A new Silent Gun
Yay! It's Friday again. Although it's Friday the 13th, which is supposed to be a bad luck day, I don't really mind cos in my book, Fridays are always good! Haha. Also the number 13 is a good number for the Chinese (or at least the Cantonese), but 14 is a bad number. Anyway, I won't be going into the origins of Friday the 13th cos I think its more of a superstition than anything. Plus, the exact origins of such a day are normally not clear and, more likely than not, lost in history. But if you want to find out more about it, you can click here or here.
Instead I'll go into something more factual, shorter and (in my opinion) more interesting. It's the development of a new type of gun. Now, I am not saying that it is good news, cos this gun is potentially more deadly than convential guns, however, the idea for it is surprisingly simple, which makes it interesting.
Normal guns rely on the explosive power of gunpowder to propel the bullet out from the gun barrel. I'm sure those of you who have fired a gun firing will know how loud, smoky and smelly it is. This new gun aims to counter all that, by changing the propulsion system for the bullet. Specifics of how it works are not available as the gun is currently under commercial secrecy, but basically the gun uses a circular chamber to spin ball bearings to a very high speed before releasing them out through the barrel when the trigger is pressed.
This new gun is called DREAD and was invented by Charles St George, a veteran of the US firearms industry. He claims "a fully developed DREAD gun would be quieter than a conventional gun, less prone to malfunction, and could contain more ammunition". The most lethal thing about this gun is that it doesn't fire one bullet at a time, but releases a volley of about a handful of bullets. Promotional material for DREAD states: "Due to its extraordinary high rate of fire capability, it delivers its bullets 8.5 millimetres apart, thereby delivering more mass to the target than any other weapon."
Well, I am not pro-war, and neither do I support the manufacture of more lethal weapons. However, I think that it's better to have knowledge of where weapons are headed rather than remain ignorant. Cos at the end of the day, whether you read about them or not, the weapons are still getting manufactured and will still be developed. For those of you who don't really like guns, take heart that the world is still quite humane as there are many non-lethal weapons being developed, especially for police use. You can read more about non-lethal weapons here.
Click here for the full article.
Instead I'll go into something more factual, shorter and (in my opinion) more interesting. It's the development of a new type of gun. Now, I am not saying that it is good news, cos this gun is potentially more deadly than convential guns, however, the idea for it is surprisingly simple, which makes it interesting.
Normal guns rely on the explosive power of gunpowder to propel the bullet out from the gun barrel. I'm sure those of you who have fired a gun firing will know how loud, smoky and smelly it is. This new gun aims to counter all that, by changing the propulsion system for the bullet. Specifics of how it works are not available as the gun is currently under commercial secrecy, but basically the gun uses a circular chamber to spin ball bearings to a very high speed before releasing them out through the barrel when the trigger is pressed.
This new gun is called DREAD and was invented by Charles St George, a veteran of the US firearms industry. He claims "a fully developed DREAD gun would be quieter than a conventional gun, less prone to malfunction, and could contain more ammunition". The most lethal thing about this gun is that it doesn't fire one bullet at a time, but releases a volley of about a handful of bullets. Promotional material for DREAD states: "Due to its extraordinary high rate of fire capability, it delivers its bullets 8.5 millimetres apart, thereby delivering more mass to the target than any other weapon."
Well, I am not pro-war, and neither do I support the manufacture of more lethal weapons. However, I think that it's better to have knowledge of where weapons are headed rather than remain ignorant. Cos at the end of the day, whether you read about them or not, the weapons are still getting manufactured and will still be developed. For those of you who don't really like guns, take heart that the world is still quite humane as there are many non-lethal weapons being developed, especially for police use. You can read more about non-lethal weapons here.
A gun that spits out ball bearings after spinning them to extreme speeds is being developed by a US inventor. The novel design has already caught the imagination of some defence industry experts.
The weapon, called DREAD, was invented by Charles St George, a veteran of the US firearms industry who founded the company Leader Propulsion Systems to promote the idea. He claims a major US defence company has shown an interested in developing it further and has produced a promotional video showing a prototype in action, which can be seen here (Quicktime). He says a new prototype will be developed in August 2005.
The gun consists of a mounted circular chamber that spins the metal ball bearings to high speed. A release mechanism on one side spits the balls out one behind the other, a handful at a time.
Click here for the full article.
posted by CS at 8:28 AM
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