In article ,    
   alan@diceyhome.free-online.co.uk says...   
   > On 07/10/2010 15:33, Bruce Goatly wrote:   
   > > JMS (not you, Jan!) was roundly criticized for the steam gun in "Grey 17 is   
   > > Missing". Jem Stansfield has proved hin right in a recent edition of Bang   
   > > Goes the Theory. Clip at.   
   > >   
   >    
   > I'm afraid not.  What the pop-sci video-bite shows is a steam cannon:    
   > using the power of steam pressure contained in a closed vessel to drive    
   > a close-fitting plug out of a smooth straight pipe.  Archimedes is    
   > supposed to have designed one during the seige of Syracuse, and da Vinci    
   > also designed one, although there is no evidence it was ever built.  The    
   > WWII Holman Projector used the steam from a ship's boiler to launch    
   > anti-aircraft projectiles.   
   >    
   > What JMS wrote was apparantly the use of steam *temperature* to set off    
   > half-a-dozen handgun cartridges loosely fitted into pipe.  Not a lot of    
   > commonality.   
   >    
   >    
   Meh...   
   --    
   Kay Shapero   
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