According to legend, the Greek engineer Archimedes of Syracuse designed a pump that moved water up by using a screw inside a sealed shaft. The Evans lever-action rifle, designed by a dentist in Maine, uses the same mechanical principle. As the lever is cocked, the shaft inside the magazine built into the buttstock turns and feeds another round into the chamber. Why do you think this innovation never caught on?
Link -via Pocket Pistols, Historic Firearms, & Curiosities | Photo: Two Flints
I drive old diesel Mercedes because I can run biodiesel, made by a friend from surplus oil. A vehicle I have use of, a truck, also a Mercedes -- ancient - runs on straight veggie oil. Why do me and a few other friends do this? Well, we do it because it's cheap fuel, parts are cheap, and we like simple to maintain cars that last much, much, longer than their interiors, paintjobs and most other cars we can afford to buy, maintain and insure.
Being mechanically inclined from a very, very, early age also has a great deal to do with it....which is why I also developed an interest in watches, and later the mechanical bits of guns. I also loooove old typewriters - but vicariously when I visit friends --- I also have promised myself, friends, and family to keep clutter at a minimum.
Well Ben, I read a couple of your other comments, liked them, your comments look pretty good, so I now understand that you were not trolling me.
I hope this answers things for you, sorry for being kinda abrupt in my first reply.
[John -- thanks for editing my verbiage, and thanks for your diplomatic reply. ;) ]
By the way, an Evans figures prominently in a Tom Selleck made-for-TV Western, "Crossfire Trail." It is carried by Wilford Brimley as Joe Gill. When someone asks him why he carries the Evans, Joe replies, "Well, it's got 28 bullets, and I ain't a very good shot."