Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-01-10
A DANGEROUS GUN.
When 1T Let Go the Surrounding Air
Was Filled with Cannon
RnIIa

| W as filled with Cannon
Balls.
81 saw an article in one of the
technical journals recently said
New Orleans engineer, relates the
Times-Democrat, describing "a so
called centrifugal cannon which
some genius in Manchester, England,
was supposed to have invented. The
mechanism was said to consist of
| big wheel, which was revolved at
tremendous rate of. speed while pro-
Jectiles, fed into grooves on its sur
face, were hurled through a barrel,
on the same principe that a boy
throws stone from a<sling. I could
take piece of paper and convince
you in two minutes that the thing is
mechanical impossibility, but the
story interested me because it recalled
a very similar device which I saw
years ago at Louisville, Ky.
SIT was the invention of a German
maehinist named Geisemann, and I
went to look at it at the solicitation
of friend, who imagined he had
struck a big thing. I found Geise-
mann at little shop in the suburbs
Of the city, and he proved to be an
extremely intelligent fellow who, I'M
fortunately, lacked technical educa-
ton. His gun was set up in the
engine room of the place, and I
couldn't help smiling when I saw it.
1t consisted of a hywheel about five
feet in diameter, with an attachment
for holding half a dozen small can
non balls against the rim and re-
leasing them at fixed intervals The
idea was to connect the wheel with
steam engine and, when it attained
a certain velocity, to let loose the
balls just as they passed given point
in the revolution. Geisemann had fig
ured that they would fly off at right
angle and hit target at the other
end of the shed, and he invited me to
be present at the test he was going to
give the following week. To please
my friend went around and I shall
never forget the Iudicrous contre-
temps that wound up the experiment.
about 20 of us were grouped near
the wheel when the inventor slipped
on the engine belt and began to speed
it up. 1 suppose it was making a
couple of hundred revolutions a min
ute when he touched the spring con-
nected with the release mechanism
and big, black cannon ball instantly
scared off at tangent and went
crashing through the skylight. The
next missile struck a huge pile of
casting, bounced off and hit the boiler
with smash like 40 bass drums all
being beaten at once. Exactly where
the others landed I can't say, for by
that time 1 was beating a rapid re-
treat; but it seemed to me that it was
raining cannon balls for at least five
minutes. Several of the visitors were
bowled over like ninepins, and every
thing in the engine room was more or
less damaged except the target. That
escaped unscathed. .:Geisemann him
self had crawled into an ash pit at
the first fire, and when he was
dragged out he was a pitiab,e-looking
object. He was weeping bitterly, but
stuck. to it that he had simply made
an error in his calculation of curves
and that the gun was all right.
ST never saw it again. and supposed
it was consigned. to the scrap heap.
If I ever attend another centrifugal
gun exhibition I shall insist on a con-
ming tower four feet thick as coign
of vantage"