Comments on: Episode 93: Confederate Steam Gun

By: MSpears

MSpears — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:19:07 +0000

Penn and Teller are right (mostly). You can’t really “fool” the lie detector, but you can make the test inconclusive, by just clenching your arse. It drives your blood pressure up, thus invalidating the test.

Unfortunately, that’s why they started giving lie detector tests with the subject sitting in a chair where they were reclined at an angle where it is not possible to clench your arse tight enough.

By: Donovan Haxton

Donovan Haxton — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:01:38 +0000

The Civil War steam powered machine gun still exists. It is rusty, covered with bird dung, and the steam engine is missing.However, it is still some what intact. I have about 10 JPG photos that I have taken of it. If you are interested please send me your e-mail address and I will send them to you

By: felixnoir

felixnoir — Sat, 14 May 2011 23:05:34 +0000

If I wanted to beat a polygraph I would use a lawyer and a scientist. The reason is that there is absolutely no convincing scientific evidence that polygraphs are worth a rat’s ass. The Soviet spy Abell beat polygraphs several times.
In an emergency I once replaced a fuse with tinfoil. Very dumb and dangerous thing to do. However, I don’t think you would need much current to cause the tinfoil to fail.

I love Mythbusters, but there does seem to be one thing lacking. If they did some basic internet research after getting their results, they might well find they are wrong in some cases or there is other research that impacts on their results.

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:55:07 +0000

Here’s the way to beat a lie detector, believe your lie. I’d like to see what would have happened if they had believe they were given the money by the envelope they read, instead of took, or stole that money. It’s a iteration of the truth really, and it’s all a matter of perception. And criminal minds can be convinced they did something right…

By: Lucas`

Lucas` — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:20:29 +0000

Everybody is talking about the length of the barrel needing to be longer. That, would make the gun more deadly…… I mean we could make it 3 feet long and end up more with quite a velocity, but the Mythbusters were sticking to the original Confederate plan. I do see a problem with the design though. The drop of the ball needs to be timed correctly. If the ball is tossed in and makes it’s way to the “protective shield” on the outside, it will contact the shield sending the ball back into the barrel and then out, losing much velocity or roll along the shield to the point of exit losing any of the acceleration that the projectile would have gained in rolling down the barrel. Think about how much energy was wasted when the ball was denting that shield. The only thing that throwing multiple balls down at once was accomplish allowing a sacrificial ball to hit the shield, but the other projectiles were still right behind it and had already lost acceleration.

It appeared that the geared device that Adam was working on was for this purpose, but it was not adjusted correctly. It Should work similar to a WWII aircraft machine gun connected to the crankshaft that times it just right as to allow the bullet to fire between the propeller blades and not hit one.

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:58:21 +0000

Oh! By the way, did Kari and Tory really took a bus back to San Francisco?

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:54:19 +0000

Hey, the projectile in the steam gun is not pushed by the steam pressure, so the bullet in the barrel don’t have to be tightly fit. But as mentioned by others, maybe you can lengthen the barrel, or use the lead ball.

By: Roger-W

Roger-W — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:50:41 +0000

Was the myth on the steam gun that they successfully built one or that it was leathal?

By: Tim C-Squared

Tim C-Squared — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:53:30 +0000

I have discovered the fault in the Steam Machine Gun. The muzzle was too short and the projectile release mechanism (PRM) was…well…nonexistant. First, the muzzle should be extended to 2.5 feet, with the PRM no more than six inches from center of muzzle rotation. Now for the PRM. At 2000 rpm the rotational period is .03 seconds. Thus the PRM needs to load each projectile within that amount of time. Once released, the projectile experiences accelleration forces due to spinning. This starts at 22000 g’s at six inches, and ends up at 131000 g’s at the exit end. The average accelleration is 88000 g’s, resulting in an exit velocity of 468 fps. This copares favorably with slower .22 caliber and much better with the 250 fps test result. Double the muzzle lenth gets 700+ fps. Double the RPM’s gets 800+ fps, but shortens the cycle time unless you use more than one cycle to fire (so, if you use a two cycle fire sequence, the cycle time is unchanged).

RPM’s that work this quickly are well within the technology of the mid 1800′s. It may seem that the original blueprints may not have included this mechanism, remember that even Leonardo’s plans were filled with errors to preserve “intellectual rights” and so the plans you saw may have been deliberately omitting this detail for that reason.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:32:23 +0000

I heard about raising the emotions on the baseline questions slightly. You have a stronger reaction to “what’s your name”, then “did you steal the money” seems like the truth because your truths register higher.