Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
The original inspiration may be the mercury filled bullet in Day of the Jackal (1973). No that doesn't work either.
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Nah. It's based on a shot hammer, a hollow steel hammer head 2/3 full of lead shot for heavy strikes that don't damage the surfaces when boilermaking or working with hydralics; the energy that usually going into bouncing the hammer is absorbed by the shot and reapplied to the hammer head over a longer time. They are more tiring to use but hit very hard for their weight, but limit the striking energy because the impact happens over a longer time than a normal hammer.
The concept is described differently, though, in the D&D books as the mercury was supposed to run up the centre tube as the weapon is being swung to add mass to the tip that wasn't there at the beginning of the swing. That would actually work better with a hammer than a sword, as a sword is meant to be mobile for parrying and so on.
But it's quite different to the mercury-aided hollowpoint.