On Oct 8, 5:16 am, "Bruce Goatly"  wrote:   
   > Is there anyone here who realized I wasn't being serious? I thought my   
   > caption to the clip sort of gave it away. Maybe I should have used [spit]   
   > emoticons....   
   Apparently at least a few.    It is amusing that you brought this   
   topic because I just caught an episode of "Mythbusters" (not sure if   
   it was a new one or an old one I hadn't seen before) in which the   
   tested a couple of stories about both loaded guns and loose bullets   
   being left inside household ovens - supposedly with deadly results   
   when some unsuspecting person turned the oven on to preheat.   
   Using various bullet calibres (up to 50 cal. if memory serves) they   
   showed that bullets will indeed "cook off" in an oven turned up to   
   high heat.  Except for the 50 cal, none of the loose bullets made   
   their way out of the oven itself.  (I think the .45 broke the inner   
   glass of the over door, but didn't even crack the outer pane.)  In all   
   cases the *cartridge*, rather than the heavier slug, few the furthest   
   and did the most damage.  Basic Newtonian physics.  None of the tests   
   resulted in any object, bullet or cartridge, leaving the oven with   
   enough velocity to inflict a fatal wound even on a human a few feet   
   away.  Zargs seem to have much tougher skin, and the one in "Grey 17"   
   was further away from the business end of the "gun" than Adam and   
   Jamie's ballistics gel victim.   
   Things were much different when a loaded gun was put in the oven.  In   
   that case I think every round escaped from the over (except maybe the .   
   22) and all that did inflicted serious-to-lethal damage on the target   
   a few feet away.  The difference, of course, was the gun.  Not just   
   because of the barrel, but because of the way the chamber and the mass   
   of the gun hold the cartridge in place, giving the energy of the   
   powder only one place to go - towards the slug.  With the chamber and   
   the barrel both containing the expanding gases, the slug quickly   
   reaches a deadly velocity and punches its way out of the oven with   
   enough force to inflict a fatal wound.   
   I remember thinking that, without meaning to, the "Mythbusters" had   
   just provided conclusive proof that JMS's steam gun would never work,   
   even if the steam got hot enough to cook off the rounds.  The next day   
   I saw this thread pop up.  (BTW, I'm pretty sure they also tested the   
   idea of a steam machine gun based on a Civil War design.  Don't   
   remember how that one turned out.  I'm pretty sure they created a   
   *modern* steam gun that would do what the myth said, but I seem to   
   recall that a battlefield-portable gun of this type with a suitable   
   pressure vessel and control valves was simply beyond the technology of   
   the time.  A steam engine for a factory or locomotive was one thing, a   
   steam gun something else entirely.)   
   Regards,   
   Joe   
   Regards,   
   Joe   
   --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32   
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)