View Full Version : Man builds gun to fire pumpkin a mile
Shirley Ujest
10-18-2002, 02:31 PM
From Ananova:
Man builds gun to fire pumpkin a mile
A man in the US has built a cannon to fire a pumpkin a mile.
Jim Bristoe's invention has a 30 foot barrel and is powered by a 700 gallon air tank.
It's named "Ain't All There".
During a demonstration in Elletsville, Indiana the 42-year-old electrician and mechanic said: "You don't need to cover your ears, but you're going to know I shot it."
When Mr Bristoe fires the cannon, a 10 pound pumpkin is hit with 11,300 pounds of force.
He says the pumpkin projectile leaves the muzzle at about 900 mph, and during the test it fired a pumpkin through the rear of a Pontiac.
Mr Bristoe plans to take the two tonne pumpkin cannon to the first annual Pumpkin Propulsion Contest at Verizon Wireless Music Centre near Noblesville, on Saturday.
The contest is sponsored by Indianapolis radio station WRZX-FM and is the brainchild of morning show host Gonzo Greg and his colleagues.
"It's more of an exhibition than a competition, and we don't know what to expect in terms of entries," said Greg.
Story filed: 18:04 Friday 18th October 2002
What if this fell into the hands of Saddam Hussein?
mobo85
10-18-2002, 02:43 PM
He picked the right name for it, that's for sure.
Great, just what we need . . . A pumpkin-sniper, shooting from up to a mile away!
Police have released this preliminary sketch (http://dougbarber.com/red/Red_Photos/pumpkin/pumpkin.html) of the suspect . . .
Dinsdale
10-18-2002, 02:50 PM
Eve and Shirley, you silly girls. Thanx for the Fri p.m. giggle.
Shirley Ujest
10-18-2002, 03:02 PM
Witnesses to the pumpkin-sniper cannot agree on whether the pumpkin was smiling or frowning. But all agreed that the pumpkin had an eerie glow behind his triangular shaped eyes.
THat pretty much made my day. I mean who wouldn't love to see a pumpkin fly a mile.
(yeah, I know, small things, small minds, amusement, blah blah - I don't care.)
My potato gun is suddenly passe?
Fibonacci
10-18-2002, 04:09 PM
"The contest is sponsored by Indianapolis radio station WRZX-FM and is the brainchild of morning show host Gonzo Greg and his colleagues."
Some brainchild.
The World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' event (http://www.worldchampionshippunkinchunkin.com) has been taking place in Lewes, Delaware since about 1986.
Jester
10-18-2002, 04:20 PM
Funny, some of the witnesses at the crime scene gave the police a description that fit this guy (http://us.imdb.com/EGallery?source=ss&group=0145487&photo=NB29-S1.jpg&path=gallery&path_key=0145487) pretty well, too.
Guess it just goes to show you can't always trust eye-witness accounts.
Jester
10-18-2002, 04:29 PM
Oh, and every year my High School's Physics classes have a pumpkin launching contest, but they're not allowed to have any hydraulics or anything.
starfish
10-19-2002, 12:24 AM
The story sounds wrong. 900mph is supersonic. I doubt you can get a pumpkin to supersonic speeds in a 30 ft long barrel without destroying the pumpkin. The resulting pumkin pulp would not travel a mile.
carnivorousplant
10-19-2002, 04:08 PM
Exceeding the speed of squash.
AskNott
10-19-2002, 06:07 PM
Starfish, perhaps the gentleman uses a sabot, such as those used in shotguns to limit the in-flight spread of shot pellets.
--Nott
EggNogg
10-19-2002, 06:11 PM
The words that stike fear into any Brit:
"Only in America"
egg
JThunder
10-19-2002, 07:13 PM
It's the Great Pumpkin Cannon, Charlie Brown!
Badandi
10-19-2002, 07:47 PM
And the Punkin' Chunkin' happens to be about ten miles away from my house...
It pretty much sums up the mentality of Sussex County Delaware. :rolleyes:
Diceman
10-19-2002, 08:48 PM
God, please let someone get a video of this thing onto the internet :D
Spavined Gelding
10-19-2002, 09:26 PM
Originally posted by starfish
The story sounds wrong. 900mph is supersonic. I doubt you can get a pumpkin to supersonic speeds in a 30 ft long barrel without destroying the pumpkin. The resulting pumkin pulp would not travel a mile.
From what I saw in the paper this morning I think it should be "900 feet per second," not 900 miles an hour. 900 fps is about 600 mph, just under sonic speed. It is about the same as the muzzle velocity of a cal. .45 Colt Automatic Pistol bullet. It would still require a pretty stout pumpkin.
But, what a hoot!
Freyr
10-19-2002, 10:20 PM
....meanwhile, on the other side of Noblesville, the residents were heard to say...
"Where the HELL are all these flying pumpkins coming from?"
agentfroot
10-19-2002, 11:59 PM
dude, i want a pumpkin gun! *evil laugh*
Tuckerfan
10-20-2002, 01:13 AM
Two questions:
1.) What do you think is going to happen when this (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139201) guy hears about it?
2.) When is someone going to post pictures/blueprints of the guns on the net????
jackelope
10-20-2002, 02:52 AM
Man.
Oh, man.
Words, for once, fail me.
I want to see it.
I want so, SO badly to see it.
I want DESPERATELY to see a pumpkin fly a mile. With a muzzle velocity of either 900 mph or 900 fps; I don't care.
I have GOT to see this.
(And by the way, I agree with Starfish; having carved and otherwise dealt with many pumpkins in my life, I was skeptical of the chances of accelerating a pumpkin to that speed without squashing it. Har har.)
Wikkit
10-20-2002, 03:23 AM
Originally posted by starfish
The story sounds wrong. 900mph is supersonic. I doubt you can get a pumpkin to supersonic speeds in a 30 ft long barrel without destroying the pumpkin. The resulting pumkin pulp would not travel a mile. The little group I was in did some research on this sort of thing. We figured that the easiest way to get any pneumatic gun's projectile supersonic would be to pump the air out of the barrel, with a bit of aluminum foil over the end to hold the vacuum. Amazingly enough, kitchen aluminum foil can hold 15 PSI. The projectile would then just bash through it.
The problem is that the projectile would be subsonic in the evacuated barrel, then suddenly supersonic when it pops through the foil. Since we mostly dealt with darts and cans of concrete, rather than the messy biological projectiles, no one was quite sure how it would hold up.
By the way, the record was around a mile and a half the last time I checked, shooting a rebar-reinforced PVC dart. That's from a much smaller gun than this.
Fibonacci is right about the unorignality.
Tuckerfan
10-20-2002, 03:24 AM
I think I've found pics (http://2ndamendment.tripod.com/images/Dsc00004.jpg) of it and a couple (http://www.sheeneyman.com/pumpkinchuckin.htm) of sites (http://2ndamendment.tripod.com/album.htm) dedicated to the things. Them puppy's is huge! It also looks like they hate the Partridge Family, judging by some of the photos.
andygirl
10-20-2002, 02:10 PM
Originally posted by Fibonacci
The World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' event (http://www.worldchampionshippunkinchunkin.com) has been taking place in Lewes, Delaware since about 1986.
And up until they moved locations, was about two miles from my house. (Badandi lives a bit further down the highway than I do.) I could sit on my roof and watch it.
And they wonder why I was glad to get out of Delaware...
vBulletin® v3.7.3, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.