The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-05-18

MCCARTY's NEW AND POWERFUL CANNON
FoUR HUNDRED AM Eighty BALLS FIRED IN
ONE MINUTE WITHOUT PowDER-GUNPowDE
SUPERSEDED BY CENTRIFUGAL FoRcE.-An exli-
bition of a new aud unique cannon took place
yesterday afternoon Mt the foot of Thirty third
street, North river. 1t is one of the most sim
gular implements of war that has ever been ex-
hibited to the American people, and places Wi.
mans gun entirely in the shade, sending balls
a. the rate of four hundred and eighty per min
ute without powder or an apparent effort The
gun used yesterday in the experiment had only
an inch bore and was about three feet long This
modest looking gun is attached to wheel about
four feet in diameter, and not over four inches
thick, looking like fange, or as some would
call it, balance wheel. On one side of this
wheel, or fange, is tube which connects the
wheel with hopper, in which are poured the
balls in pFomiscuous manner, as apples
thrown into the hopper of cider mill, the ma
chnery inside Of this wheel receiving the balls,
carrying them around to the gun barrel, and
throwing them through the bore of the gun at
the rate mentioned above, simply by the cen.
trtuga force, and at velocity almost incred-
ible
The motion of the wheel is kept up by means
OF cranks attached to cog wheels, about five
feet in the rear of the large wheel, or feeder to
the gun barrel, a band passing from these wheels
to pulley ON the side of the large wheel. Tie
gun that we saw in operation, using one inch
balls, was worked by six mel. at the cranks as
motive power, one as u feeder, pouring the balls
into the hopper and the inventor Of the gun in
the rear of all, taking aim and shifting the gun
at will from one direction to another. With
the power got up in this way balls poured out of
the gun in perfect stream, and it appeared as
though one continuous shower vas being hurled
against the target, stationed about fifty yards
distant, most of them going through three
thicknesses of boards. The gun was afterwards
raised at an angle of thirty degrees, and its
capacity as 10 distance tested. The river at the
foot OF thirty third street is about and three
fourths miles wide. The gun was stationed
some distance back from the shore, and the
balls were seen to drop into the water amongst
the shad poles towards the west side of the Hud-
son, at the lowest estimate one mile from the
starting point, and all this by centrifugal force,
or the arrangement of the machinery to use this
throwing off power.
When the machinery is put in motion it
sounds like thrrshing machine and has a like
hum about it. The only report about its firing
is the clank Of the balls passing into the large
| wheel. They pass off without the least noise,
no one knowing their departure until they strike
the target at distance The experiment yes
terdny was a complete success, and its operation
putting down street mob, no Implement has
been invented its equal. No band of despera-
does could stand many minutes before an inces.
| SAINT fire of almost five hundred balls per min
ute The same inventor has a thirty-two FOUNDER
on the principle of the gun completed. The
machinery works BY means of steam, and will
throw fully as many balls AS the small gun.
| The inventor of this wonderful, implement Of
war is Mr.. McCarty He spent some ten years
upon the project and has finally obtained gun
+! that bids fair to do all that his widest dreams
pictured to him. They are manufactured by j.
Colwell, No. $40, West Twenty-seventh street,
who can make several per week. A person con-
nee ted with the establishment intends to visit
W arlington the first Of next week, and urge the
War Department to try one of them. Several
OF the officers of regiments forming in the city
witnessed the operation of the gun yesterday,
and understand that Mcleod Murphy intends
to take one for his regiment. 1t is really one OF
the wonders of the day, and it, on future trials,
it sus,ains its yesterdays effort it cannot fail to
become a powerful and useful weapon Of war
fae.-[N. Y. Herald.
PROGRESS OF THE WAR The complete pacifi'