The New Electric Gun. No Recoil.

Progress, 1 October 1908, Page 409

The New Electric Gun. No Recoil.

(The Editor, Progress.) Dear Sir, — I have noticed in the August Ist, 1908, edition of Progress, at page 337, a description of a new electric gun. The inventor claims an enormous muzzle velocity for the projectile, and says, "there is no recoil!" On the same page Colonel Maude, E.A., speaks of- "The fact that the weapon can confer a velocity of 30,000 teet per second without recoil. 7 ' At page 338 Col. Maude is said to have used these strange words: "Mr. Simpson (the inventor) has not tampered with the Newtonian laws of motion." We must be sceptical of the inventor's ability to tamper with those laws. Most of your readeis having mechanical knowledge, do not trouble to cntici&e the assertion of no recoil, they undei stand re-action, and let it go at that. One of Newton's laws says: "To every action there must be an equal and contrary re-action," there±oi c the foot-pounds, of work done by the explosive will be equal in opposite directions. Suppose aou fired the gun with the breech open, then the impulsive or explosive force would expend itself upon the air behind, and air, being lighter and more elastic than the projectile, the explosive would have very little apparent effect upon the latter. Now with the breech open, consider the gun reversed. Under that condition the inventoi would be firing air, and he would proluiblv claim that theie was no recoil of the projectile that would then obviously represent the gun bieech In the trial that has been made firing a olb. shot from a gun 16ft. long, the gun A\as piobably much heavier than the shot, and therefore the recoil was not noticed. Yours faithfully. Jam.es E. Fulton, M.lnst.C.E.