Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Bruce Goatly said:

> JMS (not you, Jan!) was roundly criticized for the steam gun in
"Grey 17 is 
> Missing". Jem Stansfield has proved hin right in a recent edition of Bang 
> Goes the Theory. Clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo5mFF-n5vw>.

Not.

He's just using steam to create a pressure difference and using that
pressure to propel a projectile.  Basically, an air gun but with steam
instead of plain air.

Plus, his talk about how this might be used by solar generators is
babble.  That is exactly how power plants work using fossil or nuclear
fuels:  Burn the fuel to create heat which boils water which creates
steam which turns turbine blades that generate electricity.  And any
kid with a magnifying glass is familiar with the concept of focusing
the sun's energy to create a hot spot.

As for how this relates to Garibaldi's bullets in the steam pipe,
again: Not.

Garibaldi wasn't using the steam to create pressure, he was using it to
"cook off" the gun powder.  Whether or not the steam is hot enough to
do that I don't know, but if it is it wouldn't result in such an easily
aimable weapon, the bullets would tumble and scatter.  There is a
reason why gun barrels are the same diameter as the projectiles and why
they're riffled.  That pipe was neither.

-- 
Jeffrey Kaplan                                         www.gordol.org
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