NOVEL GAS GUN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1088, 24 April 1913, Page 4

NOVEL GAS GUN.

What is claimed to be a remarkable machine-gun has been invented by Mr Ernest Welsh, a chemist, of Hull. A model gun which has been completed, weighs about a hundredweight, or a third ol what the machine proper would weigh. It is discharged by explosive gases, and it is claimed that it will send projectiles a distance of five miles, which will then ignite whatever they hit. The mechanism, as briefly explained by Mr Welsh, consists in part of three generators which manufacture distinct gases. In the stopper there is a small sponge saturated with a certain fluid, which also gives off a gas; whilst there is, further, a supply of oxygen and hydrogen inside the cylinder. The cylinder rests on a place, and by the setting into motion of a small electric motor on the right hand side of the gun, the gases are explpded, and the projectile is propelled through the muzzle. Mr Welsh states that there is no recoil, and there is no pressure on the outside of the cylinder. All pressure is felt forward. The nature ot the gases is a secret which Mr Welsh would not divulge, but he stated that the gun had been tested with satisfactory results to himself and all who witnessed the demonstration. Pie said ; “It has taken me thirteen years to find out the different gases. The projectiles will ignite on water, and although I have made the stuff I have not found out as yet what will extinguish the flames they cause.’’ The tests referred to were made on some wooden buildings purchased for the occasion. Within thirty seconds of the projectiles striking the buildings, he said, they were in flames, and photographs which he produced showed that the buildings were quickly destroyed. The gun itself is not unlike a maxim in appearance, and the projectiles, Mr Welsh says, are not large —“It is the stuff they contain that does the damage.” He claims he can get as much destructive materials in a projectile of this kind as can be got into a 7lb or 141 b shell. As a chemist he has been accustomed to handling explosives, and it was whilst dealing with various gases that he accidentally discovered those which are used in the gun, and which the gun itself generates. There is no report when the guu is fired.