If the film's characters are anachronisms, the armature of "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is positively creaky.
When electrical energy accumulated in a bank of capacitors is rapidly pulsed into the rail, it creates an instantaneous magnetic field which flings the armature out with explosive force (see picture).
Rather than use metal as an armature, the firm strips ions from a few milligrams of argon gas and uses the resulting conductive plasma to transfer electrical energy from one rail to another.
The armature is connected to a shuttle on the runway above, to which the aircraft's nose wheel is hitched.The technology is similar to the linear-induction motors employed in some high-speed trains except, of course, trains are not expected to take off.
This generates a set of magnetic fields that accelerate the armature, and thus the projectile, forward along the rails and propel it out of the muzzle of the gun.That, at least, is the theory.
Precisely timed pulses of electricity create a wave of magnetism which rapidly pushes the armature along.
Inside the barrel of a railgun are a pair of parallel metal rails and a sliding conductive armature.
Just under the runway lies a nearly 100-metre array of electromagnets straddled by a sliding, conductive armature.
One such weapon uses a small charge of explosive to ram an armature down the axis of a current-carrying coil, squeezing its magnetic field so violently in the process that it emits a powerful burst of electromagnetic energy over distances of several hundred metres.
The faster the muzzle velocity, the stronger the rails must be, both to avoid buckling and to resist erosion from the friction created by the accelerating armature.
When someone presses the trigger, current flows up one rail, through the armature and down the second rail.
