Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-03-25
SILENT PISTOLS IMPOSSIBLE

SILENT PISTOLS IMPOSSIBLE
Exist Only in Imagination Of Play
wrishts, Says the Inventor.
A play now running in New Yorl
depicts q murder by means Of silen
shooting pistol. AS many people art
bound to get an altogether mistaken
notion of what can be done in real life
with a firearms silencer, writes Hiram
Percy Maxim in the Scientific Ameri.
can, 1t seems worth, while to point ou
some little known Information on thu
subject III XII 3&E
In the play crook Is supposed II
have acquired pistol with silencel
attached to it. He demonstrates II II
his friend by actually shooting at "a
vase Of flowers standing on q table
He smashes the vase, or at least, the
vase Is smashed, and there Is no noise
from the pistol.
Later on, in committing burglary
he is betrayed by one of his supposed
pals. He shoots his betrayer noise.
lessly with this pistol, while the police
are waiting in the next room, and es'
| capes. The police are entirely ignor-
ant Of what has occurred.
The impression given is that all the
real crook need do in order to duplicate
in real life what he saw on the stage
is to buy a silencer and attach 1t Il
his pistol and go ahead. Fortunately
| this Is not at all the case, as can bt
easily seen from moments glance al
any pistol.
Now, suppose we attach q silencer Il
the muzzle of the revolver. The 81.
lencer checks the powder gases ant
hold them. Obviously, these gases
imprisoned in, the barrel and silencer
make their escape at the joint between
| the cylinder and the barrel already re.
ferred to. Instead Of there being 8
flash of fire at the muzzle Of the bar
rel, there Is one at the Joint. The re.
volver makes as much noise with the
silencer as without 1t. lf
The writer has had several interest
| ing experiences in demonstrating this
matter before legislative bodies. A few
states have considered passing laws
prohibiting the use. Of any device fol
many cases the writer has been asked
| to appear at hearings and show why
such laws are not only based upor
mistaken ideas, but also why 4 they
would be harmful to our many rife
and target shooters. ,.,
AT these hearings a rifle, revolver
and a Maxim silencer have been used
The silencer was adapted so 1t could
be fitted to a revolver or rifle. J A
box of sand made a safe bulletstop
The rifle would be fired first with the
silencer to show that the silencel
would silence. The device would ther
be placed upon the revolver and one.
half Of those present would be asked
to turn their back and listen to the
shots, both with the silencer and with
out and to say which was which. Those
not turning their back were to see that
the experiment was free from all ques-
ton. q .a- t- .tgi. i.gast @.-
The revolver with the silencer would
/ be emptied into the sand box, then re-
loaded the sflencer detached, and emp
| tied again. Then the gentlemen with
backs turned would be asked which
was which. In no case has 1t been the
writer's experience that the gentlemen
were unanimous Much amusement has
always followed. Why any one should
imagine that It could be silencedg al
the muzzle Is surprising thing In
itself. ST. = C - 8 ~.
Now let us turn to the other small
arm, the automatic pistol. This wea-
pom Is constructed so that when a cart
ridge is exploded the breech immedi-
ately opens, elects the empty shell
throws in the new partridge and closes
the breech again. The recoil performs
all these functions. If we attach g 81
!encer to the, muzzle of one Of these
automatic pictols, the powder gases are
caught and imprisoned and when the
automatic breech opens these impris-
oned gases are released and blow out
backward, sometimes into the face OF
the shooter It makes very danger
GUS experiment and should never he
attempted by those unfamiliar with
firearms. rr. .-.
This is why we have no murders by
crooks using silencers except upon the
stage. The only weapon with which
the silencer readily works Is the rife
But even in the rifle there are several
important limitations. These concern
the noise made by bullet In its flight
through the air. This article is not
quite complete without reference to It.
When the rife bullet travels at We
flight Is noiseless, practically speaking
If, however, the velocity exceeds this
figure its flight makes a noise sound
ing precisely like the crack Of a whip
lash. .-...- ..-a.........
A bullet, or whiplash or any other
object moving through the air is like
boat sailing through the water. II
creates a bow wave" which trails of
to the rear and outwardly When the
velocity of bullet or other object ex-
ceeds a certain amount, this bow wave
begins to break, exactly the same ss
the bow wave from boat breaks when
the boat exceeds its, characteristic
speed. The breaking of a water waves
makes a splashing sound. The break
ing Of an air wave makes a cracking
sound. We never heard 1t until we 81
fenced the gun.
Another very curious thing is the
fact that this breaking" Of the wave
seems to occur when the bullet ac-
quires the velocity Of sound. Any We
!ocity below this appears to be quiet
while any velocity above this makes
the noise. The dividing line appears to
be very sharp one.
Thus even on a rifle a silencer can
rot give absolutely noiseless shooting
| If ammunition Is used which has a
bullet velocity in excess Of LOO feet
per second. The silencer will ELIMINATE
absolutely the report noise made at
the muzzle Of the gun, but 1t can not
Of course, control the noise that may
be made by the bullet in its flight out
beyond the gun. Generally speaking
the only standard rifle ammunition for
sale which has a bullet velocity less
than LOO feet per second Is the %
caliber for the popular small target
shooting rifle. All larger than this
have bullet velocities which exceed l.
100 feet per second.
Shooting to be noiseless enough for
the assassin would then be limited to
the % caliber and also to the use of
rifle. This Is obviously impractical
for the purposes Of crime.