A HOT-SWAPPABLE CENTRIFUGE CARTRIDGE BASED WEAPONS SYSTEM. YUP.
whirr … whirr … boom … boom …
The standard issue NYPD CWS (Centrifugal Weapons System) handgun
In my earlier email discussing the NYPD Hoppers (aerial cars) I’d mentioned how I was trying to design a kit of parts, meaning a series of small components that combine to build up a variety of different tools or gadgets. The NYPD’s Centrifugal Weapons System gun is another example of that.
I didn’t start with an idea about whether Alice’s gun fired bullets, or plastic darts, or if it was a ray gun or anything like that. Instead, I started from its functionality—what would technology be like in this world? The tools used by people at street level would be mass-produced, cheaply designed, and lacking in any form of aesthetic quality. A throwaway weapon.
Her guns would be something you buy in a local deli for ten bucks with your morning coffee, use it a few times, then chuck it in the trash when it breaks. That suggested the gun being constructed from a series of smaller replaceable parts. First, I replaced the gun clip, firing mechanism, and barrel with a replaceable cartridge similar in concept to those you find on Polaroid cameras.
Wait, what? A camera?
The totally awesome Polaroid_SX-70_Sonar_One_Step
Yup. The Polaroid SX-70 is a work of total genius. There isn’t time to get into it here (so check out this quick overview PolaWiki) but the SX-70’s film pack contained a flat, 6-volt “Polar Pulse” battery that powered the camera’s electronics, drive motor, and flash. A brilliant idea: whenever you have film, you have power.
In fact, it is such a good idea I “appropriated” it 😀 and made the NYPD guns use the same methodology: battery-powered cartridges that contain the ammunition and method of propulsion. This cartridge clips into a central pistol grip. The grip is only a handle with a single switch, so can be stamped out of cheap aluminum or cast from plastic: it has to do nothing but be held onto.
Now that we have a powered cartridge and grip, what sort of ammunition does it fire? Conventional ballistics are out due to size constraints (I guess you could do a mini-shotgun approach, but that’s limited in its versatility and range, and not my kind of sci-fi cool :))
I spent a few months reading science journals and magazines looking for a potential technology of the future which, if miniaturized, could lead to a such a small and flexible weapon system.
It took some time, but I found an article about the DREAD system, which started off with this juicy bit of detail: “[I]magine a gun with no recoil, no sound, no heat, no gunpowder, no visible firing signature (muzzle flash), and no stoppages or jams of any kind. Now image a gun that fired… projectiles accurately at up to 8,000fps.”
Well I did imagine, and it sounded like the future NYPD’s sort of thing!
The DREAD system is an electric centrifugal weapons system (CWS). Instead of using gunpowder and bullets, the centrifuge spins to high velocities, and then releases ammunition at set intervals, hence the claims of no recoil, sound, heat, or muzzle flash. Now that’s my kind of future weapon!
Oh, and it came with a graphic of the gun. Look how awesome it is! Yeah, okay, may need some work 😂
What came first, this or Star Trek? (A detailed review article can be found here: Defense Review) What you really need to do is just watch this video for its astonishingly awesome graphics. I mean it, check it out, even if only for the first minute . . .
Jokes aside, the idea is super cool and it worked with the design aesthetic I was setting up for the Cortex novels. Centrifuges are circular drums set within square machines, which get back to the limited palette of geometries I was looking to use.
While the article says the centrifuge system didn’t generate heat, I decided my version did, which allowed me to put some nice detail into heat sinks and coolant apparatus on the weapon to give it some “texture.”
In this line drawing the front cartridge is in bold for clarity. The circular drum, centrifuge and finned heatsink are clearly visible. The cartridge is made in two plastic pieces screwed together. The four small holes to the left are the barrels for this version (which fires aluminum pinheads)
As I’ve mentioned before, I keep a lot of this detail out of the books as I don’t want the story to get bogged down by descriptions, so it’s great to finally be able to talk about Alice's gear (these guns took me nearly six months to design!)
Next I'm going to look at the benefits of a cartridge weapons system and what happens when you go BIG and build a Riot Gun 🔫
I’d love to hear your thoughts on anything to do with Alice or NY2050, so send me an email at jim@jimkeen.com and let's chat! 😀