Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Bruce Goatly said:   
      
   > 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 .   
      
   Not.   
      
   He's just using steam to create a pressure difference and using that   
   pressure to propel a projectile.  Basically, an air gun but with steam   
   instead of plain air.   
      
   Plus, his talk about how this might be used by solar generators is   
   babble.  That is exactly how power plants work using fossil or nuclear   
   fuels:  Burn the fuel to create heat which boils water which creates   
   steam which turns turbine blades that generate electricity.  And any   
   kid with a magnifying glass is familiar with the concept of focusing   
   the sun's energy to create a hot spot.   
      
   As for how this relates to Garibaldi's bullets in the steam pipe,   
   again: Not.   
      
   Garibaldi wasn't using the steam to create pressure, he was using it to   
   "cook off" the gun powder.  Whether or not the steam is hot enough to   
   do that I don't know, but if it is it wouldn't result in such an easily   
   aimable weapon, the bullets would tumble and scatter.  There is a   
   reason why gun barrels are the same diameter as the projectiles and why   
   they're riffled.  That pipe was neither.   
      
   --    
   Jeffrey Kaplan                                         www.gordol.org   
   Double ROT13 encoded for your protection   
      
   "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily   
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   --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32   
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