Electricity replaces gunpowder in a silent, smokeless automatic cannon that was recently developed to defend against enemy aircraft.
The electric cannon, invented and patented by Virgil Rigsby of San Augustine, Texas, is like an electric motor with reversed poles. Powerful magnetic coils, mounted close to the barrel, are powered by electricity, and a specially designed electrical relay is switched on so that the force of magnetic attraction is always ahead of the projectile.
Fantastic weapon from a 90 year old article! Fantastic, what else to say …
Without changing its location, this weapon is capable of firing 150 bullets or shells filled with explosives per minute.
As already mentioned, the projectiles are ejected from the "muzzle" using a series of electromagnets located along the barrel. The magnets sequentially increase the speed of the projectile after they receive the "signal" and power from the relay.
And here is the inventor himself with his * Gauss gun *.
At that time, journalists called the rate of fire incredible, despite the fact that the "rumble" from the shots was compared to rifle shots, from "22 caliber". The gun was mentioned in Modern Mechanix, September 1934, and Popular Science, November 1936. Earlier, the concept of such a weapon (but in a much larger size) was described in an article in June 14932 in the Modern Mechanix.
Promotional video:
The main problem with this design was that it always required a powerful source of electrical energy. And yet, as the journalists found out, this gun overheated very quickly. Let the Rigsby weapon did not gain popularity in the thirties of the twentieth century, but I must say that until now nothing of the kind has found such use.
