Although Ronald Reagan’s dream of an orbiting fleet of space weapons to shield us from nuclear attack never materialized, several projects of the former Star Wars program have inspired somewhat more mundane research. One recent and rather humble spin-off had its origins as a sort of orbiting pellet gun that would shred enemy missiles with a hail of high-speed projectiles. While no weapons have come of this, some engineers at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island have managed to scale down the technology to a more peaceful level: they’ve invented a quiet jackhammer.
The jackhammer consists of a ten-foot-long cylinder (the next prototype should be half that length) that houses a freely sliding piston inside a narrow tube. Pressurized air flows into the tube just behind the piston. In front of the piston is helium gas. As the pressurized air drives the piston into the helium, says Robert Hall, head ...
