black powder and electricity

[purple heart]

I was asked a two part question the other day.

What would happen if you had a loaded bp firearm and you touched a live electric fence?
Would it set it off.

Never having tried it I can't be absolutely sure but I would guess it wouldn't do anything
because you don't have a hot spark to set off the powder.

The other part of the question was then why is there electrically fired guns?

Again I'm assuming they have a way of making a spark, something like a spark plug, to set off
the powder.
Does anyone know just how they work?
I've never messed with one myself.

[dave-t.]

This week there were 4 young adults in KC that darn near blew up a house when they were taking apart the big mortor shell fireworks, because they were wanting to make a really big mortor. They did this in a small room with carpet on the floor. Police believe static elictricity set it off, and blew that wall of the house right off the foundation. Nobody was killed, but all badly injured.

I do believe the Rem rifle with electric ignition had a primer type part with electrodes that stuck out into the powder column that worked very similar to a spark plug.

[captchee]

it depends on the powder .
very fine flash powder can ignight with static . but 4 F and larger isnt suposed to .
somewhere around here ?? or maybe it was on the old board , i had a link to powder tests with electricity .
the photos showed the spark runing right over and around the powder grains . yet they did not ignight

[captchee]

ahhh found it . here is the link

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

[Lumox]

Ever hear of the CVA Electra?

[Twanger]

As you know, metal is a very good conductor.

In the case of a muzzleloader, metal almost completely surrounds the load.
If you were touching a metal part of the gun, the gun was grounded to the ground, and touched an electric fence (WHY?) any electric current would simply be conducted around the load.

If the gun was in the air there's even a lower chance of anything happening, because the current is likely to go through you and into the ground in preference to going through the gun.

That said, always point the muzzle in a safe direction!

The electrically fired guns operated on a principle much like a spark-plug. They brought the electrical signal into the firing chamber through an insulated path and generated a spark across a gap that was in contact with primer/powder. This is a far, far, different case than your mechanically fired gun.

[ncboman]

just for giggles I touched a very hot live electric fence with my Knight a couple days ago.

It didn't go off but I still got a thrill.

[Twanger]

Some people have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves! - Will Rogers :wink:

[captchee]

Ever hear of the CVA Electra?

hep i have . but do you know how it works and why ?