12 Facts About Louis Gathmann

Louis Gathmann was a German American engineer and an inventor who is best remembered as the inventor of the Gathmann gun, a large howitzer.

Louis Gathmann's father was a school teacher, and instilled in his son a lifelong love of astronomy.

Louis Gathmann moved to the United States in 1864, and eventually moved to Chicago where he lived until the end of the 19th century, when he moved to Washington, DC Louis Gathmann started his career designing equipment for mills and farms, and held numerous patents.

Louis Gathmann had four mansions built, two in Chicago, one in Washington DC, and one in Baltimore, Maryland.

Louis Gathmann was very interested in astronomy and had three observatories built in the Chicago area during the 1880s, one of which was a domed observatory tower which he had installed on the side of his mansion on Lincoln Avenue.

Louis Gathmann had been in negotiations with Alfred Huntington Isham to produce a 100-ft diameter telescope for the Proctor Memorial Fund, with the plan calling for an international observatory on Mt.

Louis Gathmann was involved in 19th century weather modification projects, and in 1891 received a patent for a rain-making in which liquid carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere by explosion.

Louis Gathmann wrote a book on the subject, Rain Produced At Will.

Louis Gathmann was involved with early aircraft development and had attempted to develop a helicopter, but his successes came in developing fuses for high-explosive ordnance.

Newspapers reported in the spring of 1915 that Louis Gathmann invented the German 42-cm Big Bertha howitzer, and that these plans were subsequently stolen from the US Patent Office.

Louis Gathmann had three sons and two daughters, Otto, Emil, Paul, Mrs Foley and Emma.

Louis Gathmann died on June 3,1917, at the home of his daughter in Washington, DC He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery.