Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I was just going through the following book
http://www.archive.org/download/firearm ... ich_bw.pdf
" Our Rifles- firearms in American History series volume III"
And found an odd notation on page 203-204 about static electricity being generated by firing of the 1918 BAR, sufficient to throw sparks from the shooter.

I figure this was due to friction between the stock surface and the wool uniform tunics of the day. The rapid back and forth motion of the stock held tight to the body might cause this.
They were even suggesting using this tiny charge in some manner to cool the gun.
I'd only last night been thinking on several unusual methods of refrigeration that don't use the common cooling coils and compressors, one of which uses a diode that draws heat from one side to the other, the system being used for small fridges and coolers on boats.
Another odd method is the pitot tube cooler used to lower heat in an aircraft fuel tank at high speeds. It uses vibrations generated by airflow to draw away heat.

The above work is the first I know off that suggested using electricity to cool a weapon.

I suspect that the change of uniform from the old wool tunic made this a dead end anyway.

PS
Theres all sorts of odd stuff to be found in the old reference books, well worth looking them up.

If a BAR caused sparks, think of what a Chauchat or Colt potato digger would do! Lots o' moving parts to generate electrons... unless the tripod acted as a ground.

I always thought the Lewis MG finned barrel with air channeling tube was not a bad idea. Quick change barrels was even better. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

I figure that this phenomena must have been due to the wool fabric used for uniforms at the time, I never heard of it happening in later years.
It would probably only have happened when the air temperature and humidity was just right.

Static electricity shocks can be very alarming when completely unexpected, especially when firearms are involved.

graphite was added to smokeless powders to prevent accidental ignitions due to static electricity. Something to remember for those experimenting with homemade propellants.

I ran across a page on various old time blasting powders and one, I can't remember which at the moment, was known to self ignite from static discharge if a bit of powder in a cloth sack were shaken.

Such AD situations might explain some "cookoffs" and other unexplained accidents.