How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the January-February
2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of Schlieren photography
(with a good clear explanation of how they work, which had always eluded
me) that has some great pictures, including what a silencer really does.
On p. 30 of the magazine there is a picture of the same .45 pistol with
and without a silencer. Pretty impressive. Essentially what a silencer
does is suppress the supersonic shock wave that comes off the end of the
muzzle into a narrow cone, that sounds more like a gas jet hiss.

It's also available on line if you're quick (I think it's only up while
it's the current issue). Go to
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/CurrentIssue , pick "High
Speed Imaging" and jump to page 5. Actually the whole article is worth
reading and the pictures are great. The .30-06 picture on the first page
is awesome.

Jim

Jim McGill wrote:
How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the January-February
2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of Schlieren photography
(with a good clear explanation of how they work, which had always eluded
me) that has some great pictures, including what a silencer really does.
On p. 30 of the magazine there is a picture of the same .45 pistol with
and without a silencer. Pretty impressive. Essentially what a silencer
does is suppress the supersonic shock wave that comes off the end of the
muzzle into a narrow cone, that sounds more like a gas jet hiss.

It's also available on line if you're quick (I think it's only up while
it's the current issue). Go to
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/CurrentIssue , pick "High
Speed Imaging" and jump to page 5. Actually the whole article is worth
reading and the pictures are great. The .30-06 picture on the first page
is awesome.

Jim

Ouch. That site requires a login, it lets you pick one, then it won't take that
for the actual article.

Grant Erwin

I didn't log in. Just clicked on the article and viewed away...

--

Clif Holland KA5IPF
www.avvid.com


"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
Jim McGill wrote:
How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the January-February
2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of Schlieren photography
(with a good clear explanation of how they work, which had always eluded
me) that has some great pictures, including what a silencer really does.
On p. 30 of the magazine there is a picture of the same .45 pistol with
and without a silencer. Pretty impressive. Essentially what a silencer
does is suppress the supersonic shock wave that comes off the end of the
muzzle into a narrow cone, that sounds more like a gas jet hiss.

It's also available on line if you're quick (I think it's only up while
it's the current issue). Go to
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/CurrentIssue , pick "High Speed
Imaging" and jump to page 5. Actually the whole article is worth reading
and the pictures are great. The .30-06 picture on the first page is
awesome.

Jim

Ouch. That site requires a login, it lets you pick one, then it won't take
that for the actual article.

Grant Erwin

Ditto

"Clif Holland" wrote:

I didn't log in. Just clicked on the article and viewed away...

jk

OK, it worked for me now. - GWE

jk wrote:
Ditto

"Clif Holland" wrote:


I didn't log in. Just clicked on the article and viewed away...


jk

In article ,
says...

How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the January-February
2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of Schlieren photography
(with a good clear explanation of how they work, which had always eluded
me)


In my many years of working at NASA, I enjoyed using the world class Schlieren
system at NASA Glenn's 8x6 Transonic Wind Tunnel. The system was built in the
early 1950's and I believe it was the biggest in the world at that time (it may
still be).

It used 40" diameter front surface, concave, mirrors to place a 40" light path
through the windows of the test section of the wind tunnel. The mirrors were
mounted on what looked like converted lathe beds so they could be translated
back and forth in two directions as well as tilted.

The light source and the knife edge were remote controlled in all three axis,
and in addition, the knife edge could be rotated around the focused beam to
place the cutoff at the optimum point. Tuning it was quite an artful task!

We converted it to a rainbow Schlieren in the 1970's. This system replaces the
knife edge with a translucent film which has a standard color spectrum on it.
This allows the image of the shock waves to take on colors which correspond to
their density.

Dennis

Jim McGill wrote:

How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the
January-February 2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of
Schlieren photography (with a good clear explanation of how they work,
which had always eluded me) that has some great pictures, including
what a silencer really does. On p. 30 of the magazine there is a
picture of the same .45 pistol with and without a silencer. Pretty
impressive. Essentially what a silencer does is suppress the
supersonic shock wave that comes off the end of the muzzle into a
narrow cone, that sounds more like a gas jet hiss.

It's also available on line if you're quick (I think it's only up
while it's the current issue). Go to
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/CurrentIssue , pick "High
Speed Imaging" and jump to page 5. Actually the whole article is worth
reading and the pictures are great. The .30-06 picture on the first
page is awesome.

Jim

I've always been fascinated by Schlieren photography, and high-speed
photography.
These guys have combined the two! Fantastic!

Jon

Thanks, Jim.
That is a great article! I clicked the link for a printable version and
then copied the resulting URL and pasted that onto an email to a couple
of gun nut friends.

Paul

"Jon Elson" wrote in message
...


Jim McGill wrote:

How silencers on guns work has come up on this list several times and
opinions have been "diverse". There's an article in the
January-February 2006 "American Scientist" on modern versions of
Schlieren photography (with a good clear explanation of how they work,
which had always eluded me) that has some great pictures, including
what a silencer really does. On p. 30 of the magazine there is a
picture of the same .45 pistol with and without a silencer. Pretty
impressive. Essentially what a silencer does is suppress the
supersonic shock wave that comes off the end of the muzzle into a
narrow cone, that sounds more like a gas jet hiss.

It's also available on line if you're quick (I think it's only up
while it's the current issue). Go to
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/CurrentIssue , pick "High
Speed Imaging" and jump to page 5. Actually the whole article is worth
reading and the pictures are great. The .30-06 picture on the first
page is awesome.

Jim

I've always been fascinated by Schlieren photography, and high-speed
photography.
These guys have combined the two! Fantastic!

Jon

I have a pretty good idea of how Schlieren photography works ( I
recommisioned the camera here at work, replacing the old 9" camera with a
ccd).
The camera has a light source that has lines that block 1/2 the light. The
camera has a precisely located matching grid that overlaps the other grid by
1/2. The straight line light path only allows 1/4 the light to get through.
In our system the light source grid is ~ 5' dia and the lines are ~3/8"
spaced about 1/4" apart.
The camera is focused at the model and through the camera grid, you don't
see the grid at all.
The way it works is that different air pressures defract light different
amounts, so areas of different pressures get either more light or less light
making it throught the grating..
Pat