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Flintlock guns ignited gun powder by producing a tiny spark, while percussion caps used
mercuric fulminate, an explosive compound you could ignite with a sharp blow. To load a
percussion-cap gun, you poured gunpowder into the breech, stuffed a ball in on top of it, and
placed a mercuric fulminate cap on top of a small nipple. To fire the gun, you cocked a
hammer all the way back and pulled the gun's trigger. The trigger released the hammer,
which swung forward onto the explosive cap. The cap ignited, shooting a small flame down a
tube to the gunpowder. The gunpowder exploded, launching the ball out of the barrel. (Check
out How Flintlock Guns Work for more information on these weapons.)
In the 1800s, the percussion-cap gun slowly gave way to the revolver, which only had to be
reloaded every five or six shots instead of after each shot. In the next section, we'll see how
this system works.
The Revolver
The first revolvers used gunpowder, balls and caps like the earlier percussion-cap pistols.
The shooter would load each of the six chambers in the cylinder with gunpowder and a
projectile, and place separate percussion caps on corresponding nipples. While the loading
procedure was tedious, a shooter could have six rounds fully prepared ahead of time.
In the 1870s, these models were replaced by revolvers that used bullet cartridges instead
of gunpowder and caps. Cartridges are a combination of a projectile (the bullet), a propellant
(gunpowder, for example) and a primer (the explosive cap), all contained in one metal
package.
In a modern revolver, cartridges are loaded into six chambers, each of which can be
positioned in front of the gun's barrel. A spring-loaded hammer is positioned on the other side
of the cylinder, in line with the barrel. The basic idea of the gun is to cock the hammer back,
line up a new cartridge in between the hammer and the barrel and then release the hammer
by pulling a trigger. The spring throws the hammer forward so it hits the primer. The primer
explodes, igniting the propellant, which drives the bullet down the barrel.
The inside of the barrel is lined with spiraling grooves, which spin the bullet to give it
stability. A longer barrel improves stability, since it spins the bullet for longer. Extending the
barrel also increases the speed of the bullet, since the gas pressure accelerates the bullet
for a longer period of time.
In early revolvers, a shooter had to pull the hammer back before each shot and then pull the
trigger to release the hammer. In modern revolvers, simply pulling the trigger will force the
hammer backward and then release it.
You can see how a modern revolver works in the diagram below.
• The propellant burns, releasing a large volume of gas. The gas pressure drives the
bullet down the barrel. The gas pressure also causes the cartridge case to expand,
temporarily sealing the breech. All of the expanding gas pushes forward rather than
backward.
• To reload the gun, the shooter swings the cylinder out and pushes on the ejector
rod to operate the extractor in the middle of the cylinder. The extractor grabs the
base of the spent shells and removes them from the cylinders.
• To reload, the shooter can place individual cartridges into the chambers or load six
at once with a speed loader (basically, a small metal holder with cartridges
secured in the right position).
In double-action revolvers, the shooter can either pull the trigger to cock and fire or pull the
hammer back ahead of time. The advantage of cocking the hammer first is that the trigger
moves more easily when it is time to fire.
Obviously, a revolver is easier to use than a flintlock or a percussion-cap weapon. A shooter
can load six shots at a time and only needs to pull the trigger to fire. But revolvers seem very
limited next to newer technologies: The shooter must pull the trigger for every shot and stop
to reload regularly. On the battlefield, the revolver can't possibly stand up to modern
automatic weapons. The enduring popularity of revolvers is due to the simplicity of their
design. Everything fits together so well that the guns very rarely jam. And since they are
made with a relatively small number of parts, they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
For the home defender and criminals alike, it is an ideal, affordable weapon.
FLINTOFF GUNS:
If you have ever studied American history, you are sure to have heard about the flintlock.
The flintlock mechanism was the first reliable and relatively inexpensive system for firing a
gun, and was hugely popular in colonial America. It was first developed in the mid-1500s and
spread until, by 1660, the English Army adopted the flintlock system for its "Brown Bess"
guns. The Brown Bess became famous because of its widespread use during the American
Revolution. The flintlock remained popular until the mid-1800s, when it was replaced by the
percussion-cap lock. By the time of the civil war, nearly all guns manufactured used the
percussion cap. That means that the flintlock, as a technology, lasted about 300 years!
The flintlock gun and the flintlock itself are fascinating devices. There are at least four things
that make them so interesting:
• Next to the pendulum clock, the flintlock gun was probably the most technologically
advanced device that anyone commonly owned at the time.
• The flintlock is incredibly important historically. Colonial America depended on it for
food, protection and warfare.
• The flintlock itself is amazing from a mechanical standpoint.
• The flintlock is the foundation of all modern guns. If you want to understand how
modern guns work, you get the best view by understanding the flintlock. A flintlock
gun is the simplest reliable gun possible, and it can teach you a great deal about
the technology behind guns in general.
A Little History
Guns have been around for an incredibly long time, and they started with the cannon. The
World Book encyclopedia discusses the first significant use of a cannon at around 1350 AD,
making it one of the oldest pieces of modern technology still in use.
A cannon is a remarkably simple device. It consists of a strong metal tube with a plug at one
end. There is a small hole for a fuse drilled through the tube. You load gunpowder into the
tube from the open end of the cannon and then insert a cannon ball so that the gunpowder
and ball are pressed against the plugged end. You stick a fuse in the small hole and light it to
ignite the gunpowder (or you can pour a little gunpowder in the hole and light the gunpowder
instead of using an actual piece of fuse). The explosion shoots the cannonball away from the
cannon at high speed.
The first guns were essentially hand cannons -- small tubes that the user loaded with
gunpowder and a ball and lit from the outside. Around 1400, hand cannons were fairly
common, and people were even using four-barrel hand cannons! You loaded each little
cannon separately and lit each one when you needed it.
The hand cannon required two technological improvements to make it into a useful tool:
• First, it needed a shape that worked for the shooter -- the early hand cannons were
essentially sticks that the shooter held in his or her hand.
• There had to be a good way to light the gunpowder quickly. Wouldn't it be nice if
you could fire the gun at the touch of a button (trigger)? It is interesting to think of
the early guns as the first button-operated appliances!
A lock is the ignition mechanism for a gun, and several locks preceded the flintlock. For
example, the matchlock was simply a piece of slow-burning rope that you would light ahead
of time and then move into position to light the gunpowder. The slow-burning rope was
attached to a lever that you moved with your finger to rotate it into position -- the first trigger.
Obviously, the matchlock had several problems:
• You had to light the rope ahead of time.
• The rope could burn itself out if you took too long between lighting it and firing the
gun.
• It glowed, so people could see it at night.
• Rainy weather would put it out.
Despite these problems, matchlocks were common for 200 years because they were a better
option than lighting the gunpowder by hand and they were cheap to build.
What the world needed was a way of igniting gunpowder in the barrel of a gun that was
instant, reliable and fairly weatherproof. It also needed to be relatively inexpensive and easy
to make. The flintlock was the technological marvel that solved all of these problems!
When you work with a flintlock and watch a flintlock in action you can see how all of these
pieces work together. A flintlock has three positions for the hammer: uncocked, half-cocked
and fully cocked.
In the fully cocked position, the gun is ready to fire. If the trigger moves the sear just a bit, it
releases the tumbler. In the half-cocked position, you can load the gun. The trigger is locked
in the half-cocked position and cannot release the tumbler. After you fire the gun, it is in the
uncocked position. The following images show you these three positions from both sides of
the lock, which allows you to understand how the sear and tumbler work together:
Note how the shape of the tumbler locks the half-cocked position:
In addition, the frizzen has the ability to move. In the cocked position the frizzen is down,
covering the pan. When the flint strikes it, the frizzen pops out of the way to expose the pan.
The frizzen spring holds the frizzen in both positions.
To use a flintlock, you follow these steps: (see the links at the end of this article for much
more detailed instructions):
• Half-cock the hammer.
• Pour a measure of gunpowder down the barrel.
• Wrap a lead ball (the bullet) in a small piece of cloth or paper and ram it down the
barrel on top of the gunpowder. The bullet/cloth combination will have a nice, tight
fit.
• Place a small amount of gunpowder in the flintlock's pan.
• Snap the frizzen in place over the pan.
• Fully cock the hammer.
• Pull the trigger to fire the gun.
When you fire the gun, the flint strikes the frizzen and shaves off iron to create sparks. The
hammer's blow also snaps the frizzen back to expose the gunpowder in the pan. The pan's
gunpowder ignites, and it flashes through a small hole in the side of the barrel to ignite the
gunpowder inside the barrel. The gun fires!
The Barrel
The barrel of a flintlock is its own technological marvel, especially for the time. A blacksmith
would take a flat piece of iron and beat it into a cylindrical shape around a mandrel -- a long
rod of the proper diameter. By heating the iron to a high enough temperature in a forge, the
blacksmith actually welded the seam along the length of the barrel to form a strong tube.
This process could take days. Barrels ranged anywhere from pistol length (6 to 12 inches, 15
to 30 cm) to long gun length (40 to 60 inches, 102 to 152 cm).
The blacksmith could finish the interior of the barrel as either a smooth bore or a rifled
bore. A smooth bore is just that -- smooth along the entire length of the barrel. The Brown
Bess of the American Revolutionary War was smooth bored. So is any shotgun. Drilling out
the tube with successively larger bits and then polishing with a reamer creates a smooth
bore barrel.
Rifling a barrel is a way of increasing the accuracy of the bullet, whether the bullet is
spherical or cone shaped. To rifle a barrel, you start with a smooth bore and engrave spiral
grooves down the inside of the barrel. A typical pattern is one twist of the grooves in 48
inches (122 cm) of barrel length. As the bullet speeds down the barrel it engages the
grooves, exiting the barrel with a rapid spin (between 1,000 and 3,000 RPM) and traveling at
a speed of 1,000 to 2,000 feet per second (305 to 610 meters per second) through the air.
You can see the spiral grooves cut into this barrel.
Once the barrel is smoothed or rifled, one end is closed off with a breech plug. Then, a
small hole is drilled in the barrel to allow the flame from the flintlock's pan to enter the barrel
and ignite the charge.
A percussion lock (see next page) with the trigger and the
trigger guard
The stock is a fairly intricate piece of carving. It has to accept the barrel, the lock, the trigger
and the trigger guard. In the following two pictures you can see the necessary woodwork,
and you can also see how the trigger and the lock fit together in the stock.
The trigger ready to fit into the stock
The hole in the barrel is tiny. It is hard to see in the picture above, but it is in the middle of a
screw-in piece of this modern flintlock reproduction.
The percussion lock did not last very long -- perhaps 50 years. Manufacturing processes
were developing rapidly at the time and it became possible to integrate the cap, powder and
projectile into a single metal package at low cost. These bullets are what we use today!
How does a gun silencer work?
It is amazing that anything is able to silence a gun, but gun silencers actually work on a very
simple principle.
Imagine a balloon. If you pop a balloon with a pin, it will make a loud noise. But if you were to
untie the end of the balloon and let the air out slowly, you could pop it making very little
noise. That is the basic idea behind a gun silencer.
To fire a bullet from a gun, gunpowder is ignited behind the bullet. The gunpowder creates a
high-pressure pulse of hot gas. The pressure of the gas forces the bullet down the barrel of
the gun. When the bullet exits the end of the barrel, it is like uncorking a bottle. The pressure
behind the bullet is immense, however -- on the order of 3,000 pounds per square inch (psi)
-- so the POP that the gun makes as it is uncorked is extremely loud.
A silencer screws on to the end of the barrel and has a huge volume compared to the barrel
(20 or 30 times greater). With the silencer in place, the pressurized gas behind the bullet has
a big space to expand into. So the pressure of the hot gas falls significantly. When the bullet
finally exits through the hole in the silencer, the pressure being uncorked is much, much
lower -- perhaps 60 psi. Therefore, the sound of the gun firing is much softer
HAND GONNE
The earliest 'hand gonne' was developed in the fifteenth century, but was not a great
influence in battle. It was a small cannon with a touch-hole for ignition. It was unsteady,
required that the user prop it on a stand, brace it with one hand against his chest and use
his other hand to touch a lighted match to the touch-hole, and had an effective range of
only about thirty to fourty yards. It surely must have taken iron nerves to use one of these
against a charging knight, nearly within his lance's reach, when the powder might not
even ignite
FLASH PAN
Users of primitive cannons and 'hand gonnes' came to realize that a more reliable ignition
system was needed. It was just too difficult to use one hand to touch a lit match to an
open hole in the gun barrel in the heat of battle while trying to hold the gun steady with
the other hand. Also, there was often not enough gunpowder exposed at the touch-hole to
ignite reliably. So, the gun designers had to come up with a more reliable system to get
the gunpowder lit in a hurry.
Eventually, a clever invention was devised to solve the problem. The touch hole was
moved to the side of the gun barrel, and a cup was placed at the opening with a lid on it.
This cup would hold a small amount of gunpowder which could be easily ignited. When
the powder began to burn, some of the fire would go through the touch hole and ignite the
gunpowder inside the barrel, thereby firing the gun. This cup was called the "Flash Pan".
The cover on the flash pan prevented the powder from blowing away in the wind or from
getting wet in a fog. The above animation shows a top view of a gun barrel with flash
pan.
All the later ignition systems on guns with a flash pan were designed to automatically
ignite the gunpowder in the flash pan at the press of a lever or trigger. This was
accomplished by either putting the end of a burning wick into the flash pan or using a
flint and steel combination to throw sparks into the flash pan.
MATCHLOCK
The Matchlock was a welcome improvement in the mid-fifteenth century and remained in
use even into the early 1700s, when it was much cheaper to mass produce than the better
classes of firearms with more sophisticated ignition systems. The Matchlock secured a
lighted wick in a moveable arm which, when the trigger was depressed, was brought
down against the flash pan to ignite the powder. This allowed the musketeer to keep both
hands on the gun, improving his aim drastically. The gun had its weaknesses, though. It
took time to ignite the end of the wick, which left the musketeer useless in case of a
surprise attack. Also, it was difficult to keep the wick burning in damp weather. For the
most part, longbowmen were more effective in battle than the musketeers. The one real
advantage the musketeers possessed was the intimidation factor which their weapons
provided. The first important use of musketeers was in 1530 when Francis I organized
units of arquebusiers or matchlock musketeers in the French army.
By 1540 the matchlock design was improved to include a cover plate over the flash pan
which automatically retracted as the trigger was pressed.
The matchlock was the primary firearm used in the conquering of the New World. In
time, the Native Americans (Indians) discovered the weaknesses of this form of ignition
and learned to take advantage of them. Even Henry Hudson was defeated by an Indian
surprise attack in 1609 due to unlit matches. The matchlock was introduced by
Portuguese traders to Eastern countries around 1498, particularly India and Japan, and
was used by them well into the 19th century.
WHEEL LOCK
The Wheel Lock was the next step in firearms evolution. It is said to have been invented
by Johann Kiefuss of Nuremberg in 1517, and the idea probably came from the spring
driven tinder lighter in use at the time. The idea of this mechanism is simple. Have you
ever used a modern lighter which has a flint pressed up against a roughened metal wheel?
When you spin the wheel with your finger, the flint pressed against its surface throws off
sparks. The same system was used in these firearms to create sparks as needed to ignite
the gunpowder to fire the gun. No more waiting to get a wick lit, and no more stressing
about it going out when the fog rolls in.
In 1530, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled over Spain and Austria,
imported the brothers Marquarte to transfer their workshops from Augsburg to Madrid.
They brought to Spain unsurpassed knowledge of firearms production.
The wheel lock design was eventually improved with more durable springs, their main
weak point, and a cover over the wheel mechanism to protect it and keep it dry. The
wheel lock was an expensive gun to make and a matchlock cost less than half as much, so
it was impossible to equip a complete army with the more costly mechanism. Only a
person of substantial wealth could afford one for himself.
By around 1560 German gunsmiths were using wooden stocks and adorning them with
inlays of ivory and horn. At about this time the metal parts were fire-blued to add extra
beauty and to protect against corrosion. Also, metallurgy had improved to the point that
gun barrels were no longer bursting very often. The strongest barrels were of damascene
manufacture. In this process, strips of metal about the thickness of a man's finger are
wound together. Then, another strip is wound around them for the full length of the piece,
then the whole thing is heated and welded. It is hammered and forged into the final shape,
then bored out. The damascene barrel was the only one that could survive being packed
for its full length with gunpowder then fired. Other gun barrels were at risk with only a
quarter of their length packed.
SNAPHAUNCE
The Snaphaunce first appeared around 1570, and was really an early form of the
Flintlock. This mechanism worked by attaching the flint to a spring-loaded arm. When
the trigger is pressed, the cover slides off the flash pan, then the arm snaps forward
striking the flint against a metal plate over the flash pan and hopefully produces enough
sparks to ignite the powder. This mechanism was much simpler and less expensive than
the Wheel Lock. The German gunsmiths, who tended to ignore the technical advances of
other nationalities, continued to produce and improve upon the wheel lock up until the
early 18th century
FLINTLOCK
The Flintlock was developed in France around 1612. A key contributor to this
development was Marin le Bourgeoys who was assigned to the Louvre gun shops by
King Henri IV of France. The Flintlock's manufacture slowly spread throughout Europe,
and by the second half of the century it became more popular than the Wheel Lock and
Snaphaunce. The main difference between the Flintlock and Snaphaunce is that in the
Flintlock the striking surface and flashpan cover are all one piece, where in the
Snaphaunce they are separate mechanisms. This made the mechanism even simpler, less
expensive, and more reliable than its predecessor. This simplicity allowed for more
creative gun designs, such as guns with multiple barrels and miniature pistols which
could be concealed easily inside a garment. By 1664 experiments with rotating-block
repeated fire guns were under way (like a revolver which holds a number of shots in a
rotating cylinder) but such weapons were dangerous to operate and would have to wait
for another century and a half to be made a standard weapon.
The northern Arabs acquired the Snaphaunce and Flintlock in the late 1600s and often
designed their long guns with a sharply curving butt so that they could be tucked under an
arm and fired single-handed from the back of a camel or horse.
In the early 1700s the Brown Bess Flintlock made its appearance. It probably got its
name from the acid-brown treatment of its barrel. I mention this so that any flintlock
owners with those brown-treated guns (like mine!) will understand just how late in the
game they appeared. By this time, the flintlock was accurate up to about 80 yards but
nobody could aim at a man and kill him at 200 yards. A shooter of average experience
could load and fire two to three rounds per minute.
For more information on Flintlocks and Percussion Cap arms and enthusiasts, visit the
Kentucky Long Rifle page at http://www.webpub.com/~jhagee/ky-lr.html.
PERCUSSION CAP
The Percussion Cap ignition system was developed in 1805 by the Reverend John
Forsyth of Aberdeenshire. This firing mechanism is a great step in advancement from its
predecessors because it does not use an exposed flashpan to begin the ignition process.
Instead, it has a simple tube which leads straight into the gun barrel. The key to this
system is the explosive cap which is placed on top of the tube. The cap contains fulminate
of mercury, a chemical compound which explodes when it is struck. This is the same stuff
as is used in the paper or plastic caps in a child's cap gun. As illustrated above, when the
cap is struck by the hammer, the flames from the exploding fulminate of mercury go
down the tube, into the gun barrel, and ignite the powder inside the barrel to propel the
bullet.
This firing mechanism provided a major advance in reliability, since the cap was almost
certain to explode when struck. This mechanism is almost immune to dampness, though
in a rainfall one must still be cautious to avoid getting water in the gun barrel or into the
ignition system while loading the weapon. The percussion cap was the key to making
reliable rotating-block guns (revolvers) which would fire reliably, and in the early 1800s
several manufacturers began producing these multiple-shot sidearms in mass quantities.
The percussion cap firing mechanism gave an individual soldier a weapon of precision
and reliability which was used to devastating effect in the U.S. Civil War.
GUN POWDER
"Black powder is and isn't hard to make depending on which end you look at it from. It is
a long and tiresome task if you make more than ten pounds at a time.
"Out on the West Coast, as in some southern states, the trend by the government is to
prevent its sale with mountains of red tape. Making your own black powder, however, is
not unlawful as yet, as far as I know."
"By weight measure, black powder is made of seventy-five parts saltpeter finely ground,
fifteen parts charcoal, and ten parts sulfur. All ingredients must be fine ground separately.
This can be accomplished with either a mortar and pestle, or with a hand-cranked flour
mill. Never mix all three ingredients before grinding unless you want to turn your mill
into a deadly grenade, or your mortar into a cannon that can blow off your fingers or even
your hand."
"Then the ingredients can be mixed with a small amount of water so the mixture comes
out with biscuit-dough consistency. Usually when I mix the ingredients, I add just enough
stale urine to make the batch bunch about like biscuit dough. The urine, substituted for
water, gives the powder more oxygen and higher performance."
"Flowers of sulfur is ideal for gun powder, and it can be bought in most drug stores in
four-ounce bottles or pound cans."
"It can also be found in pure deposits around volcanoes, and in early times, because it
was found where molten lava issued from the earth, the sulfur condensed around the rims
of the volcanoes was called brimstone."
"Today, in certain places around the world, sulfur is recovered from un- derground
deposits by pumping live steam underground through pipes. The sulfur melts and, being
lighter than water, is easily pumped out at another point close by. Then it is pumped into
big ships that haul it to industries all over the world. That's why you can buy a hundred-
pound sack for about three dollars in most places.
"Saltpeter, the chemical that produces the oxygen for the other ingredients when lit off,
can he made by putting urine and manure of any kind in a big cement tank mixed with
water until you have about three hundred gallons mixed up. Then you put on a tight lid
and let it sit for about ten months. You have to have a drain pipe and valve at the bottom,
and a stainless steel filter screen installed beforehand or you'll have one big mess on your
hands. At the end of that time, you run the liquid that drains off through ashes into
shallow wooden trays lined with plastic sheeting and let them stand for evaporation in the
sun. When the water evaporates, potassium nitrate crystals (saltpeter) will form in the
bottom of the trays."
"In the old days in cities, most outhouses were fitted with trays or drawers under the seats
that could be pulled out from behind the building. They had night-soil collectors who
were paid so much every month by the outhouse owners to keep those drawers emptied,
and they'd come around with a special wagon into which they dumped the contents.
When the wagon was full, it was hauled out to where another fellow bought the contents
and dumped it into concrete tanks where the bacteria works it just like yeast works wine
or bread dough. Then the liquid was run through ashes into shallow tiled or plain concrete
evaporating trays or basins to recover the saltpeter."
"Today, saltpeter can also he bought in most drug stores in bottles or cans."
"Charcoal provides the carbon needed when the powder is lit off. When burning, the
carbon assists in making potassium carbonates and carbon sulfates during the one one
hundredth of a second that it is burning. Most of this is released at the muzzle of a smoke
pole in the form of powder smoke. Some remains in the barrel in the form of fouling and
should be swabbed out about every third shot if the shooter wants the round ball to
continue to shoot true."
"The charcoal should never be made from hardwood as hardwood has too much ash.
Such woods as chinaberry, willow, cottonwood, soft pine with no knots, or redwood and
Western cedar make the best grade charcoal. A fifty-five-gallon drum with a snap-on lid
and a match-stem-sized hole in the lid set over a fire Pit is a good charcoal maker. Take
the wood and chip it or cut it into inch chunks and put a bucketful in the drum. Then
build a hardwood fire under the drum and when smoke begins to spurt from the vent,
light the wood with a match. When the flame goes out, your charcoal is made. Rake the
fire out from under the drum, plug the vent with a bit of asbestos fiber or a nail that fits in
tight, and let the drum sit overnight to cook. You can then crush and powder the charcoal
with a mortar and pestle, or run it through a hand-cranked grain grinder to a flourlike
fineness. "
"By the way, Just yesterday I took time out and made batch of powder, and this time,
when I mixed the ingredients, I added homemade alder charcoal instead of redwood and
improved the powder's performance 100 per cent. I recently bought a tight little sheet-
metal heater stove for camp cooking and by accident discovered that getting a load of
alder going good and then closing it UP tight and dampering it until it went out and
turned cold converted the alder into nice pure charcoal. "
"When making black powder, never add any other ingredients or explosive powders
unless you wish to turn your muzzle loader into a grenade that can kill you or cripple you
for life. Keep your black powder stored in steel, airtight cans in a cool, dry place, and out
of the reach of children. My parents failed to do that, and I've carried powder marks on
my face for the last thirty years. A ten-year-old may think he knows what he's doing, but
ten years don't give him enough prudence to think many things out ahead of time before
he lights that match."
"The nice thing about shooting black powder is that commercial black costs about two
cents a round, and homemade about a half-cent a round. "
As the demand for powder grew in the Southern Appalachians, fairly large operations
came into being for its manufacture. As Jim Moran told us, "Powder was made in this
area. The big powder mill that was around here is gone now--the place burned up and all.
But it was on Boozy Creek, and it was operated back in the early 1800s and possibly
before by the Hughes family. They were also gunsmiths. They were somehow connected
with the blockhouse which was on the Wilderness Road. That was where Boone wintered
after his son was bushwhacked on the Wilderness Road. Now that was quite a settlement
around there. One winter I went up on Timbertree Branch near the blockhouse site and
there were about ten or fifteen cabins around there made out of poplar logs. They were
only about twelve feet square--didn't have any windows or anything in them. I think they
were the residue of that holdup of immigration when those people got that far and they
were afraid to go on. I went back over there about five years ago, but there's none of that
left there now."
"But these Hughes, they ground that powder on millstones. I found that out. I know one
man who found the old order book for the powder mill. He had it photostated. That mill
blew up twice. One time they found shoe tacks in the charcoal. The story was that it was
sabotaged. One time it blew a fellow's hand off."
"Willow charcoal is what they used for the powder. And then saltpeter- you know you
hear about saltpeter caves. Over around Saltville they've found a lot of the vats and stuff
where they leached that out from bat guano. That was done during the Civil War. In fact,
they've uncovered one of those caves in the last ten years or so and found the vats still
intact in the cave. That's Saltville, which is about thirty-five or forty miles north of here.
And the same thing in Big Stone Gap. Powder for the Battle of King's Mountain was
made on Powder Branch near Erwin, Tennessee."
"Making a V-vat entailed using a peg-and-hole construction. The holes were made with a
hand auger; the pegs by whittling down the end of a log with a hatchet and then by
trimming with a knife . The frame was then pounded together with a wooden mallet . A
froe was used to make the side boards. Bolts of wood that were straight-grained and well
seasoned were the best for this purpose. The glut was used as a wedge to split the log
base of the collecting trough. The trough was then hewn out with a foot adze and hatchet.
After the hopper was constructed, twigs were laid in the bottom of the vat, and then
wheat straw was laid on top of the twigs and along the side boards to help keep the vat
from leaking.
"Cave dirt was tested for its nitrate potential by the following procedure: A footprint or
mark was made in the dirt and left for twenty-four hours. If the print was scarcely visible
by the next day, then the dirt was deemed high in niter. A mattock was used to break up
the cave dirt, and a wooden saltpeter paddle was used for digging and scraping The dirt
was removed from the cave in gunny sacks and poured on top of the twig and straw in the
V-vat. Buckets of water were then poured over the saltpeter dirt to leach it of its nitrate or
'Mother liquor'. The mother liquor (also sometimes called 'beer' would run down the sides
of the V-vat and into the split-log base and out into the collecting trough. A dipper gourd
was often used to transfer the mother liquor into a container. This same liquor was poured
again and again over the saltpeter dirt because releaching caused more nitrates to be
dissolved. According to the old reports, releaching went on until the solution was of
sufficient density to float an egg.
"The next step was to combine the mother liquor rich in calcium nitrate with wood ashes
that contain high amounts of potassium hydroxide. The best woodashes for this purpose
were made by burning hardwoods such as oak and hickory. The mother liquor was either
poured directly over the woodashes or the woodashes were leached in barrels and the
leachate directly combined with the mother liquor. Upon combination, a white haze could
be seen , and this white precipitate (calcium hydroxide or 'curds' as it was called) would
slowly sink to the bottom of the barrel. If the solution contained an excess of calcium
nitrate, the product was termed 'in the grease.' An excess of woodashes produced a
condition called 'in the ley.'
The wood ash leachate was poured into the mother liquor until the white curds could no
longer be seen precipitating out of solution. The remaining solution thus contained the
still soluble potassium nitrate. This solution was dipped out into an apple-butter kettle
(or"evaporator'), and a fire started under the kettle. Turnip halves were then thrown into
the boiling solution to help keep it from foaming and to take up the dirty brown color.
Oxblood (or alum) was also added to the boiling liquid and caused the organic matter to
rise to the top of the liquid and form a scum which, with continued boiling, was
constantly ladled off. After a few hours of boiling, the hot liquor was poured through
cheesecloth in order to filter out the remaining scum and organic material. Upon cooling,
fine, bitter, needle-shaped crystals of niter (potassium nitrate) formed in the liquor. These
crystals were then collected and dried. Potassium nitrate crystals were far superior to
calcium or sodium-nitrate crystals because they are non-deliquescent (do not take up
moisture from the air) and, hence, would not make the gunpowder wet and unusable. The
nitrate crystals thus obtained had to be further refined and purified. This purification
procedure was done either by the individual and homemade into gunpowder, or it was
done after the saltpeter crystals were sent to a refinery where the final gunpowder was
made."
SHOT GUN:
Shotguns first came into use in the early 1600s. The first two-barrel shotgun appeared in
1873, and the first modern, hammerless, pump-action shotgun was produced in 1904. By the
turn of the century, they were immensely popular. Many military officers loved their personal
shotguns so much that they brought them along instead of sidearms to World War I, earning
them the nickname "trench guns." Since then, they have become a permanent part of the
military arsenal and a part of the everyday lives of many civilians as well.
Why a shotgun instead of, say, a rifle? Well, to do its job, a projectile must:
• make contact with the target
• hit the target in a critical spot
With a wider stream of potentially deadly projectiles, a shotgun is like using a can of spray
paint if a rifle is like using a felt-tip pen. As long as the target is within its effective range, a
shotgun will give you a much better chance of making critical contact with one pull of the
trigger.
The shotgun is the Swiss-army knife of guns. It is an indispensable tool -- on the farm, in
combat and on the hunt. They are just as useful in non-lethal situations, like for scaring away
pests or for opening locked doors in a police or military situation, as they are for big game
hunting. In this article, you'll find out how shotguns work, what different types are out there
and about the various types of ammo a shotgun can accommodate.
The Basics
Whether you're talking about a handgun, a rifle or a shotgun, all modern guns have to do
some of the same things. They have to send ammunition flying out of a long cylinder called a
barrel, and they have to allow for the loading and unloading of new and spent ammunition.
When you pull the trigger, a hammer or firing pin strikes an explosive charge on the back of a
cartridge or bullet. This causes a small explosion that changes the air pressure in the barrel,
forcing whatever was in front of the explosion (such as a bullet or metal pellets) out the other
side at an extremely fast speed.
The Basics
Whether you're talking about a handgun, a rifle or a shotgun, all modern guns have to do
some of the same things. They have to send ammunition flying out of a long cylinder called a
barrel, and they have to allow for the loading and unloading of new and spent ammunition.
When you pull the trigger, a hammer or firing pin strikes an explosive charge on the back of a
cartridge or bullet. This causes a small explosion that changes the air pressure in the barrel,
forcing whatever was in front of the explosion (such as a bullet or metal pellets) out the other
side at an extremely fast speed.
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Target practice
Shotguns are designed to fire batches of small projectiles instead of single bullets with
each pull of the trigger. These projectiles themselves don't have to be aerodynamic like
bullets and aren't expected to travel long distances. They are designed to cause their worst
damage at closer ranges. Shotgun ammo comes in varying shapes and sizes and includes
lead, steel and bismuth pellets, bean bags, rock salt and rocket-like sabots. Shotguns can
also fire individual metal slugs.
Making a Barrel
Creating a long, straight, consistent hollow tube that can stand up to over 5,000 psi of pressure is
one of the hardest parts of making a shotgun or rifle. First, a gunmaker takes a superstrong
chrome molybdenum or stainless steel bar and uses a specialized gun drill to hollow it out.
Unlike normal drills, most gun drills spin the steel bar instead of the drill bit. As the bit moves
along inside the tube that guides its path, the machine shoots oil down the tube to clear the
debris, lubricate the path and keep it cool. It takes about a half hour to drill out one barrel. This
gets most of the work done, but the resulting hole is usually not large or consistent enough yet. A
second machine reams out the last few thousandths of an inch and makes the diameter
consistent along the whole barrel.
The smaller the gauge number, the wider the barrel. The largest shotgun is a 4-gauge. The
.410 shotgun, the smallest, is an exception to the rule: It's actually a .410-caliber -- it has a
.41-inch barrel diameter.
In general, the smaller the barrel diameter, the less "kick" or recoil the shooter feels from the
gun. Many experts say that a 20-gauge shotgun is a good beginner's gun because it has
relatively little recoil but fires more shot per shell than the smaller-diameter .410-caliber.
One way individual shotguns differ in loading and unloading is in their anatomy. The vast
majority of shotguns are either single-barrel, double-barrel side-by-side or double-barrel
over-under.
The action, or method a shotgun uses for loading and disposing of cartridges, can be:
• autoloading
• pump action
• break action
• bolt action
In the following sections, we'll examine each of these action types
To load a new cartridge, the shooter breaks open the barrel on its hinge, physically places a
cartridge into the chamber and then closes it. In older model shotguns, the shooter would
have to manually cock the hammer and pull the trigger. In most modern shotguns, there's no
need to cock the hammer before pulling the trigger. In most cases after firing the gun, the
shooter then manually removes spent cartridges from the chamber and repeats the process
to fire again. There are both single-barrel and double-barrel shotguns that are break-action.
On modern double-barrel shotguns, there's only one trigger and an automatic or manual
barrel selector (the selector picks which barrel fires).
Bolt Action
Bolt-action shotguns are not all that common, but they work just like bolt-action rifles. The
bolt is a rod attached to a spring, and there's a handle sticking out of it. To load a bolt-action,
the shooter twists the bolt handle up and then pulls it back. This both exposes the chamber
and cocks the firing mechanism. The shooter then loads a magazine into the chamber and
pulls the bolt forward into place. This strips the top cartridge from the magazine, blocks it off
from the magazine and prepares it for firing. After firing the first shot, each time the shooter
pulls the action back and then forward it ejects the spent cartridge, strips the next cartridge
from the magazine and prepares it for firing.
Pump Action
Pump-action shotguns also have a moving bolt; but instead of a handle, their bolt system is
operated by a wooden or composite slide called the fore-end. In this case, the magazine is a
shorter tube under the barrel. First, the shooter fills the magazine with three or more
cartridges. There's tension in the magazine from a spring, It's a bit like putting D-cell
batteries into an old flashlight. He or she then pulls the fore-end to the rear of the gun. This
ejects anything that's in the chamber, cocks the hammer, and loads a shell in the chamber.
Next, the shooter pushes the slide forward, which pushes the block and firing pin into the
firing position against the cartridge. After each fired shot, the shooter repeats this motion to
reload the gun and eject used cartridges.
Autoloading
Autoloaders and semi-automatic shotguns take the pump-action idea one step further, using
similar mechanisms to those employed by machine guns. As the designs get more complex
and have more moving parts, the chances for operator error, misfire and jamming increase
dramatically. Autoloaders are considered less reliable than pump-action and break-action
guns.
The animation below, taken from How Machine Guns Work, shows how a recoil-powered
loading system operates.
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Click and hold the trigger to see how a recoil-action gun fires. Please note that the gun in
the illustration is a fully-automatic machine gun, and appears only as a reference for its
loading system. For simplicity's sake, this animation doesn't show the cartridge-loading,
extraction and ejection mechanisms.
Recoil-operated autoloaders use the force naturally generated by recoil from the firing
process to eject the spent cartridge, get a new one from the magazine and ready it in the
chamber. In this case, the explosion from the cartridge forces both the barrel and the bolt to
travel a couple of inches backwards. This ejects the spent cartridge. The barrel and bolt hit
springs that send them forward again, and the bolt strips a new cartridge into place on the
way. The barrel and bolt lock back into place and are ready to fire again. There are also
short-recoil systems that work similarly but with a greater separation between the movement
of the barrel and the movement of the bolt.
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Click and hold the trigger to see how a blowback-action gun fires. Please note that the gun
in the illustration is a fully-automatic machine gun, and appears only as a reference for its
loading system. For simplicity's sake, this animation doesn't show the cartridge-loading,
extraction and ejection mechanisms.
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An experienced shooter can repeat the motion of firing and then pumping to reload very
quickly. And because the action is all mechanical and linear, it's very simple and unlikely to
fail in action.
Automatic Shotguns
There are automatic shotguns in limited use in the military, including the USAS-12 and the
Franchi SPAS-15. These are rapid-fire, high-impact weapons, allowing the shooter to fire up
to four shots per second with one pull of the trigger. The USAS-12 uses a drum magazine,
and the SPAS-15 uses a box magazine.
Even more powerful is the Pancor Jackhammer, currently just a concept and prototype
weapon. It's an automatic, drum-loaded shotgun made out of plastic. The Jackhammer is
extremely light and has a remarkably small recoil. Most of the recoil energy is captured and
used in loading and firing the next round. As an interesting additional feature, it is possible to
take the drum magazine off the gun, attach a detonator and use it as an anti-personnel
mine that fires all of the cartridges at once when tripped.
Most shotguns are not rifled inside. With standard ammo like lead or steel shot, a rifled barrel
would cause the pieces of shot to bunch up into a tighter pattern, which would defeat the
purpose of using a shotgun.
For shooters who to more tightly control the spread and impact point of their shot, there are
chokes. These are tubes that use a cone or bumpy shape to taper the angle at which ammo
leaves the barrel and the distance it travels. Some of them are rifled, and some are not.
Some are even adjustable on the fly, meaning you can change the effect without removing
the choke.
Choke manufacturers express their expected effects by listing the amount that a choke
constricts the barrel and the percentage of shot that will hit a target area at 40 (or, in some
cases, 25) yards. In general, the more the barrel is constricted, the higher the percentage of
shot hitting the target at 40 yards. But this is all relative to the size and type of shot. Because
of this and all of the variables involved (weather, wind conditions, individual barrel, etc.), it's
not easy to say precisely how a particular choke will affect the shot pattern, and most
shooters have to learn by trial and error.
Non-explosive slugs are also used for crowd control. When deployed properly, they can act
as a non-lethal deterrent in these situations. They are used in organized shooting
competitions as well.
Types of Ammo: Sabots
A sabot is a specially shaped, two-stage cartridge. It has an outer jacket that helps it travel
longer distances, and it has an inner slug or payload. The jacket is designed to fall away in
flight after it reaches a certain distance. Several hunting sources suggest that sabot
ammunition is only effective at longer distances when shot through a rifled barrel. For a
shotgun hunter, this usually means adding on a rifled choke tube.
Sabot can also describe an arrow-like shape of material that fits in a standard shell. One
particularly frightening sabot-style payload is the flechette. A flechette round contains
hundreds of small, needle- or razor-like projectiles designed to penetrate armor and inflict
painful wounds. They are banned by the Geneva Convention but do still see use in combat
and counter-terrorism from time to time.
Miscellaneous Ammo
• Breaching rounds - Shotguns are commonly used in the military to "unlock" doors
when troops don't know what lies on the other side. Because traditional ammo
tends to ricochet and may end up hitting the shooter or someone inside the room,
breakable "breaching rounds" are often used. These shells contain a metallic
powder that disperses on contact.
• Bean bags - Bean bags are used as shotgun ammo in crowd control situations, as
in most cases they stun the victim but do not inflict lasting damage.
• CS gas grenades - Combat shotguns can be used to disperse tear gas and similar
chemicals.
• Rock salt - Rock salt is a popular home defense ammunition because it reportedly
causes severe pain but usually no permanent damage. See
DesMoinesRegister.com: Suspect shot with rock salt is caught to read about a
case where rock-salt-filled shells were used to disable a burglar.
People will put just about anything in a shotgun and call it ammo. To get an idea of some of
the wacky ammunition produced commercially
Shotgun Laws
Although there are laws in the United States about purchasing, selling, using and carrying
shotguns, these are actually less regulated than most types of guns. Gun-related activity is
regulated by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF). Here are some
of the federal laws that apply to shotguns:
• Buying restrictions: Certain classes of people are not allowed to purchase
shotguns. This includes felons, fugitives, minors under 18, the mentally ill,
dishonorable discharges from the armed forces, those under a court order and
perpetrators of domestic violence.
• Selling restrictions: Sellers must have a federal firearms license or sell through a
dealer with a license. They must be licensed by several federal agencies, including
the BATF and the Department of Justice. Shotgun sales must be documented with
federal form 4473, which maintains the purchaser's information and the gun's serial
number. These laws do not apply to antique firearms.
• Short-barreled shotguns: The National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 makes it
illegal to own shotguns with barrels less than 18 inches in length unless they are
specifically registered as such with the federal government.
States also have their own firearms laws, which can include waiting periods before purchase,
separate registration requirements and bans. See NRA-ILA: Compendium of State Firearms
Laws for a general reference to the gun laws in each U.S. state.
MACHINE GUNS
Historians count the machine gun among the most important technologies of the past 100
years. As much as any other factor, it set the brutal, unrelenting tone of World War I and
World War II, as well as most of the wars since that time. With this machine, one soldier
could fire hundreds of bullets every minute, mowing down an entire platoon in only a few
passes. Military forces had to develop heavy battle equipment, such as tanks, just to
withstand this sort of barrage. This single weapon had a profound effect on the way we wage
war.
In light of their monumental role in history, it's somewhat surprising how simple machine
guns really are. These weapons are remarkable feats of precision engineering, but they work
on some very basic concepts. In this article, we'll look at the standard mechanisms machine
guns use to spit out bullets at such a furious rate.
When you ignite gunpowder, it burns rapidly, producing a lot of hot gas in the process. The
hot gas applies much greater pressure on the powder side of the cannonball than the air in
the atmosphere applies on the other side. This propels the cannonball out of the gun at high
speed.
The first handheld guns were essentially miniature cannons; you loaded some gunpowder, a
steel ball and lit a fuse. Eventually, this technology gave way to trigger-activated weapons,
such as the flintlock gun and the percussion cap.
Flintlock guns ignited gun powder by producing a tiny spark, while percussion caps used
mercuric fulminate, an explosive compound you could ignite with a sharp blow. To load a
percussion cap gun, you poured gunpowder into the breech, stuffed the projectile in on top of
it, and placed a mercuric fulminate cap on top of a small nipple. To fire the gun, you cocked a
hammer all the way back, and pulled the gun's trigger. The trigger released the hammer,
which swung forward onto the explosive cap. The cap ignited, shooting a small flame down a
tube to the gunpowder. The gunpowder exploded, launching the projectile out of the barrel.
(Check out How Flintlock Guns Work for more information on these weapons.)
Needless to say, cartridges were a phenomenal success. In fact, they form the basis for most
modern firearms. In the next section, we'll see how these sorts of weapons work.
The backward motion of the bolt also activates the ejection system. The ejector's job is to
remove the spent shell from the extractor and drive it out of an ejection port. Will discuss this
in more detail later. But first, let's look at how all of this works -- in a revolver.
Revolvers
In the last section, we saw that a cartridge consists of a primer, a propellant and a projectile,
all in one metal package. This simple device is the foundation of most modern firearms. To
see how this works, let's look at a standard double-action revolver.
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Click on the trigger to see how a revolver fires.
This gun has a revolving cylinder, with six breeches for six cartridges. When you pull the
trigger on a revolver, several things happen:
• Initially, the trigger lever pushes the hammer backward.
• As it moves backward, the hammer compresses a metal spring in the
gun stock (the handle).
• At the same time, the trigger rotates the cylinder so the next breech
chamber is positioned in front of the gun barrel.
• When you pull the trigger all the way back, the lever releases the hammer.
• The compressed spring drives the hammer forward.
• The hammer slams into the primer at the back of the cartridge, igniting the primer.
• The primer sets off the propellent.
• The exploding propellent drives the bullet out of the gun at high speed.
The inside of the barrel has a spiral groove cut into it, which serves to spin the bullet as it
exits the gun. This gives the bullet better stability as it flies through the air, increasing
accuracy.
When the propellant explodes, the cartridge case expands. The case temporarily seals the
breech, so all the expanding gas pushes forward rather than backward.
Revolvers, which come in a range of shapes and sizes, are one
of the most popular gun designs of all time. Their design is so
simple that they almost never jam or misfire.
Obviously, this sort of gun is easier to use than a flintlock or a percussion cap weapon. You
can load six shots at a time, and you only have to pull the trigger to fire. But you're still fairly
limited: You have to pull the trigger for every shot, and you need to reload after six shots. You
also have to eject the empty shells from the cylinders manually.
Now let's take a look at how gun manufacturers addressed the problems inherent in
revolvers.
This weapon, the first machine gun to gain widespread popularity, consists of six to 10 gun
barrels positioned in a cylinder. Each barrel has its own breech and firing pin system. To
operate the gun, you turn a crank, which revolves the barrels inside the cylinder. Each barrel
passes under an ammunition hopper, or carrousel magazine, as it reaches the top of the
cylinder. A new cartridge falls into the breech, and the barrel is loaded.
Each firing pin has a small cam head that catches hold of a slanted groove in the gun body.
As each barrel revolves around the cylinder, the groove pulls the pin backward, pushing in
on a tight spring. Just after a new cartridge is loaded into the breech, the firing-pin cam
slides out of the groove, and the spring propels it forward. The pin hits the cartridge, firing the
bullet down the barrel. When each barrel revolves around to the bottom of the cylinder, the
spent cartridge shell falls out of an ejection port.
Fully Automatic
The Gatling gun is often considered a machine gun because it shoots a large number of
bullets in a short amount of time. But unlike modern machine guns, it is not fully automatic.
You have to keep cranking if you want to keep shooting. The first fully automatic machine
gun is credited to an American named Hiram Maxim. Maxim's remarkable gun could shoot
more than 500 rounds per minute, giving it the firepower of about 100 rifles.
Hiram Maxim and one of his early machine gun designs:
When Maxim introduced his weapon to the British army in
1885, he changed the battlefield forever.
The basic idea behind Maxim's gun, as well as the hundreds of machine gun designs that
followed, was to use the power of the cartridge explosion to reload and re-cock the gun after
each shot. There are three basic mechanisms for harnessing this power:
• Recoil systems
• Blowback systems
• Gas mechanisms
In the next couple of sections, we'll discuss each of these systems.
The Gatling gun played an important role in several 19th century battles, but it wasn't until
the early 20th century that the machine gun really established itself. In the next section, we'll
look at the next major step in machine gun evolution.
A similar system is the ammunition hopper, such as the one used in a Gatling gun.
Hoppers are just metal boxes that fit on top of the machine gun mechanism. One by one, the
cartridges fall out of the hopper and into the breech. Hoppers can hold a good amount of
ammunition, and they're easy to reload, but they are fairly cumbersome and only work if the
gun is positioned right side up.
Gun manufacturers are continually adding new modifications to machine guns, but the basic
mechanism has remained the same for more than a hundred years. Whether or not you've
ever held a machine gun, or even seen one, this device has had a profound effect on your
life. Machine guns have had a hand in dissolving nations, repressing revolutions,
overthrowing governments and ending wars. In no uncertain terms, the machine gun is one
of the most important military developments in the history of man.
STUN GUNS
On the old "Star Trek" series, Captain Kirk and his crew never left the ship without their trusty
phasers. One of the coolest things about these weapons was the "stun" setting. Unless
things were completely out of control (as they frequently were), the Enterprise crew always
stunned their adversaries, rendering them temporarily unconscious, rather than killing them.
We're still a ways off from this futuristic weaponry, but millions of police officers, soldiers and
ordinary citizens do carry real-life stun weapons to protect against personal attacks. Like the
fictional phasers of "Star Trek," these devices are designed to temporarily incapacitate a
person without doing any long-term damage.
In this article, we'll find out how stun guns and Taser guns pull off this remarkable feat.
While these weapons are by no means infallible, they can save lives in certain situations.
The electrodes are simply two plates of conducting metal positioned in the circuit with a gap
between them. Since the electrodes are positioned along the circuit, they have a high
voltage difference between them. If you fill this gap with a conductor (say, the attacker's
body), the electrical pulses will try to move from one electrode the other, dumping electricity
into the attacker's nervous system.
Cattle Prods
Cattle prods are similar to stun guns in design -- they apply an electrical current across two
electrodes -- but they serve a completely different function. A stun gun uses an electrical charge
to incapacitate someone, while a cattle prod applies a charge to get a person or animal moving. A
cattle prod only causes pain, it does not significantly affect the muscles and nervous system of
the body.
These two devices differ mainly in voltage. The voltage in a stun gun is high enough to
dump electricity into the entire body. The lower voltage in a cattle prod only shocks someone
at the point of contact.
More Electrodes
These days, most stun-gun models have two pairs of electrodes: an inner pair and an outer
pair. The outer pair, the charge electrodes, are spaced a good distance apart, so current
will only flow if you insert an outside conductor. If the current can't flow across these
electrodes, it flows to the inner pair, the test electrodes. These electrodes are close enough
that the electric current can leap between them. The moving current ionizes the air particles
in the gap, producing a visible spark and crackling noise. This display is mainly intended as a
deterrent: An attacker sees and hears the electricity and knows you're armed. Some stun
guns rely on the element of surprise, rather than warning. These models are disguised as
umbrellas, flashlights or other everyday objects so you can catch an attacker off guard.
These sorts of stun guns are popular with ordinary citizens because they are small, easy-to-
use, and legal in most areas. Police and military forces, on the other hand, typically use
more complex stun-gun designs, with larger ranges. In the next couple of sections, we'll look
at some of these sophisticated stun guns.
Flying Tasers
One popular variation on the conventional stun-gun design is the Taser gun. Taser guns
work the same basic way as ordinary stun guns, except the two charge electrodes aren't
permanently joined to the housing. Instead, they are positioned at the ends of long
conductive wires, attached to the gun's electrical circuit. Pulling the trigger breaks open a
compressed gas cartridge inside the gun. The expanding gas builds pressure behind the
electrodes, launching them through the air, the attached wires trailing behind. (This is the
same basic firing mechanism as in a BB gun.)
The electrodes are affixed with small barbs so that they will grab onto an attacker's clothing.
When the electrodes are attached, the current travels down the wires into the attacker,
stunning him in the same way as a conventional stun gun.
The main advantage of this design is that you can stun attackers from a greater distance
(typically 15 to 20 feet / 4 to 6 meters). The disadvantage is that you only get one shot -- you
have to wind up and re-pack the electrode wires, as well as load a new gas cartridge, each
time you fire. Most Taser models also have ordinary stun-gun electrodes, in case the Taser
electrodes miss the target.
Some Taser guns have a built in shooter-identification system. When a police officer fires
the Taser electrodes, the gun releases dozens of confetti-sized identification tags. These
tags tell investigators which gun was fired, at what location. Some Taser guns also have a
computer system that records the time and of every shot.
Tasers are only one way to conduct current over greater distances. In the next section, we'll
look a relatively new long-range stun weapon that doesn't use any wires at all.
Stun Abuse
The companies that make stun guns specify that the weapons should be used conservatively,
only for self-defense or incapacitating an unruly person. Unfortunately, stun guns are commonly
used as torture devices in many parts of the world.
Amnesty International reports that a number of governments routinely use stun weapons to
extract confessions from political prisoners. These officials know that electrical torture leaves
less evidence than many other methods. The shock from a stun weapon is extremely painful,
but it doesn't leave an obvious wound. So, while stun guns might be relatively safe weapons
when used correctly, they can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands.
Liquid Charge
One of the newer stun weapons is the liquid stun gun. These devices work the same way
as Taser guns except they use a liquid stream to conduct electricity rather than extended
wires.
The gun is hooked up to a tank of highly conductive liquid, typically a mixture of water, salt
and various other conductive elements. When you pull the trigger, electrical current travels
from the gun, through the liquid stream, to the attacker.
These guns have a longer firing range than Taser guns, and you can shoot them many times
in succession. They are generally more cumbersome than Taser guns, however, because
you need to cart the conductive liquid around. High-powered guns work with vehicle-
mounted water cannons, while portable models typically include a water tank backpack.
Many portable units use the same sort of water pumping system as Super Soaker squirt
guns.
Today, stun weaponry is a rapidly growing field of invention. Law enforcement and military
forces need non-lethal weapons to subdue angry mobs without racking up civilian casualties.
Many citizens who are concerned for their safety but aren't comfortable with firearms are
seeking out reliable "safe weapons." As this technology advances, the prospect of Star Trek-
type phasers doesn't seem so far-fetched. The teleporter, however, is another story...
Stun Belt
In addition to incapacitating violent citizens out on the street, stun technology is also used to
subdue criminals behind bars. There are prisons around the world that use stun-belt devices to
keep their inmates in line, and to intimidate them.
Stun belts are basically stun guns that are already attached to potential offenders.
Corrections officers carry a remote-control unit that operates the stun weapon. If an inmate
becomes unruly, the officers activate the belt, which applies a high-voltage charge to the
inmate's kidneys. While the inmate is stunned, officers may drag him back to his cell.