Popular Science Monthly 



533 



powder charge in the center of the barrel, 



and a bullet at either end of the charge 



didn't kick, then a 



still bigger gun with 



a shell in the place 



of the bullet, and an 



equal weight of fine 



shot or something of 



the sort at the other 



end of the charge, 



wouldn't kick, either. 



So came about the 



wonderful kickless 



gun, a cannon firing 



a three-inch I shell 



with the velocity of 



1,000 feet a second, 



and yet so light and 



devoid of kick that 



a man has fired one 



in his bare hands. 



There's nothing to 

 it but what I've told 

 you — the projectile 

 ahead of the powder, 

 a charge of shot of 

 weight equal to the 

 projectile behind the 

 powder, two barrels 

 joined at the charge, and no breech- 

 closing apparatus save that which joins 

 the tw^o barrels after loading. When 

 the charge explodes, shell goes one 

 way, fine shot goes the other, 

 down its own barrel. The gun 

 cannot kick because there is 

 no resistance in the gun to 

 the powder pressure, save 

 the chamber walls at the 

 side. The wall pressure, 

 being the same all round, 

 doesn't tend to move 

 them at all. The kick is 

 all given to the shot, 

 which is driven out of 

 the back barrel and which 

 falls to the ground as 

 harmlessly as a charge from 

 a shotgun. 



In the gun as now made, 

 the barrels are made of the 

 lightest, thinnest sort of 

 vanadium steel, the strongest 

 sort of metal. A man can 

 easily pick up and carry the 

 whole gun. 



The throw of a lever at the 

 center of the gun rolls over the 

 rear barrel and exposes the 



Because the back end of the gun is nearly as 

 dangerous as the front end, the pointer sits at 

 the center. However, the recoil charge will 

 not perforate a sheet of paper at seventy-five 

 feet. The gun is made of vanadium steel 



breech end of the rifle barrel for the recep- 

 tion of the fixed ammunition, which comes 

 in the form of a very 

 large cartridge with 

 a 3-inch shell in it. 

 This contains pow- 

 der charge, shell and 

 shot. Another throw 

 of the lever returns 

 rear barrel to posi- 

 tion and locks it. 

 The complete gun 

 as originally de- 

 signed, ran about 

 seven feet in length. 

 Guard studs on 

 the pivot of the gun 

 are easily arranged 

 to limit the travel 

 within safe angles. 



Small shot, of 

 course, quickly loses 

 velocity, and the 

 charge drops harm- 

 lessly to earth, while 

 the 3-inch explosive 

 shell from the other 

 end does the work. 



A hole-worn sink-top 

 makes a suggestive ad- 

 vertising sign for an 

 enterprising plumber 



An Old Kitchen Sink Makes An 

 Impressive Plumber's Sign 



A NEW advertising idea is being 

 used in Los Angeles, Cali- 

 fornia. J. K. McCahan, a 

 plumber, is attracting public 

 attention to himself by an 

 old, hole- worn zinc slab 

 which he has stationed 

 high up over a small 

 orange tree in his front 

 yard. The bottom of 

 this novel shingle has 

 been daubed over with 

 white, and his name and 

 his trade have been 

 painted over this in 

 black. No one can pass 

 by this house without be- 

 ing doubly impressed by 

 the fact that here, at least, 

 lives a wide-awake plumber. 

 The verv' holes in the zinc 

 plate suggest the trade of the 

 man who lives there, without 

 the lettering. The place for 

 the sign was decided by the 

 fact that the little orange tree 

 needed propping. 



