Benjamin Robins is known today as the father of ballistics and the inventor of the ballistics pendulum, the first method for determining the velocity of projectiles. He was a very talented English scientist and mathematician, interested in many things. In his book New Principles of Gunnery he described investigating the velocity of gasses created by firing black powder with no bullet. His rather amazing conclusion was that the gasses had a velocity of about 7000 feet per second. I wondered if that had been verified in modern times, but have not found any direct reports of it being studied. I did run across this strong circumstantial evidence that they travel very fast, though. It is a report in a medical journal of a suicide carried out with a 45-caliber muzzle-loading black powder pistol with no bullet.
*********
Fatal Contact Shot to the Chest Caused by the Gas Jet From a Muzzle-Loading Pistol Discharging Only Black Powder and No Bullet: Case Study and Experimental Simulation of the Wounding Effect
Markus Große Perdekamp 1, Matthieu Glardon, Beat P Kneubuehl, Lena Bielefeld, Hadi Nadjem, Stefan Pollak, Rebecca Pircher
[clip]
"The present paper reports on a suicide committed with a muzzle-loading percussion pistol cal. 45. An unusually large stellate entrance wound was located in the precordial region, accompanied by an imprint mark from the ramrod and a faint greenish discoloration (apparently due to the formation of sulfhemoglobin). Autopsy revealed an oversized powder cavity, multiple fractures of the anterior thoracic wall as well as ruptures of the heart, the aorta, the left hepatic lobe and the diaphragm. In total, the zone of mechanical destruction had a diameter of approx. 15 cm. As there was no exit wound and no bullet lodged in the body, the injury was caused exclusively by the inrushing combustion gases of the propellant (black powder) comparable with the gas jet of a blank cartridge gun. In contact shots to ballistic gelatine using the suicide's pistol loaded with black powder but no projectile, the formation of a nearly spherical cavity could be demonstrated by means of a high-speed camera. The extent of the temporary cavity after firing with 5 g of black powder roughly corresponded to the zone of destruction found in the suicide's body."
*******
Be careful out there. It can kill you even if it's not loaded.
Spence
*********
Fatal Contact Shot to the Chest Caused by the Gas Jet From a Muzzle-Loading Pistol Discharging Only Black Powder and No Bullet: Case Study and Experimental Simulation of the Wounding Effect
Markus Große Perdekamp 1, Matthieu Glardon, Beat P Kneubuehl, Lena Bielefeld, Hadi Nadjem, Stefan Pollak, Rebecca Pircher
[clip]
"The present paper reports on a suicide committed with a muzzle-loading percussion pistol cal. 45. An unusually large stellate entrance wound was located in the precordial region, accompanied by an imprint mark from the ramrod and a faint greenish discoloration (apparently due to the formation of sulfhemoglobin). Autopsy revealed an oversized powder cavity, multiple fractures of the anterior thoracic wall as well as ruptures of the heart, the aorta, the left hepatic lobe and the diaphragm. In total, the zone of mechanical destruction had a diameter of approx. 15 cm. As there was no exit wound and no bullet lodged in the body, the injury was caused exclusively by the inrushing combustion gases of the propellant (black powder) comparable with the gas jet of a blank cartridge gun. In contact shots to ballistic gelatine using the suicide's pistol loaded with black powder but no projectile, the formation of a nearly spherical cavity could be demonstrated by means of a high-speed camera. The extent of the temporary cavity after firing with 5 g of black powder roughly corresponded to the zone of destruction found in the suicide's body."
*******
Be careful out there. It can kill you even if it's not loaded.
Spence
