Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!dietz
From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: How to make a RAIL GUN?
Message-ID: <1991Mar26.174113.22424@cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 26 Mar 91 17:41:13 GMT
References: <27EE910A.10011@ics.uci.edu> <1991Mar26.094649.28010@colorado.edu> <1991Mar26.165529.28754@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Computer Science Department University of Rochester
Lines: 17

In article <1991Mar26.165529.28754@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:

>In article <1991Mar26.094649.28010@colorado.edu> rainer@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rainer Malzbender) writes:
>>The astute reader will no doubt recognize this as a mass driver, not
>>a rail gun...
>
>No, the astute reader will recognize it as a coilgun.  The mass driver,
>Gerry O'Neill's invention, uses recirculating payload carriers ("buckets")
>so that it does not need to throw away a magnetic element with each shot.

Moreover, the mass driver buckets used coils, not solid pieces of
iron.  Saturation of iron projectiles limits their performance.  High
performance coil guns or mass drivers would use aluminum, beryllium or
superconducting bucket coils.

	Paul F. Dietz
	dietz@cs.rochester.edu