coffee mill guns

[MikeyB]

Reading Sears' book on the Peninsula Campaign. I admit I never heard of "coffee mill" guns before. After reading his description, my reaction was, does he mean Gatling guns? Was this a colloquial name for Gatling guns?

But looking at pictures, it looks completely different. So was this just a completely different weapon by a completely different inventor that just so happened to be very similar to Gatling?

Why did the Union abandon them? Were they defective? Was Cameron griping about wasted ammunition again? Or was it actually a useful weapon that just never got the benefactor it needed?

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

The Coffee Mill Gun is not a Gatling Gun.

Union Repeating Gun

The Union Repeating Gun, aka Ager Coffee Mill Gun, was the first practical manual machine gun adopted by the US military.

www.forgottenweapons.com

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

Agar gun - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

96th Pennsylvania Infantry February 1862
(Wikipedia)

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

Thread 'The Ager Coffee Mill Gun'

Feb 14, 2015

The Agar gun (or Ager) was an early rapid fire machine gun developed during the US Civil War. The weapon was nicknamed the Coffee Mill Gun, and was also called the Union Repeating Gun. During the war, inventors were encouraged to create new and better weapons. The Agar machine gun was one of about fifty or so hand-cranked machine guns developed during this period. It was named after its inventor, Wilson Agar (sometimes spelled Wilson Ager). The gun was so named because the cr...ank and the ammunition hopper on the top of the weapon gave it a look similar to that of a common kitchen coffee...

• Robert Gray
• Replies: 10
• Forum: Period Photos & Examinations

• 

 

[7thWisconsin]

The coffee mill gun was a true repeating weapon in that cycling the weapon chambered a new round in the breech and all the rounds were fired from the same barrel. The coffee mill gun was a very effective antipersonnel weapon! There's an account in the article on it in Lord's Encyclopedia in which a Pennsylvania unit engaged and turned back Confederate cavalry with it well outside the range of rifled musket fire. I think it was expensive and ahead of its time.

 

[Dan Kohli]

It was the only rapid fire gun issued by the U.S. government, if I remember correctly. On recollection, I think they were mainly used for guarding bridges and in some roles similar to mountain artillery.

 

[Old Soldier]

I had to smile when I researched this on another thread and found that Ordnance had a dim view of it since it would likely use so much ammunition! Like the Gatling it was seen in the same light as a drain on ammunition.

An extract from Wiki (not the images):
The Agar machine gun fired .58 caliber cartridges. Standard paper cartridges were loaded into re-usable metal tubes. A separate percussion cap was fitted to a nipple at the rear of this tube, effectively creating a centerfire cartridge, and the loaded tubes were placed into a funnel shaped hopper, which gave the weapon its "coffee mill" appearance.

The weapon was fired using a hand crank, located at the rear of the gun. The crank would feed rounds into the weapon from the hopper, and would fire them one by one. A wedge shaped block would rise up and lock the round in place, a cam operated hammer would then strike the percussion cap, firing the round. The empty metal tubes would subsequently be collected in a pan located under the weapon. The metal tubes would then be reloaded and placed back in the hopper. This made quite a bit of work for the gun crews, since the tubes had to be reloaded quickly enough to keep up with the machine gun's relatively high rate of fire.

The Ager Gun was purposely made not to exceed a speed of 120 shots per minute, since it used only a single barrel. The heat from rapid firing was considered a serious drawback. Built-in was a air cooler The heat was carried away by a stream of air driven through the barrel and around a jacket surrounding it. The air was forced through the barrel by the action of a fan connected to, and operated by, the crank that also charged, fired, and ejected the empty containers. This also helped to blow away any unconsumed particles of paper cartridge that were in the chambers of the weapon.

HyperWar: The Machine Gun (Vol. I/Part II)

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I admit I never heard of "coffee mill" guns before.

Have you ever heard of the "Puckle Gun" from 1718 ?

Considered by many as the first modern machine gun.

https://www.instmiltech.com/the-puckle-gun/

I've always been amused that there were two versions.
( one fired round bullets at Christian enemies and the other fired square bullets at Islamic enemies).

 

[7thWisconsin]

Nobody bothered to write a manual for how to employ the weapon. So commanders were left to deduce that it had a barrel and wheels so you must have to use it like an artillery piece. If somebody had developed tactics for offensive and defensive actions during that early period, the gun truly could have been revolutionary.

 

[Dan Kohli]

Have you ever heard of the "Puckle Gun" from 1718 ?

Considered by many as the first modern machine gun.

https://www.instmiltech.com/the-puckle-gun/

I've always been amused that there were two versions.
( one fired round bullets at Christian enemies and the other fired square bullets at Islamic enemies).

Even though it didn't need to be reloaded every time it fired, the rate of fire was nowhere as close to machine gun like as they may think. I would blame it on the tripod.

 

[Dan Kohli]

Have you ever heard of the "Puckle Gun" from 1718 ?

Considered by many as the first modern machine gun.

https://www.instmiltech.com/the-puckle-gun/

I've always been amused that there were two versions.
( one fired round bullets at Christian enemies and the other fired square bullets at Islamic enemies).

Even though it didn't need to be reloaded every time it fired, the rate of fire was nowhere as close to machine gun like as they may think. I would blame that assumption on the tripod.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Even though it didn't need to be reloaded every time it fired, the rate of fire was nowhere as close to machine gun like as they may think. I would blame that assumption on the tripod.

I agree with you 100%.

But I thought some folks may not have heard of this weapon.
And while it was no way like a Gatling gun or Agar/Ager (coffee mill) gun ...
in my opinion, the Puckle gun was very impressive for the early 1700's.