THE ACCLES
MACHINE GUN
Accles Ltd, Birmingham, 1892
Printed by F. Madeley Mole, 36 Cannon Street, Birmingham, 1892
The very rare 1892 edition of the handbook for the Accles Machine Gun. The Accles Machine Gun was an improved version of the Gatling Gun, one of the earliest machine guns which revolutionised warfare in the mid to late 19th century. The Accles Gun was developed by J. G. Accles (1850-1939), who had worked as a Senior Engineer for the Gatling Gun Company, making many improvements to the design of the gun, before taking over ownership of the British Gatling Gun Company in 1891. The gun was built for Accles by Armstrong Mitchell & Co. at their armaments works at Elswick. The handbook may well have been compiled by Armstrong’s at Elswick, as it is very similar in style and content to the Elswick factory handbooks that were produced to accompany their armaments in the 1890’s and early 1900’s.
The book is signed on the front endpapers by Henk Visser (1923-2006), the well known arms collector, international arms dealer, and authority on firearms. His personal bookplate is also attached to the front endpapers.
The handbook Includes a detailed description of the Accles and its mechanism, including weights and dimensions, tools and spare parts. There are also instructions on stripping and assembling the gun, as well as firing and clearing jams and other stoppages. The handook is well illustrated with 4 tipped-in original photographic prints of the gun, and 23 colour plates showing the gun, its mechanism, and the wide variety of tripods, platforms, mountings, naval landing carriages, turrets, limbers etc, that could be deployed with the Accles.
Despite success in trials with the US Navy in 1895, the Accles Gun was never officially adopted by any major military powers or other forces, although it was reputed to have been used against pirates in the Far East. And by the mid 1890’s the Gatling-type hand-cranked weapons had been rendered obsolete by the vastly superior new generation of fully automatic recoil-operated Vickers-Maxim machine guns.
James George Accles (1850-1939) was a firearms engineer and recognised authority on guns and armaments, particularly the Gatling gun. He was born in Bendigo, Australia, in 1850, and in 1867 he became an apprentice at the works of the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Connecticut, where he was trained in the manufacture of small-arms and ammunition. In 1872 Accles came to England and established a works at Ward End, Birmingham for the production of caps for the .42 Russian “Berdan” cartridges, which were being made in the UK in large quantities at that time. In 1873 he went to China on behalf of the US Gatling Gun Company, and whilst there he established factories at Canton and Shanghai for the manufacture of small-arms and ammunition. By 1875 he had returned to England to work for the Gatling Gun Company. From 1876 to 1886, he visited many countries to promote the Gatling Gun - in those countries where the gun was adopted, he established works for its manufacture. In 1887 he built and equipped cartridge works near Foochow and also on the island of Formosa for the Chinese Government. In 1888 Accles started work for the British Gatling Gun Co., and demonstrated the Gatling Gun at Wrexham. By 1889 Accles was constructing engineer-in-charge of the Gatling Gun Co. at its new factory at Holdford Mill, and continued to make various improvements to the Gatling gun. In 1890 the Gatling Gun Co. was wound up because of its debts, and in 1891 Grenfell and Accles was established to take over the business, with the name later being changed to Accles Ltd. Accles was also involved in developing bicycle and motorcycle components. In 1898 Accles Ltd went into liquidation, and the Accles works were sold off in 1900. J. G. Accles went on to do consulting and experimental work in connection with small-arms and ammunition. For three years he was engaged with Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd, doing experimental work on automatic small-arms. He also advised Christopher Cash (of J. and J. Cash) on the development of a humane killing device for animals, which was later manufactured by Accles and Shelvoke. Accles continued to work as consultant to Accles and Shelvoke until his death in 1939.
The Gatling Gun: was a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It was an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling's operation was based on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing-reloading sequence. As the handwheel is cranked, the barrels rotate, and each barrel sequentially loads a single cartridge from a top-mounted magazine, fires off the shot when it reaches a set position, then ejects the spent casing out of the left side at the bottom, after which the barrel rotates back to the top position and is gravity-fed a new round. James George Accles, previously employed by Colt from 1867–1886, developed a modified Gatling gun c.1888 known as the Accles Machine Gun. Around 1895 the American Ordnance Company acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute this weapon in the Americas. It was trialed by the US Navy in December 1895, and was said to be the only weapon to complete the trial out of five competing weapons, but it was not adopted by US or any other armed forces.
The Gatling gun saw occasional use during the American Civil War, which was the first time it was employed in combat. Gatling guns were famously not used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as "Custer's Last Stand", when General Custer chose not to bring Gatling guns with his main force. It was later used in numerous military conflicts, including the Anglo-Zulu War, and the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American War. The Gatling gun was used most successfully during European colonial campaigns against indigenous warriors mounting massed attacks - including the Zulu, the Bedouin, and the Mahdists. Imperial Russia also purchased 400 Gatling guns and used them against Turkmen cavalry and other nomads of central Asia. The British Army first deployed the Gatling gun in 1873-74 during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and used them extensively during the last actions of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war. The Royal Navy also used Gatling guns during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War.
Henk Visser (1923-12006): was was a Dutch firearms collector, philanthropist and businessman. Henk Visser (Hinderikus Lucas Visser) was born in Groningen and became involved in the Dutch resistance against the German forces during World War Two when he was still in High School. He was condemned to death and spent three months on death row before being sent to a prison camp in Germany. After the war he went to work for a munitions factory, De Kruithoorn in Den Bosch (Netherlands), and travelled to Russia and Indonesia, where he began his collection of arms. He later became an independent arms dealer in the middle east.
Condition:
In good condition. The boards are in good condition, with some minor wear to the spine and edges and a few marks. The binding and hinges are secure, having been reinforced in several places with archival paper tape. The text is in good condition with a few marks. The colour plates and photographic prints are in very good condition, with a few marks to the photographs. Signed on the front endpapers by ‘Henk Visser’.
Published: 1892
Illustrated with colour plates, and photographs
Red boards with gilt titling
Dimensions: 155mm x 250mm
Pages: 49 (plus 23 colour plates, 4 photographic prints)
