a certain point, when both are stationary; at this instant a cartridge is fired, and another drops from the feeding device into the well of the other barrel. The simplicity and acce ibility of its mechanism and the lightne of the gun itself are its distinguishing features. Its rapidity of fire is not over 600 per minute, much le than the Gatling; a serious fault is in the dependence of the feed upon the motion of both bolts, since an accidental break in one bolt might disable the gun.