The Gatling gun was the first firearm repeating succeeded, combining reliability, high rate of fire and ease of recharging in a single device. It was designed by the American inventor Richard J. Gatling in 1861 and patented on May 9, 1862.
According to the definition of the term, the Gatling can be considered the first "gun". Machine guns fire fully automatically by leveraging some of the momentum of rounds fired; however, when just this technology was developed, the Gatling need of an external drive, such as a hand crank or a hydraulic or electric motor.