AN ELECTRIC GUN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume X, Issue 2026, 15 September 1883, Page 2

AN ELECTRIC GUN.

Colonel Fosrery created a iseugation at a lecture he gave to an assembly of officers, small-arm inventors, and other experts recently at the Royal United Service Institution, by suddenly drawing from its place of hiding, under the table, a wo.iderful new gun, which he had just brought from Liege. He called it a " baby electric gun." It looked like a pretty carbine, but it had no mechanism and could not possibly g.i off until connected up to the source of electric force. That done, it could be fired with amazing rapidity, 104 rounds having a few days prey iously been fired from it by its inventor, M. Pieper, of Liege, in two minutes. Colonel Fosbery fired two rounds with infinitesimal powder charges. He had prepared himself by secreting under his vest a small circuit oi wire and putting on a banderole, supporting what looked like a two-ounce roll, but was in fact an electric accumulator with: sufficient stored-up energy to discharge 2000 rounds. The cartridges were very innocent-looking mites, and contained no detonating subatauces — nothing, in fact,, but simply powder aivl a wad. The opinion was expressed that the electricgun must ouce more revolutionise the manufacture- t»f sma.ll arms within a brief period..