Buckler's Hard...

Spent an overcast day at Buckler’s Hard, an 18th century village on the River Beaulieu, where warships for Nelson’s navy were built. I walked along the riverside path to Beaulieu and back, before looking round the Maritime Museum. One exhibit was a Puckle Gun, an early version of the machine gun, invented by James Puckle, and supposedly capable of firing nine rounds per minute.

I read that Puckle demonstrated two versions of the basic design. One, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant, designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square bullets which were considered to be more damaging and would, according to its patent, convince the Turks of the "benefits of Christian civilization”. The Puckle Gun never achieved mass production. One leaflet of the period sarcastically observed, following the failure of the business venture, that the gun has "only wounded those who hold shares therein”…