Nordenfelt gun
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).
Nordenfelt gun
PHGCOM · self-made, photographed at the Musee de l'Armee · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Field
- multiple-barrel firearm and machine gun.
- Region
- United Kingdom.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
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).
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Evidence Panel
original value insufficient · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
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Authority files
wikidata · Q1997907 · wikipedia · Nordenfelt gun
In this article
Development
Development
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.
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 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 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.
Surviving examples
Surviving examples
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 is exhibited in the Romanian Naval Museum in Constanța.
Users
Users
Brazil British Empire Chile Egypt Kingdom of Montenegro: Seven were in use at the time of the Balkan Wars. Peru Portuguese Empire Qing Empire Qajar Iran: Had a battery of four guns in the 1890s. Kingdom of Spain Sweden: 20 ten barrel 1875 models adopted. Mainly issued for fortresses; a few also used by the navy Uruguay
Conflicts
Conflicts
Egyptian-Ethiopian War War of The Pacific Mahdist Wars Revolution of Quebracho Jebu War Philippine-American War Federalist Revolution Revolta Da Armada First Matabele War First Sino-Japanese War Portuguese conquest of the Gaza Empire War of Canudos Revolution of 1897 Boxer Rebellion Balkan Wars
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
Gardner gun: similar hand-cranked machine gun
Chronology
Dated record
Chronology
The full dated record · 1 entries
2021
Nordenfelt Gun digitised by DataCite (Zenodo).
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.ArmasBrasil - Metralhadoras Nordenfelt. www.armasbrasil.com.
- 2.Metralhadora Nordenfelt - Sala de Armas.
- 3.Esposito, Gabriele. Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-83 : Chile, Peru & Bolivia. 2016. 978-1-4728-1406-7.
- 4.Jowett, Philip. Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912-13 : the priming charge for the Great War. Osprey Publishing. 2012. 978-1-299-58155-5.
- 5.Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts. 533. 2017. 978-1-59884-837-3.
- 6.Esposito, Gabriele. Armies of the first Sino-Japanese War 1894-95. 2022. 978-1-4728-5130-7.
- 7.Farrokh, Kaveh. Iran at war, 1500-1988. Osprey Publishing. 2011. 978-1-84603-491-6.
- 8.Helge Palmcrantz and the Swedish Machine Gun, Олсон А. (Stockholm) - энциклопедия МЕМО-РАНДУМ.НЕТ. memo-randum.net.
- 9.Del Pino, Alberto. La Ametralladora Nordenfelt y su uso en el Ejército Nacional. Revista Armas y Letras. 139–158. January 2008.
- 10.Dunn, John P. Khedive Ismail's army. Routledge. 2012. 978-0-415-64595-9.
- 11.Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts. 388, 606. 2017. 978-1-59884-837-3.
- 12.The Soldier's Burden. www.kaiserscross.com.
- 13.Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts. 42. 2017. 978-1-59884-837-3.
- 14.Telo, António José. Moçambique 1895: a campanha de todos os heróis. Tribuna da História. 2004. 978-972-8799-21-2.
- 15.Da Cunha, Euclides. Os Sertões. 105, 112.
- 16.THE GUNS OF THE BOXER REBELLION: PART I: Righteous Fists vs. Magazine Rifles. - Free Online Library. www.thefreelibrary.com.
References
Citations
References
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Broader subject
2- machine gunTerminology
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
- multiple-barrel firearmTerminology
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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