Russians Make Water Gun That Squirts & Hurts

A Russian company is working on a weapon that works like a squirt gun on steroids. It uses a potent combination of water and electricity to immobilize its target. The company developing it, Special Materials Ltd, said that while the weapon is powerful, it is not lethal.

Special Materials Ltd, a St Petersburg company, is researching the idea of a “non-lethal weapon based on electro-hydrodynamical effect,” which is basically a short, sharp electric shock hidden in a jet of water. The resulting blow, however, is more sack of rice than baseball bat, meaning that the chance of serious injury is more remote.

The first prototype “fired a half-ounce blast of water at 200 feet per second, which left a spot diameter of about twelve inches on a target 12 feet away. The eventual aim is to create a weapon that can fire a jet of between two and seven pounds of water, contains kinetic energy of up to 100 Joules and can stop someone around 17 feet away.”

Water and electricity propelled at 200 feet per second? That’s going to sting. Incidentally, Special Materials Ltd is a really cool name for a (non-lethal) weapons company. It sounds so harmless, almost as innocent as, oh, I don’t know, Universal Exports?

Source: Gizmodo

Short URL: http://gadget.ca/nl6