Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

The Puckle gun (also known as the Defence gun) was a primitive crew-served, manually-operated flintlock ^[1] revolver patented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667-1724) a British inventor, lawyer and writer. It was one of the earliest weapons to be referred to as a “machine gun”, being called such in a 1722 shipping manifest, ^[2] though its operation does not match the modern use of the term.

The Puckle gun is a tripod-mounted, single-barreled flintlock weapon fitted with a manually operated ^[3] revolving cylinder; Puckle advertised its main application as an anti-boarding gun for use on ships. The barrel was 3 feet (0.91 m) long with a bore of 1.25 inches (32 mm). The cylinder held 6 to 11 shots depending on configuration, and was hand-loaded with powder and shot while detached from the weapon. ^{[i] [4]}

Tip o’ the hat to Jim Woosley