Winans Steam Gun
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The Winans Steam Gun was a steam-powered
centrifugal gun A centrifugal gun is a type of rapid-fire projectile accelerator, like a machine gun but operating on a different principle. Centrifugal guns use a rapidly rotating disc to impart energy to the projectiles, gaining kinetic energy from steam, elec ...
used during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, which used
centrifugal force Centrifugal force is a fictitious force in Newtonian mechanics (also called an "inertial" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It appears to be directed radially away from the axi ...
s (rather than gunpowder) to propel projectiles.


Description

Similar in size to a steam-powered fire engine of the day, the gun had a menacing appearance thanks to a large curved shield covering its inner workings. Its mechanism involved a shielded barrel that rotated up to 250 times per minute. Shot dumped into the top of the barrel rolled down into it and were held back by a spring-loaded gate that opened to allow one shot to be flung out per revolution of the barrel. Despite the effort invested in the project, it was unable to match the accuracy or power of the gunpowder weaponry of the time, and thus the steam gun project was abandoned.


History

The weapon grew out of work by Ohio inventors William Joslin and Charles S. Dickinson on a hand-powered centrifugal gun, which they patented in 1858 – one of many 19th century attempts to harness "centrifugal" force – whether produced by hand or steam power. After the two had a falling out, Dickinson promoted the device under his name, patented his own version a few months later, and found funding to build a steam-powered gun in Boston in 1860. He brought the device to Baltimore and demonstrated it for the City Council in February 1861. The machine was supposedly capable of shooting 200 projectiles in a minute. In the wake of the April 19, 1861 clash between a pro-Southern mob and the 6th Massachusetts Militia in Baltimore, Maryland, word spread of an allegedly powerful steam gun said to have been invented and built by noted Maryland industrialist and
states' rights In United States, American politics of the United States, political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments of the United States, state governments rather than the federal government of the United States, ...
advocate
Ross Winans Ross Winans (1796–1877) was an American inventor, mechanic, and builder of locomotives and railroad machinery. He is also noted for design of pioneering cigar-hulled ships. Winans, one of the United States' first multi-millionaires, was involv ...
to oppose Federal troops passing through Baltimore to Washington in response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers. The gun was taken from Dickinson and/ or his associates by City Police to be put in readiness for use if needed. Available evidence suggests that it was taken to the foundry/machine shop of Ross Winans and his son Thomas who the city’s Board of Police had hired to make pikes, shot and other munitions. Shortly after, the gun was taken from the Winans’ facility and publicly displayed with other weapons being gathered by city authorities. In the excitement of the times, Ross Winans' public involvement in states' rights politics in Maryland, his great fortune, word of the munitions work being done at his factory for the city, city defense appropriations, and the appearance of a menacing looking gun that had emerged from his factory became mixed in the press and were carried in papers across the country. After calm returned, the gun was taken again to Winans' shop for repair at city expense, then returned to Dickinson, who then attempted to take it to Harper’s Ferry to sell to Confederate forces. Union forces captured the gun and its handlers, intact, in mid journey on May 11, 1861, at Ellicott Mills, Maryland and took it to their camp at Relay, Maryland. While not a party to the attempt to escape with the gun, press accounts linking him to it, his pro-states' rights politics, rumors of munitions making for the South, and the real munitions work he had undertaken for Baltimore authorities led to Ross Winans’ arrest and brief detention by Federal forces. He was released after 48 hours, after agreeing that he would not take up arms against the government. Following its capture, the gun was tested by members of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry, before being sent North, via Annapolis,
Fortress Monroe Fort Monroe is a former military installation in Hampton, Virginia, at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, United States. It is currently managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth ...
, and eventually to Lowell, Massachusetts, where it was presented to a mechanic's organization. Despite receiving significant political and media attention throughout the spring of 1861, it made no contribution to the war itself. It remained little more than a curiosity, eventually being scrapped long after the war.


Replica

In 1961, a full-scale replica was built by Mark Handwerk, Joseph H. Clark and Joseph Zoller III for the Centennial of the Civil War. The gun is on outdoor display on the median of US. Route 1 in
Elkridge, Maryland Elkridge is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Howard County, Maryland, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Elkridge is a rapidly growing area; between the 2010 and the 2020 census, the population had grown from ...
. A model was built and tested in Episode 93 – "Confederate Steam Gun" of
MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...
.


See also

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Mass driver A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to Acceleration, accelerate and catapult Payload (air and space craft), payloads up to high speeds. Existing and proposed mass ...


References

* * * * {{USCWWeapons American Civil War weapons