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Acentrifugal gun is a type of rapid-fire projectile accelerator, like amachine gun but operating on a different principle.[1] Centrifugal guns use a rapidly rotating disc to impart energy to the projectiles, gainingkinetic energy from steam, electricity or other engine source rather than gunpowder. The centrifugal gun was one of a number or different ideas proposed to address the problems of smoke, over-heating, and premature detonation, that were eventually solved by smokeless powder, improved metallurgy, and shock-and-heat stable explosives.
Asteam-powered centrifugal gun built by Charles Dickinson of Boston was tested during theAmerican Civil War.This gun was popularly but incorrectly attributed to pro-Southern Maryland millionaire and inventorRoss Winans.[2] Another hand-cranked centrifugal gun that fired musket balls was designed by Robert McCarty during the same period. Despite repeated tests, including one in the presence ofAbraham Lincoln, McCarty's gun never saw service.John A. Dahlgren however took the idea seriously, and after testing McCarty's prototype, he built a steam-powered 12 pounder which could fire 15 rounds in 16 seconds and had a range of a mile, though with extremely low accuracy. As historianRobert V. Bruce notes: "the sole casualty of centrifugal gunfire during the Civil War seems to have been one ill-starred Army mule".[2]
The idea was tested duringWorld War I by the USBureau of Standards, using a prototype built by lawyer Edward T. Moore, and advertised as a silent machine gun.[3] The prototype used a powerfulelectric motor to spin the gun's groovedrotor. It was abandoned due to extremely poor accuracy.[4] Moore was granted USPTO patent number 1332992.[5] Another design can be found in USPTO patent number 1311492, granted in July 1919.[6] Another effort during World War I was to build a centrifugal gun powered by an aircraft engine. This design was advanced by E. L. Rice and taken seriously byRobert Andrews Millikan and theNational Research Council; the project ultimately proved "beyond resolution".[7]
In an episode fromthe 2007 season of MythBusters Adam and Jamie built a replica of theWinans Steam Gun and found it unreliable.
In 2005, a new centrifugal weapon called DREAD, invented by Charles St George, was discussed inNew Scientist and inAnnals of Improbable Research.[8] DREAD, patented in 2003,[9] claims to launch projectiles with the speed of ahandgun, at about 300 m/s.[10]
SpinLaunch, a California company founded in 2014, is working to launch satellites into space with a system similar to a centrifugal gun.