10-27-2018, 05:57 PM | #31 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Quote:
The Mythbusters found an expert who would do small quantity production of mercuric fulminate but he wouldn't work in more than what looked like 1/4 teaspoon quantities. So you have high likelihood of heavy metal toxicity _and_ the problems associated with the production of a primary explosive. The creation of a properly designed industrial set-up is much likelier to work out than any bench-top production.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
10-27-2018, 08:23 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Houston
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
It doesn't have to. The Mannlicher 1886-88 used compressed black powder for it's 8mm cartridge. While this only gave about 60% of the energy of the Lebel's 8mm smokeless round, it had a vastly superior magazine system (Mannlicher en bloc vs Lebel tube, taken from the Kropatschek rifle). So, lower power and range, but much faster reloading. The Mannlicher was eventually updated to a smokeless cartridge pattern.
__________________
A generous and sadistic GM, Brandon Cope GURPS 3e stuff: http://copeab.tripod.com |
10-27-2018, 09:14 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Quote:
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
|
10-27-2018, 11:00 PM | #34 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Cool. Ta.
__________________
It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
10-27-2018, 11:01 PM | #35 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
IIRC we're rather lacking in mercury deposits down here.
__________________
It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
10-28-2018, 08:31 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
There's probably more than you think. People tend to be fooled by where the modern (or 19th century) production centers of something were, but there are always tiny deposits all over the place that are not big enough to be worth producing in a world already mining kilotons, but which would have been met local preindustrial demands just fine. And may very well have - there are lots of places with "iron" or "salt" in their name where nobody has produced any iron or salt in centuries, and the same holds for most other minerals.
In the case of mercury, they sometimes still do - this is where the massively uncertain "artisanal production" numbers you see in various statistical reports comes from, little sources that produce a pound quantities, mostly for small scale gold mining, that don't show up well in the statistics.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
10-28-2018, 09:21 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Since you are starting over anyway, thoughts on ditching chemical primers for electrically ignited cartridges? By the sounds of it, an alkaline battery and LC oscillator to produce a spark would be simpler and safer than all that mercury fulminate stuff.
Luke |
10-28-2018, 09:34 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Quote:
Black powder can be ignited by an elctrical spark. I've even seen it done on TV in a functional gun. I'm not at all sure about smokeless.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
10-28-2018, 09:44 AM | #39 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Quote:
Note that you do need to build the spark gap into the cartridge. Getting a spark out of a battery that will fit in a handgun means a fairly precise gap and a narrow point - expose it to a powder explosion and it is not going to be reusable! This seems likely to be a moderately fiddly bit of machining for each cartridge, and potentially a fragile one, so it's not handicraft production either.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
10-28-2018, 10:20 AM | #40 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
|
Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless
Wow.
Electrically triggered black powder. Nice. Would it be better suited to larger calibre weaponry? Mortars? EDIT: Quote:
Recoilless rifles? A 1lb/37.5mm Maxim Pom-pom gun?
__________________
It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... Last edited by Luke Bunyip; 10-28-2018 at 11:03 AM. |
|
Tags |
ate |
|
|