I have invented an Egg Gun. The idea is that there are many situations where law enforcement and other people need to control someone from a distance without harming them. Most police weapons are potentially lethal.
If you've ever seen someone hit by an egg, you'd be surprised how it can stun them.
The major technical problems were:
(1) Eggs come in different sizes Solved by a soft-bristle cannon lining that allows the egg passage, but guides the projectile down the barrel and focusses the propellant on the back of the egg and a very gentle rifling stabilises the egg in flight. For optimal aerodynamic performance the egg is fed into the chamber fat end first
(2) They're a bit fragile A long barrel (6 feet) with a progressivly escalating pressure pulse so as to smoothly accelerate the egg to the desired muzzle velocity. I'm estimating 200fps would be ideal-- FloridaManatee, Apr 11 2003 Police Swords http://www.halfbake...dea/Police_20SwordsInspirational [FloridaManatee, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] soft boiled egg (without shell) version for an even gentler approach.-- po, Apr 11 2003 +
Egg SWAT = Frying squad? (Sorry, poor UK-centric pun).-- Jinbish, Apr 11 2003 Also possible applications in the Microsoft customer complaints division-- FloridaManatee, Apr 11 2003 This would be SO good on halloween. All the little brats out with their egg cartons causing havock when a police van drives past and 10 officers inside broadside them with automatic versions of your idea. thus completly covering them in yolk, and sending them running home to be remonstrated with for egging up the house.
Additional; police flour grenades.-- Zircon, Apr 11 2003 <anti egg gun control>Egg guns don't kill people, eggs do.-- roby, Apr 11 2003 I see an arms eggscalation: egg grenade, howitzer, rocket launched bomb, and, when we achieve the power of splitting the yoke - nuclear weapons!-- snarfyguy, Apr 11 2003 I routinely fire eggs from my pneumatic gun. A small amount of wadded-up newspaper behind the egg is all it takes. As for a gentle ramping up of the pressure, it's not necessary. I typically fire my gun at over 100 PSI, and I've never had a barrel break. Note to the safety-minded: I've put holes in 3/4" plywood with nothing more than a raw egg (granted, the egg doesn't survive) and I don't even want to think about what it would do to a human target at those near-supersonic speeds. (I've measured the speed at well over 600 mph)-- Freefall, Apr 11 2003 Blimey! (Doesn't sound quite right coming from a Yank, does it?)-- thumbwax, Apr 11 2003 are these free range eggs?-- po, Apr 11 2003 this is turning into "Chicken Run"-- po, Apr 11 2003 When *I* was a kid, we would just drop them from a helicopter – literally (it was a packaging contest, not a weapon). Give ‘em some guidance capabilities and who knows? Two days later they would double as a stink bomb too.-- Shz, Apr 11 2003 nice idea and all, but you fail to take into acount that eggs have movable yolks in them, which makes them unstable. You can easily see for yourself by spinning an egg, then spinning a hard boiled one. the hard boiled one spins better because it is solid. Buttttt, you could make a machine that would shake the egg so much that the yolk would scramble inside the egg, it would be more stable. Also, if you take into acount the fact that if you try to spin an egg, the yolk moving inside trys to resist and therefor won't take to kindly to spining it even if it was scrambled because the liquid is freely moving inside the egg. Maybee you could spin the egg before it is put in the barrell??? The liquid keeps spinning for at least a few seconds, long enough for it to be shot out of a gun, am I rambling, excuse me, YAWN!! I'm tired-- thelambs, Aug 23 2003 "Hen grenades"
Ostrich eggs for bazookas...-- fugazi, Aug 23 2003 do u think we could have the plans or possibly even buy one if there cheap as its nearing halloween and ive lost hope in my prototype-- rcgras, Oct 28 2003 random, halfbakery