Evening star., 1951-12-30
Navy Hydrogen Gun
TO Shoot Bullets al
-Four Miles a Second
By Rennie ToyIor

/ Assoeioted Press Science Reporter
BERKELEY. Calf. Dec. 90
The Navy soon will have a hydro.
gen gun-not H-bomb. but some.
thing that will shoot bullets al
fantastic speeds.
The gun will give bullets a speed
Of around four miles a second OF
perhaps faster. That is about
seven times as fast as the aver
age rifle bullet.
The Navy already has a build
ing in which 1t can do indoor ar
tillery firing, using shells and
rockets up to 3 inches in diameter
1t also is experimenting with
interesting" shapes of bullets and
explosive charges and how they
affect targets Of varying designs
The tests are designed to show
exactly what will happen when q
high explosive shell of the future
hits a tank or a fighting ship.
Report by Researchers.
These things were subjects OF
reports today to the American
Physical Society by a group OF
researchers from the Naval Ord
nance Test Station at Inyokern
Calf. an isolated spot in the
Southern California desert area.
One researcher, DR.. Earle B
Mayfield. is building the hydro.
gen gun.
He said he had been using othel
means of propelling test bullet!
made OF aluminium and magne.
SUM, getting speeds a little shor
OF four miles a second. His OBJ
ject is not to see how fast he ca,
make a bullet go but to find ou
what happens to 1t when It move.
through the air at new high speeds
Burns At High Speed.
i Already he has demonstrated
that it is the bullet rather thar
the air which burns when thu
projectile's ultra speed produce.
a glowing heat. This finding de.
molishes a widespread belief tha
1T is the air around the bullet
rather than the projectile itsel
which burns.
His tests involved the use of al
instrument to analyze the ligh
from the glowing streak produced
by the bullet. The analysis showed
ut to be from burning meta
rather than from burning air.
AT one stroke, this wipes ou
the chances Of anybody ever usint
aluminium or magnesium for s
space ship. Such a ship woule
have to travel about seven mile.
second to escape from the earth.
fgravitational pull. DR.. Mayfield'.
findings show that at that speec
1t would burn up before it gol
beyond the earth's atmosphere
Use Small Projectiles.
| The hydrogen gun will be used
to extend these tests. The first hy-
drogen gun was built by scientists
at the New Mexico School OF
Mines, DR.. Mayfield said. and later
taken up by University of Utah
scientists. When the Navy became
interested the Utah researchers
| iOined them
For test purposes, the gun uses
projectiles smaller than rifle bull
lets. The explosive is liquid hydro
gen. touched off by a little iniec-
ton OF oxygen. Details are conf
Dental.
DR.. Arthur L. Bennett of the
Inyokern group described the in
door artillery range. a building 48O
feet long with cameras set every
20 feet to take pictures of projec-
tiles in flight. These pictures will
show more thoroughly than ever
before what bullet does while II
IS on its way.
The interesting" bullet shapes
and charges were the subjects OF
reports by DR.. John Pearson ano
DR.. John S. Rhinehart but were
not delivered in person because o1
illness. Summaries were published
IN the society'S bulletin. Most o1
the interesting" details are secret