The Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon

[Ought Six]

This was perhaps the first practical autocannon every created, first fielded in 1872. On a cavalry gun carriage, it weighed about a half ton. It was a five-barreled hand-cranked Gatling-type gun firing up to 40 round per minute of 37mm explosive, canister or solid projectiles out to a maximum range of 2000 meters. It was also available in a naval deck mount that could be easily operated by one man. The naval version was designed to defend larger ships against torpedo boats. For its time, this weapon provided truly awesome firepower within its range.

http://oldbritishguns.com/the-37mm-hotchkiss-revolving-cannon

http://www.victorianshipmodels.com/antitorpedoboatguns/Hotchkiss/index.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkOP8Lwdmgg

[Pandemonium]

Amazing, thank you for that, the reloading system was ingenious, wow, were there any successors?

[Ought Six]

The Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon served right up through the turn of the century, after which it was replaced by more modern single-barreled self-loading autocannon by Hotchkiss, Maxim, Bofors and others. The revolving cannon was used by the U.S. Navy, and was mounted on ships like the battleship U.S.S. Texas, among many others.

[stuntman]

Thats was interesting thx for posting. Must of been the medal storm of its time.

[JCR]

This thing is the actual weapon behind the "flaming onion" myth of WW1 entente flyers.
Apparently range and destructive power were not sufficient for naval combat anymore, while the thing was too heavy to be used as an infantry support weapon.
So the german military used them as AA guns because they fired fast and had a larger caliber than machineguns.

[Ought Six]

Interesting. With a 2000 yard range, a 40rpm rate of fire and a 37mm shell, I can see how they would be quite effective against the relatively slow, low-flying biplanes of the era as they were trying to strafe or bomb ground forces or installations.