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Lyle gun after firing with the projectile in the air
In many jurisdictions, any object or device answering to the description firearm is countenanced by the law as a weapon. Whether all 'weapons' are tools is an interesting and nontrivial philosophical question. In this article, we contemplate the fact that some firearms can be used as a tool to project either single or multiple objects at high velocity through a controlled explosion. The firing is achieved by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This process of rapid burning is technically known as deflagration. In older firearms, this propellant was typically black powder, but modern firearms use smokeless powder, cordite, or other propellants. Many firearms such as mortars do not have rifled bores to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability, such as is seen with firearms used as weapons, although some are rifled. The lack of rifling can prevent tangling of grappling hook lines, buoy lines, and such, although some firearms intended for use at the longest ranges in these applications are rifled.
A firearm is a portable gun designed for use by a single individual. It inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by exothermic combustion (deflagration) of chemical propellant. If gas pressurization is achieved through mechanical gas compression rather than through chemical propellant combustion, then the gun is technically an air gun, not a firearm.
A tool is an object used to extend the ability of an individual to modify features of the surrounding environment. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates back hundreds of millennia, use tools to make other tools. The set of tools required to perform different tasks that are part of the same activity is called gear or equipment.
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter. A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms, elemental molecules made from one type of atom, or compound molecules made from a variety of atoms. A gas mixture, such as air, contains a variety of pure gases. What distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles. This separation usually makes a colorless gas invisible to the human observer. The interaction of gas particles in the presence of electric and gravitational fields are considered negligible, as indicated by the constant velocity vectors in the image.
The Manby Mortar was invented by Captain George William Manby, also the inventor of the portable fire extinguisher. On 18 February 1807, Manby looked on helplessly as a Naval ship, the Snipe, ran aground 60 yards off Great Yarmouth during a storm. By some accounts, a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, later developed into the breeches buoy, which fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could then be pulled aboard the ship. His successful invention followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church. His invention was officially adopted in 1814, and a series of mortar stations were established around the coast.[1] The Manby Mortar was used by the Waterguard and later by H M Coastguard for many years. The first recorded rescue using the Manby mortar was on 18 February 1808; Manby himself was in charge of the mortar and a crew of seven were brought to safety from the PlymouthBrigElizabeth stranded off the shore at Great Yarmouth.
Captain George William Manby FRS was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher.
A breeches buoy is a crude rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harness attached. It is similar to a zip line.The breeches buoy was usually deployed from either ship to ship, or ship to shore using a rocket, kite system, or a lyle gun, and allowed evacuations of one person at a time. A line is attached to the ship, and the person being rescued is pulled to shore in the breeches buoy which rides the line similar to a zip line.
The Waterguard was a division of HM Customs and Excise (HMCE) responsible for the control of vessels, aircraft, vehicles and persons arriving into and departing from the United Kingdom. This included crew members and passengers, as well as persons travelling on foot. Waterguard officers were responsible for applying the allowances provided for in law and for collection of customs and excise revenue on the excess. The officers were also responsible for the enforcement of the prohibitions and restrictions, including controlled drugs and plant and animal health. With the reorganization of HM Customs and Excise in 1972 the Waterguard was renamed the 'Preventive Service' and the functions of the Waterguard continued to be carried out as part of the HMCE until the establishment of the UK Border Agency in 2008.
Lyle gun being fired.
A Lyle gun was used to shoot a line towards people in distress in order to rescue them and save their lives. The Lyle Gun was toted to the shoreline usually by Surfmen that manned the L.S.S using the tool. The iron wheels that supported the cart had wide bands on the outside the wheel to keep it from sinking into the soft sand especially when it came to being used on the beaches of Cape Cod and other stations along the east coast of North America. The projectile that carried the line to the craft in distress was fired over the ship to ensure its target. The line fired to the ship in distress was one of several designed to support the breeches buoy which would carry survivors back to shore on a line that would take them over the waves.
Line-throwing guns, most often referred to as Lyle Guns after their inventor David A. Lyle, were used from the late 19th century to 1952, when they were replaced by rockets for throwing lines.
The Lyle gun could shoot a projectile about 300 yards.
Examples of later firearms based upon the Lyle gun are widely seen in maritime museum displays, such as at the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station Maritime Museum in Glen Haven, Michigan.[2] The exhibits there focus on the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Great Lakes shipping history. In the summer, demonstrations are given of rescue drills and equipment used to fire a rescue line from shore more than 400 yards (370m) to a ship in "distress".
Glen Haven is a restored port village on the shore of Lake Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula within the now Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Attractions include the Lake Michigan beach, a restored General Store and Blacksmith Shop. The unincorporated community is located in Glen Arbor Township.
The Great Lakes, also called the Laurentian Great Lakes and the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes primarily in the upper mid-east region of North America, on the Canada–United States border, which connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. They consist of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Hydrologically, there are only four lakes, because Lakes Michigan and Huron join at the Straits of Mackinac. The lakes form the Great Lakes Waterway.
Grappling hook guns
Rifles are also commonly used to launch grappling hooks for various purposes. For example, grappling hooks are currently used by combat engineers breaching tactical obstacles. A grappling hook is launched over the open ground in front of the obstacle and dragged backwards in an attempt to detonate trip-wire-fused land mines, and can be hooked onto wire obstacles and pulled to set off any booby traps on the wire. A tool available for this purpose is the rifle-launched grapnel, a single-use grappling hook placed on the end of an M4/M16 rifle.[3][4] A grapnel can clear up to 99 percent of the trip-wires in a single pass.[5]
A combat engineer (also called field engineer, pioneer or sapper in many armies is a soldier who performs a variety of construction and demolition tasks under combat conditions.
A grappling hook or grapnel is a device invented by the Romans in approximately 260BC. The grappling hook was originally used in naval warfare to catch ship rigging so that it could be boarded. They typically have multiple hooks, attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge for submerged objects.
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm, or surprise a person or animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap may be set to act upon trespassers that enter restricted areas, and it can be triggered when the victim performs an action. It can also be triggered by vehicles driving along a road, as in the case of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Grappling hooks were originally used in naval warfare to catch the rigging of an enemy ship so that it could be drawn in and boarded. Later, grappling hooks were also used in rescue work or to assist in scaling walls. The most common design consists of a central shaft with a hole at the base of the shaft, called an "eye" to attach the rope, and three equally spaced hooks at the end of the shaft, so arranged that at least one is likely to catch on some protuberance of the target. Older designs were almost always firearms, either mortars or cannons, for special use with Lyle guns or similar tools. Some modern designs feature folding hooks to resist unwanted attachment. Modern grappling hooks used in rescue work are propelled by firearms, compressed air, or rockets.
Naval warfare is human combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river.
Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—standing rigging, including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are attached—the running rigging, including halyards, braces, sheets and vangs.
Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes. Compressed air is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches and others. Compressed air is used to atomize paint, to operate air cylinders for automation, and can also be used to propel vehicles. Brakes applied by compressed air made large railway trains safer and more efficient to operate. Compressed air brakes are also found on large highway vehicles.
Industrial shotguns
Industrial shotguns have long been used for specialized applications in servicing lime kilns, blast furnaces, and even for making seismic shots. Typically of 8 gauge, industrial shotguns are much larger than most shotguns designed for use as weapons and are designed for firing using fixed mount stations, not being intended for firing from the shoulder. They are used for removing lime deposits from inside kilns and for removing slag deposits from inside blast furnaces, both being used during routine maintenance.[6] The idea is comparable to sandblasting, in that projectiles are forcibly delivered by gas under pressure. When used for generating seismic shots, they provide very repetitive and consistent peak amplitude levels. Industrial shotguns have also been used in lesser sizes (most commonly 10 and 12 gauge) for use in bird control around airports. Both blanks and slugs are used in industrial shotguns, depending on the exact effect desired, blanks most commonly being used for bird control.
An Orion-brand single shot, breech loaded, 12 gauge flare gun. Its design is typical of commercially available flare guns.
Dedicated flare guns exist that fire flares. They are typically used as a distress signal as well as other signaling purposes at sea and between aircraft and people on the ground. The majority of flare guns are 12 gauge, but they should not ever be loaded with live ammunition. The amount of pressure generated by a typical 12 gauge shotgun shell (11,500 psi according to SAAMI) far exceeds the pressure most flare guns can control. Firing shotgun shells from a modern plastic flare gun can have deadly results for the user and should not be done.
The most common type of flare gun is a Very pistol (which can also be spelled Verey pistol), which was named after Edward Wilson Very (1847–1910), an American naval officer who developed and popularized a single-shot breech-loading snub-nosed pistol that fired flares. Modern varieties are frequently made out of brightly colored, durable plastic.
The older type of Very pistol, typical of the type used in the Second World War, are of one inch bore. Newer models fire smaller 12-gauge flares. In countries where possession of firearms is strictly controlled, such as the United Kingdom, the use of Very pistols as emergency equipment on boats is less common than, for example, the United States.
Flare guns may be used whenever someone needs to send a distress signal. The flares must be shot directly above, making the signal visible for a longer period of time and revealing the position of whoever is in need of help.
While not intended as weapons, flare guns can and have been weaponized in some situations. In 1942, at Pembrey Airfield in Wales, a German pilot mistakenly landed at the field. The duty pilot, Sgt. Jeffreys, did not have a conventional weapon; he grabbed a Very pistol and used that to capture the German pilot, OberleutnantArmin Faber.[7]
Direct fastening cartridges.A powder-actuated direct fastening tool.
Cartridge based concrete anchoring and steel anchoring systems have been devised for firearms used as tools, such as developed by Hilti and Ramset with their so-called powder-actuated tools. Typical calibers range from .22 cal up to 9mm for the cartridges, which propel anchors and nails into concrete, steel, and other materials. Developed in World War II to temporarily repair ship damage quickly in the case of hull breach, this technology is today commonly used in construction and manufacturing to join materials to hard substrates such as steel and concrete.
In Australia and the Netherlands, these tools are classed as firearms, since they fire a projectile with potentially lethal force. As such, their ownership and use is regulated in Australia and the Netherlands. The owner has to register the tool, and an operator of one of these tools is required to have a license and to have undergone training in their use. These laws are in keeping with Australia's and the Netherlands' strict firearm laws.
From 1958 onwards, the so-called "direct-acting" tools have been quickly replaced by "indirect-acting" tools. In the former type, the combustion gases from a blank powder cartridge directly drive the fastener into the base material. The nail can reach velocities of hundreds of meters per second making it a highly dangerous projectile.
In modern indirect-acting tools, the combustion gas drives a piston inside the tool "barrel" which in turn "hammers" the nail into the material. The piston cannot leave the tool barrel as it is retained by a stop-ring or piston brake. Of the total energy contained in the ensemble of moving piston and nail, ~95% is contained in the piston. Due to a piston mass of ~100...150 g, piston and fastener reach much less than the limit velocity of 100m/s limited by official approval.
Modern PATs include multiple safety devices: The tool must be pressed to the work surface with >50 N force before it can be triggered. The trigger must be pulled only after full compression or the tool will not work (no "bump-firing" allowed). The tool must pass drop tests in all directions to prove that it will not fire even if dropped on the muzzle or knocked against a hard surface.
European legislation
With the coming into effect of the EC Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC), powder actuated tools are distinguished from weapons and are now considered "impact machinery", provided they are "designed for industrial or technical purposes only".[8] After the testing and approval defined by the Machinery Directive for tools of this type, PAT must carry the CE mark from July, 2011 at the latest (but can since January, 2010). This means that for bringing them to the European market, the manufacturer no longer needs a firearms-type approval from a respective authority but a CE approval from a European accredited test laboratory ("notified body"). Firearms legislation no longer applies to PAT.
A European safety standard (EN 15895) is under development and was expected to be effective at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011.
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bore up to 5 cm (2.0 in) bore, and in a range of firearm operating mechanisms, including breech loading, single-barreled, double or combination gun, pump-action, bolt-, and lever-action, revolver, semi-automatic, and even fully automatic variants.
A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, paper or plastic case that is precisely made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for the practical purpose of convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is often used to refer to a complete cartridge, it is correctly used only to refer to the projectile.
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun. This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether or not the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches to an accuracy of hundredths or thousandths of an inch or in millimeters. For example, a ".45 caliber" firearm has a barrel diameter of roughly 0.45 inches (11 mm). Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Due to the inaccuracy and imprecision of imperial dimensions "converted" to metric units, metric designations are typically far out of specifications published in decimal inches. True "caliber" specifications require imperial measure, and even when cartridge designations only specify caliber to even tenths or hundredths of an inch, actual barrel/chamber/projectile dimensions are published to at least thousandths of an inch and frequently tolerances extend into ten-thousandths of an inch.
A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The most common type are man-portable, shoulder-fired weapons issued to individuals, although larger crew-served launchers are issued at higher levels of organisation by military forces.
A blank is a type of firearm cartridge that contains gunpowder but no projectile, and instead uses paper or plastic wadding to seal the propellant into the casing. When fired, the blank makes a flash and an explosive sound (report), and the firearm's action cycles from the recoil, but the wadding propelled from the barrel quickly loses kinetic energy and is incapable of inflicting any damage beyond an immediate distance. Blanks are often used for shooting simulations that demand light and sound, combat training, for signaling, and cowboy mounted shooting. Blank cartridges differ from the inert dummy cartridges, which contain no primer or gunpowder and are used for "cold" training or function-testing firearm actions.
A shotgun shell is a self-contained cartridge often loaded with multiple metallic "shot", which are small, generally spherical projectiles. The shells consist of a paper or plastic tube mounted on a brass base holding a primer. The shot is typically contained in a small container inside the shell casing. Shot has traditionally been made of lead, but steel, tungsten or bismuth is frequently used due to restrictions on lead. A shotgun shell can contain a single, large projectile known as a shotgun slug. They can also be made with specialty non-lethal rounds such as beanbag rounds, and rubber. Shotguns have an effective range of about 45 metres (150 ft). An old non-lethal round consisted of a shotgun shell loaded with rock salt, which could inflict very painful, but rarely deadly, wounds, and was popular for scaring away trespassers.
The Gyrojet is a family of unique firearms developed in the 1960s named for the method of gyroscopically stabilizing its projectiles. Rather than inert bullets, Gyrojets fire small rockets called Microjets which have little recoil and do not require a heavy barrel or chamber to resist the pressure of the combustion gases. Velocity on leaving the tube was very low, but increased to around 1,250 feet per second (380 m/s) at 30 feet (9.1 m). The result is a very lightweight weapon.
The .410 bore or .410 gauge, is the second-smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available. A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small game hunting and pest control. The .410 started off in the UK as a garden gun along with the .360 and the No.3, No.2 and No.1 bore rimfires. .410 shells have similar base dimensions to the .45 Colt cartridge, allowing many single-shot firearms, as well as some derringers chambered in that caliber, to fire .410 shot shells without any modifications.
A ranged weapon is any weapon that can engage targets beyond hand-to-hand distance, i.e. at distances greater than the physical reach of the weapon itself. It is sometimes also called projectile weapon or missile weapon because it typically works by launching projectiles, though technically a directed-energy weapon is also a ranged weapon. In contrast, a weapon intended to be used in hand-to-hand combat is called a melee weapon.
A flare gun, also known as a Very pistol or signal pistol, is a large-bore handgun that discharges flares. The flare gun is used to create illumination for improved vision or as a distress signal. A flare gun can be used as a deadly weapon; however, that is not its intended function.
Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel or barrels are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be required for the cocking of a hammer to fire the new round. There are many types of break-action firearms; break actions are universal in double-barrelled shotguns, double rifles and combination guns, and are also common in single shot rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and can also be found in flare guns, grenade launchers, air guns and some older revolver designs. They are also known as hinge-action, break-open, break-barrel, break-top, or, on old revolvers, top-break actions.
An antique firearm is a term to describe a firearm that was designed and manufactured prior to the beginning of the 20th century. Although the exact definition of what constitutes an "antique firearm" varies between countries, the advent of smokeless powder or the start of the Boer War are often used as cut-off dates. Antique firearms are usually collected because of their historical interest and/or their monetary value.
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
Title II weapons, or NFA firearms, are designations of certain weapons under the United States National Firearms Act (NFA).
The TP-82 was a triple-barrelled Soviet pistol that was carried by cosmonauts on space missions.
A gun is a ranged weapon typically designed to pneumatically discharge solid projectiles but can also be liquid or even charged particles and may be free-flying or tethered.
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