fucking furries

Time to clean this thread:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/293233657945128960/507403563572396032/starlight2.png

Does anyone know about the viability of using acetylene gas as a propellant for a firearm?

burns too fast

same with all gas mixtures

I would think that fast burns would be a plus for propellants.

a leathal firearm?

or like a pellet gun

which, i guess, can be lethal

gunpowder works because it burns (relatively) slowly, giving the bullet time to accelerate down a barrel, a fast propellant like gas-air mixture or high explosives goes off all at once and explosively raises pressure. If your barrel doesn't explode it'd be good for only a few shots maximum, and any bullet you load it with would get torn apart before it's left the barrel fucking aerodynamic performance

Hmm. Interesting.

if we ignore the gas issue for the moment, and just look to any high explosive as a propellant

it works if you don't have a barrel or any other pressure-bearing component, but then you don't have any way to aim your bullet and the same explosive forced is aimed backwards at you

one way around this is:

~1000 lead balls thrown in the direction of the enemy using high explosives, and remotely detonated as it's still pretty dangerous behind a claymore unless you install a thick metal sheet or something

make sure you imprint it with "this side towards enemy"

you could just replace the C4 with a big balloon of oxy-acetylene if you wanted, and it'd work the same

but now I'm thinking... You could add something that doesn't burn, e.g. nitrogen to slow down the explosion... Perhaps using plain air pumped in from the surrounding instead of pure oxygen, or you could switch from acetylene to something slower burning like fuel. A car engine for example burns just on the edge between fast burning and explosion (and when a car engine misfires, the engine ignites while the pressure is still too high, and you get a small explosion that causes damage to your engine)

Ah, so simple air would provide a slower burn than pure oxygen. That explains a lot.

The idea came from an alternate reality concept I was reading that used rifles fueled off acetylene from a calcium carbide and water reaction, mixed with just regular old air.

if you have a large enough expansion chamber behind the bullet it will work, I was thinking more sci-fi than steampunk. In steampunk you've got the equivalent of a musket to compete with and it'll probably do just fine throwing a bit of shrapnel down a barrel (potato cannons are a thing, they use fuel + air, no reason you couldn't launch a rock at someone instead)

but it'll never be as good as gunpowder because it explodes all at once and doesn't burn fast and expand quicker like gunpowder does

here's a potential solution I think

That seems less than ideal.

yep. I wouldn't recommend it because gunpowder is really, really good for what it does. But this way it could work hypothetically for something rifle-like without blowing up your gun or the load being too small to be effective
Benefits include:
- You can get higher pressure than you can get from gunpowder, which means potentially faster bullets than you can reach with gunpowder, which means higher armor penetration and longer max range. Good in a sci-fi setting that has power armor or whatnot?
- scaleable, if you only fill the first few chambers with gas you can reduce muzzle velocity basically as low as you life, for less-than-lethal loads or if you're worried about overpenetration
- Easy on logistics, this is caseless by design and any weapon system you have can be refilled from the same big acetylene tank at base
Drawbacks:
- way too many moving parts. Moving parts are bad mmmkay

isn't that just the nazi supergun? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-3_cannon

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Haskell_USP241978_1881_01_09_cropped.jpg

huh...

Crow, stop accidentally inventing Nazi superweapons.

so it *does* work, and is practically accomplishable, to an extent at least?

that's amazing

as a child I invented Musk's suicide vacuum tube as well

the...

look up project babylon

hyperloop

but my idea was even more radical, I'd put the tunnel between USA and Europe and have everything on magnetic rails, that way sending stuff back and forth is practically free as gravity accelerates and decelerates for you

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/409212876822282241/508421550886617089/45270529_2046572582069556_1724675316351238144_o.jpg?width=1026&height=684

post your gun related waifu