Square bullets and the Puckle gun

[inspector]

A bit of history and something I thought was funny.

The Puckle gun was a primitive autocannon invented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667–1724) a British inventor, lawyer and writer.

The Puckle gun mechanism was essentially a flintlock revolver; the design concept behind the Puckle gun turned out to be years ahead of what was technologically achievable with 18th century technology. The first practical guns using this design principle, now known as revolver cannons, only appeared in the mid-1940s.

Two versions
Puckle demonstrated two versions of the basic design: one, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant, designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square bullets. The square bullets were considered to be more damaging. They would, according to the patent, convince the Turks of the "benefits of Christian civilization." The square bullets, however, were discontinued due to their unpredictable flight pattern.

Convince the Turks? The Turks would be more keen than anyone on them using the square bullets, they 'd be safe as houses getting shot at

Check out the cylinder on the bottom right

puckle_gun.jpg (50.9 KiB) Viewed 8137 times

[Jack V]

It's a beauty alright. Obviously did not understand anything about ballistic flight of projectiles . But lets not be too critical , remember what they did with the smooth bore Colt Armalite Rifle back in about 1960's . that effort was not much better . Lawyers should stick to laws and stay away from gun design.

[Elek]

I always laugh when watching movies and they're talking about some super assassin snipers bullet.

They get some bullet from a 2km shot a there are "no rifling marks, it's untraceable".

It must have been stabilized by the power of positive thinking

[Jack V]

I guess when you look at it at the time it was all smooth bore cannon thinking . They would use grape shot in cannons at very close range , any kind of junk they could find so maybe square shot is not all that unusual for the times.

[inspector]

Easy to look back with what's now common knowledge and judge I know.

Still funny. Credit to him for what he pioneered though.

[jackles]

one, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant, designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square bullets. The square bullets were considered to be more damaging. They would, according to the patent, convince the Turks of the "benefits of Christian civilization."

Benefits?

They're happy to shoot you either way but if you convert you've got a better chance of getting hit.

"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means"

[puffnstuff]

They get some bullet from a 2km shot a there are "no rifling marks, it's untraceable".

Or its "Russian made, untraceable"

Wellllllll you know it's Russian somehow? Either you're lying about that or you haven't chased up the lead

[lole]

But Russia is hours away!

CBF investigating

[inspector]

Found some pics of the actual beast, not just a drawing

puckle-gun.jpg (80.69 KiB) Viewed 7944 times

[inspector]

puckle_gun.jpg (47.87 KiB) Viewed 7944 times

[inspector]

rifle-muzzles.jpg (26.79 KiB) Viewed 7944 times