Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-09-04
P0WDERLE5S GUN
4 MARVEL FOR WAR
NEW YORK INVENTOR SAYS 1T WILL
DISCHARGE $4,000 SHOTS PER
MINUTE WITHOUT NOISE.
MODEL STANDS THE TEST.
Pours Ten-Inch Stream of Buckshot
Into Target with Deadly
Accuracy.
WORKED BY CENTRIFUGAL FORCE

The science of war will be revolution
lied and standing armies vastly reduced
if a rapid-fring gun invented by Will
liam Patten Of New York can duplicate
in the field the work of q 1O-inch model
which Mr.. Patten has built and is
demonstrating, writes the New York
Times.
The gun is noiseless, and is fired with
out powder. And this is not all, Mr.. Pat
ten asserts that the gun can discharge
bullets faster than they can be loaded
INTO its magazine. and that the loading
speed is therefore practically the only
limit to the number of shots that can be
hred. He maintains that $4,000 shots Il
minute can be discharged from this new
weapon, and adds that he'll demonstrate
this when he gets full-sized one in COM
mission.
A Centrifugal Force Gun.
The gun is fired by centrifugal force.
All there is to it is big wheel with a
crank for revolving it. In the 1O-inch
model this can be turned by hand. A
motor of 5O-horsepower would be re
CURED to turn the 6-foot model Mr.. Pat
ten hopes to build.
The bullets-not shells such az are
used in other guns, but simply balls of
lead or Steel-are poured into the gun.
The operator revolyes the wheel, and the
bullets begin to pour out in a steady
stream. They fly so fast that they have
the appearance of one long leaden rib
bon, and if the gun were revolved on it's
base the stream of lead would sweep
around in an arc which would NOV
down anything in front of it.
The inventor of the new gun got his
idea from seing a fyWheel burst. That
was five years ago in England, where
Mr.. Patten was born. He came to New
York a year later, and eighteen mouths
ago began work on the model of his gun,
which he had had III mind ever since
leaving England.
The gun is of brass. and looks like
Il meat chopper or a cylindrical pencil
sharpener Mr.. Patten screwed his de-
vice to a table. and then poured hand
full of buckshot into it. At the opposite
side of the room was a target and the
inventor pointed his gun toward this.
Then he began to turn the handle.
The bullets flashed from the mouth of
the little gun in perfect stream. Each
one hit the target. A second test at a
target forty feet away resulted in the
gun sending 400 buckshot into space
five-eights of an inch in diameter in less
than a minute.
To Mount Gun on Auto.
A six-foot gun is the largest Mr.. Pat
ten hopes to build. 1t is to cost $780,
and will weigh only 800 pounds, accord
ing to Mr.: Patten. yet it will be able to
shoot $4,000 half-inch steel bullets a
minute, and kill at 1000 feet. 1t is Mr.
Patterns idea to mount such gun on an
automobile, the motor of which could be
used to operate the gun. He says:
Il believe that my weapon will be
most effective in the customs service, for
one such gun mounted on a customs YES
sci would do much to stop smuggling
which still goes on to a large extent in
South America, and even in the south
ern states of this country.
1T does not require a barrel and, con-
sequently, would readily admit of con-
cealment should occasion for it arise
have proved this by hanging newspa-
per along line and firing at it without
a barrel. The bullets cut it in two as
cleanly as a knife could have done it,
Mr.. Patten has been in communication
with the consul here of one South Amer
lean government with a view to having
his gun adopted for use against Snug
glers, but says that the United States
will have first chance to adopt his gun
for uSe in it's army or navy