YouTube Video: Ball Lightning, Harnessing Nature as a Weapon

A little over two hundred years ago, the British Warship HMS Warren Hastings was struck by a weird phenomenon: "Three distinct balls of fire" fell from the heavens, striking the ship and killing two crewmen, leaving behind "a nauseous, sulfurous smell," according to the Times of London.
Ball lightning has been the subject of much scientific scrutiny over the years. And, as with many powerful natural phenomena, the question arises: "Can we turn it into a weapon?" Peculiar as it may seem, that's exactly what some researchers are working on even though it hasn't even been properly replicated in the laboratory yet.
The exact cause and nature of ball lighting has yet to be determined; there may be several different types, confusing matters further. But generally it manifests as a grapefruit-sized sphere of light moving slowly through the air which may end by fizzling out or exploding.
In the mid-'60s, the U.S. military started exploring ways that the phenomenon might be weaponized. Take this 1965 Defense Technical Information Center report on Survey of Kugelblitz Theories For Electromagnetic Incendiaries, (Kugelblitz is German for ball lighting). The document summarizes and evaluates the ball lightning theories then prevalent, and recommends "a theoretical and experimental Kugelblitz program... as a means of developing the theory into a weapons application." This led to an Air Force program called Harness Cavalier, which seems to have ended without producing anything conclusive.
However, some years later scientist Dr. Paul Koloc was looking at methods of containing high-temperature plasma during nuclear fusion. There are many schemes for containing plasma in donut-shaped magnetic fields using a device called a Tokomak. Koloc's insight was that, under the right conditions, a donut-shaped mass of moving plasma would generate the required fields for containment itself. No Tokomak would be required for this "plasmoid," which would be completely stable and self-sustaining. It is a very close equivalent of the smoke ring another type of dynamic "vortex ring," which remains stable over a period of time, unlike an unstructured cloud of smoke.
Note: Ball Lightning as it's called can also cause UFO Phenomena.

Mateba Auto Revolver

The automatic revolver is a hybrid of revolver and automatic pistol that uses the energy of firing for cocking the hammer and revolving the cylinder. The first of its kind, the Webley Fosbery automatic revolver, was marketed in 1901. It was the result of a quest for a reliable, accurate, rapid fire handgun. It was quite successful in its time, but became less desirable when reliable, accurate automatic pistols became available.
A newer automatic revolver produced in the 90's is the Mateba Autorevolver.
Between roughly 1880 and 1895, the term "automatic revolver" was used for top-break revolvers that automatically ejected spent rounds when opened.









The Mateba Model 6 Unica (often known simply as the Mateba or the Mateba Autorevolver) is an automatic revolver, one of only a few such models ever produced. It was developed in Italy and sold by the Mateba company. Emilio Ghisoni is listed as the owner of US Patent #4,712,466 which details the operation of the weapon.
Design:
The Mateba Mo. 6 uses the recoil from firing to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer, unlike conventional revolvers, which depend on the user physically pulling the trigger and/or cocking the hammer to actuate the weapon's mechanism of operation.
The Mateba Autorevolver's barrel alignment is different from most other revolvers. The barrel is aligned with the bottom of the cylinder instead of the top. This lowers the bore sight (line of the barrel) which directs the recoil in line with the shooter's hand thereby reducing the twisting motion or "muzzle flip" of normal revolvers The gun's entire upper assembly (barrel, cylinder and frame) are mounted on rails on the lower frame, which houses the trigger, hammer, and grip, and recoils approximately 7/8 of an inch/22mm on firing. The rearward motion of the upper assembly cocks the hammer, and the cylinder is rotated on the forward stroke.
Variants:
Defense - 4" barrel, .357-Magnum
Home Protection - 5" Barrel, .44-Remington Magnum
Dynamic Sportiva - either 5" or 6" barrel, .357-Magnum
Hunter - 8-3/8" barrel, either in .44-SW Special or .44-Remington Magnum
In addition, their barrels can be changed with interchangeable 3", 4", 5", 6", 7" and 8" inch barrels.
Mateba Grifone-
Also available was the Mateba Grifone, which mated an 18-inch barrel, fore and butt stock to the Autorevolver's frame and action. It was available in .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum chamberings.A version in .454 Casull was available which also allowed .45 Long Colt ammunition to be fired.