Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-09-02

Distance Of Mile and a Half
Submitted 70 the War Department
Just Before Armistiee Was Signed.
Ever since the publication Of brief
dispatch from Washington few days
ago to the effect that the war depart
ment was experimenting with a new
type Of noiseless machine gun that
substituted centrifugal force for pow
der as a propelling power Edward
Thomas Moore, an attorney of New
York. has been receiving letters from
friends asking him If the gun which is
being experimental with now isn't the
same one that he invented and sub
mitted to the war department few
weeks before the armistice was signed.
To a World reporter Mr.. Moore not
only admitted that the gun was his In
vention. but offered to explain its prin-
ciple. For several years prior to the
war Mr.. Moore, who lives in Passaic,
N. j.. was major and judge advocate
IN the New Jersey National Guard by
appointment of Woodrow Wilson as
governor of New Jersey. When the
United States entered the war Major
Moore was pressed into service by the
war department and assigned to New
Jersey as inspector of the draft in
that state. His invention Of the
"Moore centrifugal gum" for which
he and Saul Singer of Cedarsburx, L.
l., obtained patents. was offered to the
war department shortly before the
signing of the armistice. The ccssa-
ton Of hostilities delayed experiments
with the gun. but Major Moore left the
Invention with the bureau of stand
ards for further tests.
david Up to Date"
Mr.. Moore says that the Biblical
story of David Staying Goliath with a
stone which he whirled around his
head in a sling gave him the idea of
applying centrifugal force to the op-
Grafton Of machine gun. bringing
David up to date" is the way he de-
scribed 1t.
There have been other attempts to
invent centrifugal gun. Mr. Moore
does not claim to have originated the
idea. He. says the French, the Rus
slams and the Japanese have expert
mented with centrifugal guns from
time to time, but were never success
full because of their failure to control
the dispersion Of the bullets. From
the tests which Mr.. Moore conducted
for the war department and those now
being conducted, 1t would seem that
Mr.. Moore's claim to fame lies in hav-
ing invented the first practical centrif-
ugal gun.
Control Of the Bullets.
In the gun which Mr.. Moore has In.
vented complete control is obtained
over the dispersion of the bullets by
special patented timing device which
feeds the balls into the gun barrel at
regular rate and elects them at reg
ular intervals and from the same
opening. According to Mr.. Moore, the
tests have shown that his gun is capa-
BILE Of firing ball mile and half
and killing man at that distance;
also that ball fred from the muzzle
of the gun short distance away has
penetrated seven thicknesses Of heavy
planking, which he says is one thick
ness more than bullet from any
army As Colt will penetrate.
Centrifugal force is nothing more
than the tendency which objects have
to fly off in straight line when rap
idly revolved about a fixed center The
most common utilization of centrifu-
gal force is In the modern cream
separator.
Several Problems.
In seeking to apply centrifugal force
to machine gun, however, Mr.. Moore
was confronted with several prob
lens. In the first place, in order to
get sufficient force to propel ball
$50 feet a second, which is the speed
of bullet from Colt automatic, sew
eral thousand revolutions of the gun
barrel second had to be obtained.
This necessitated the construction of
q special type of electric motor to pro-
vide the requisite revolutions. Then
the tensile strength of the metals en-
tering into the composition of the gun,
and particularly Of the barrel. had to
be considered. Mr.. Moore's knowledge
OF electric motors, tensile strength of
metals and Of ballistics being limited,
he consulted experts in those various
lines. and assembled the information
collected from these various sources
before starting to construct the CEN
trifugal gun.
The main parts of the gun as de-
signed by Mr.. Moore consist of an up-
right shaft attached to powerful
electric motor capable of giving 1t a
rotation Of 10000 revolutions min
ute. Attached to the shaft, and at
right angles to 1t, is hollow steel arm
eight inches long which serves as the
gun barrel. Balls instead of bullets
are used, and are half an inch in d.
ameter or so caliber.
The Timing Device.
In Mr.. Mdorc,s opinion the most es-
sential part of the gun is the timing
device. which lets the balls into the
barrel at just the proper time and in
terval to insure their emerging from
the end OF the barrel the instant it
reaches the opening In the stationary
gun covering or casing which incloses
Thought Horse Shoe Lucky.
The belief in the luck-bringIng power
II the horseshoe attained its greatest
Infusion at the end of the eighteenth