T-Shirt Cannon

SnakeStu writes "If you thought the T-shirts at ThinkGeek were cool, imagine them flying 160 feet through the air (courtesy of Crawford International Theatrical Corporation [CITC])."

damn!

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn I'm so old school... My t-shirt cannon doesn't have a quick reloader. :(

Doh!

[Frogking]

Isn't this what killed Maude Flanders on the Simpsons?

lol

[Rooked_One]

thats the first thing I thought and was going to post! Great minds... err wait - do I really want to compare my mind to that of a Frogking? :P

Re:lol

[Minna Kirai]

Congratulations, both of you can read the story department: "in-memoriam-maude-flanders".

Micheal beat you to it.

Re:Doh!

[dtfinch]

You beat us all to it. I was thinking about that as well.

Re:Doh!

[NevermindPhreak]

and, first post beat *him* :P ...

Re:Doh!

[johny_qst]

It may have been the cause for the death of Maude, but wasn't the impact with the ground what actually killed her. Unless she had a heart-attack before the fall, I think gravity was the real culprit.

Re:Doh!

[DansnBear]

Ask any wise mountain climberand they'll tell you: It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.

First?

[notb4dinner]

Well that'll certainly improve the rate at which I can get dressed of a morninng....

Nothing New

[kkirk007]

This is just an update of an old model.

We had this things launching tshirts at us in the bleachers at USC (Carolina, not SoCal) football games a couple years ago.

Re:At SoCal too

[DevNull Ogre]

Really? Mostly I've seen them using those water balloon slingshots. But I can't say I pay all that much attention to those guys. It's not like they'd ever launch a t-shirt that'll fit me. So if any t-shirt launching people read Slashdot: fire off some shirts for fat people, too!

BTW, "USoC"? Huh? Where did that little o come from? It certainly does nothing to indicate the University of Southern California as opposed to the University of South Carolina? You must be a Bruin sharing your experience fr

I have a question...

[webslacker]

It looks like it would be fun for the first ten minutes, but who really needs these other than emcees at basketball games?

Re:I have a question...

[jag164]

It looks like it would be fun for the first ten minutes, but who really needs these other than emcees at basketball games?

Republican Gaurd soldiers?

Re:I have a question...

[stuffman64]

"The infidels were driven from our great country with the might of the Iraqi people and the T-shirt launchers."

-Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Air Cannon....Mod.....Splat

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno...isn't that how Mod died? Products like these should be taken off the market before less liked characters started getting picked off.

They killed "Mod"?

[Roosey]

Oh, how I wish I had Maude points right now... ;)

Maude parent up!

The name is Maude...

[tunah]

you insensitive claude!

Children,

[Anonymous Coward]

Children, please be careful. Specifically, don't put frogs in them, and don't ever look down the barrel of one! (by choice)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/bizarre/1 870788 [chron.com]

What I want to know is...

[KikassAssassin]

So let me get this straight... a frog (a soft, squishy animal) was shot out of a potato gun, and broke a kid's face (a hard, bony face).

Here's what I want to know: what did the frog look like?

Re:What I want to know is...

[Lemmy Caution]

Green and blurry.

Re:What I want to know is...

[Moofie]

I'm just really glad that somebody stupid enough to look down the barrel of a firearm isn't going to be behind the stick of a combat jet.

What a fucking moron.

Re:What I want to know is...

[rifter]

I think the poster meant "what did the frog look like after impacting a kid's face hard enough to break it."

Man to me the worst part of the story was:

Lisa Berry said that the force of the blast blew off her son's eyelids.

"If he cries, it burns his eyes," she said. "I never thought any toy a child could order would wound my child like that."

Now that would seriously suck. Your eyes are knocked out, your face is broken, and if you cry then it really starts to hurt. I guess it is a good reason not to l

of all the things to launch

[Xpilot]

...why a T-shirt?

The practical applications for this device...

[phreak404]

are endless!

"This unit includes everything you need to launch soft items further and faster. The 2? X 23? PVC holds big surprises for your audience and creates lots of attention. Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers, SnoBiz® or other snow flake products, rose pedals, balloons (uninflated), etc."

I was just thinking to myself the other day... wouldn't it be nice if I could pull these hot dogs and brats off of the grill and launch them onto a plate in the house?

Re:The practical applications for this device...

[questforme]

Forget about lauching them onto a plate, just line everbody up and have them say, "ahhhhh".

Re:Yeah, I told the wife...

[Pii]

"And here I've been, using my teeth all these years, like a sucker."

When Will We Learn

[Ken@WearableTech]

Didn't Maud Flanders teach us that shooting T-Shirts can be deadly?

When I die I hope FANdumanium will do a 21 T-Shirt Salute.

uugh...

[BMojo]

I feel like ive just been lead through a series of useless advertisements.

Eh?

[mackstann]

News for nerds, stuff that matters! Stuff like 64-bit cpus and the matrix and.... t-shirt.. launching?

"New and improved tee launcher"

[ebbomega]

If it's new, can it really be improved?

Re:"New and improved tee launcher"

[jred]

I know this is a joke, but it bugs me :)

Of course it can be both new *and* improved.

It can definitely be new & *worse*, just look at the new Coke (assuming you remember that fiasco). That's why they stress the improved part.

Re:"New and improved tee launcher"

[martyn s]

He's saying that if it's truly new, it can't be improved from something in the past, otherwise you can't call it new.

Bargin

[Superfreaker]

At just $1,400 this thing is a steal. Now I can launch all of those t-shirts I've wanted to hurl...wait a second..WTF do I need this for again.

I'll just stick to my good old spudlauncher (http://www.idahospudfire.com/main.htm)

Sig:
I'm not the best programmer, and I'm not the best basketball player;
But I'm the best basketball palyer on my programming team;
and I'm the best programmer on my basketball team.

Re:Bargin

[AEton]

Eh, stop whining...that's a price reduction of 12%!

"Old price was $1,595.00
New for 2002, only $1,400.00 "

If they ever notice it's 2003, another price cut like that will bring this down to an affordable $1229--$70 less than a new iMac [apple.com] and infinity times more useful. Hoorah!

Re:Bargin

[rifter]

Oh come now, the imac is equally useful. What's a gun with no ammunition? :)

Re:Bargin

[cuyler]

Just to let you know, your sig has a typo.

But I'm the best basketball palyer on my programming team;

I normally don't point typos out but it's in your sig.

anyone ever heard of a

[f13nd]

SPUD GUN?!?!? why pay 1500 bucks for one of those?! build your own for less than 100

Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outside

[randomdef]

Ever been to a hockey game? how about a monster truck rally? Do you know what football is? I've seen these for years and also in use! ohhh.

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[PissedOffGuy]

i was thinking the same thing. so many of the "news for nerds" articles and their replies are really out there. if youve been to any pro sports event you should have seen one of these.

its like the article about the car that was hacked up to get a better quarter mile time. the article and its comments were like "case modding for cars!", apparently nobody knew that cars were getting "modded" waaaaay before frickin' computer cases?

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[toddlg]

LOL! word for word I was thinking the same thing... 'has michael ever been to a sporting event'
doh!

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[mcgroarty]

Erm -- I was about to point out the same thing.

At the United Center in Chicago, they fire tee shirts up from the court area during Bulls and Blackhawk games, and we've gotten them flying into our top tier -skybox-. This is not new technology!

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[anon*127.0.0.1]

But it IS new!

And improved!

Says so right there!

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[Saeger]

and we've gotten them flying into our top tier -skybox-

Oh, you're one of those people. *hides contempt* ... :)

--

Re:Do the editors of slashdot not actually go outs

[buyo-kun]

Obligatory Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy Reference

The Slashdot editors try to stay out of the Asylum.

Hot dogs?

[SweetAndSourJesus]

"Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers..."

HOT DOGS?

Is that really how you want your hot dog served to you?

Re:Hot dogs?

[Blacklotuz]

If whats in them dosen't kill you, having them launched towards your head at 90mph sure will!

Re:Hot dogs?

[Keith Russell]

Is that really how you want your hot dog served to you?

NO! The Pirate Parrot has been using one of these to launch hot dogs for years. Once, back at ye olde Three Rivers Stadium, one landed just below my section. It hit the concrete and, um, well, liquified. So if you don't catch one, look around for someone with their jaw wired shut.

Re:Hot dogs?

[NanoGator]

"HOT DOGS?

Is that really how you want your hot dog served to you?"

When pigs fly!

Is nothing sacred?

[eidechse]

Now the marketing fiends have corrupted the once noble potato canon.

Old news and overpriced

[jmuzic1]

We even had these at high school football games shooting t-shirts into the bleachers. Other objects work well too. You could make one yourself for much less cost.

Sling shot was better.

[red5]

They use these things all the time a kings games. Though personally I prefer the old method where they'd have to scantly clad girls hold one of those slingshot gizmos while the mascot loaded a t-shirt and shot it into the crowd. It didn't have the range but damn-it looks are important. ;-)

Re:Sling shot was better.

[rediguana]

Yeah well we get the best of both worlds buddy. They fire out t-shirts from a launcher similar to this, WHILST the scantily clad dancers jump around in near freezing conditions. Interesting to see people jump for the tshirts. A couple of nights ago one dropped his kid whilst trying to catch a tshirt! D'oh!

Re:Sling shot was better.

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember these from HS. One of the senior bought one and had a lot of fun with it around the parking lot. They launched water ballons over the school, over the football field, and into the large garage door on the weight-lifting building. LOL! The funniest thing though was when they mounted it in the bed of a pick (using the corners posts). They went all over town shooting it at things. Another senior (in his nice Monte Carlo) pulled up behind the truck at a stop sign. They thought it would be fun

hmmmm

[citroidSD]

T-shirts are nice, and everything, but please, do tell, does it launch potatoes [spudtech.com]?

Well I'm sure glad to see this

[Moses Lawn]

This will simplify doing my laundry. Instead of washing my shirts, I can blow them over the fence into my neighbor's yard. Or across the street. At 160' range, I can probably fling them over the freeway. How wide is a freeway?

I wonder if I can use this for my old socks as well? That would be handy.

If I had this at work

[dWhisper]

I would have more people to threaten and put at risk of losing an Eye. I would be able to throw my custom shirts around and do all kinds of damage...

There could be a whole business promo thing going on here. Stand at a Pizza Hut and fire promo pictures over to Domino's. Or better yet, I could travel down to Texas and blast some Gateway Shirts at Dell. Stand outside Microsoft and pelt the building with Linux shirts, things like that. Civil Disobedience and Advertising finailly mix, at least in ways that doe

Drag Races

[radoni]

They've been doing this stunt for years at Route 66 raceway. What's so differn't?

In other news...

[b3h]

The US Military is arming its soldiers with t-shirt cannons to fight the war against terrorism!

Token Simpsons Reference

[DeadBugs]

Was'nt Ned Flanders wife killed by one of these?

T-shirt cannon?

[sstory]

A T-shirt cannon? My first reaction was, how nerdy. But you know, anything that can take out a Flanders is fine by me.

Simpsons Quote That's Only Funny in Context

[Nova Express]

"Finally!"

Other Options

[soliaus]

$1,400? No thank you. I can make my own for $25 worth of PVC pipe from Home Depot, a couple cans of aquanet, and an old grill sparker. Mine has multiple ammo options too, such as potatoes and such... Heres My Model [lt6.net]

hello, paint ball

[Trailer Trash]

A person could kick some serious ass on the paint ball field with one of these. It's like a mortar launcher, or shotgun, depending on use. Load it up with 100 paintballs and wipe out the other team. Get one huge paintball, well, you get the picture.

at JavaOne(SM) too

[setag]

The peeps at JavaOne(SM) used these things to shoot shirts into the crowds of developers. Real neat, but I fail to see why this is posted on /.

Then again, I fail to see why a lot of things are posted on /.

Now maybe if some busty blondes were operating the shirt canons...

Excellent Uses Not Intended In The Original Design

[Cylix]

Dear Dr. Zaius,

Regarding the new devices we uncovered... I see these as the perfect tool in which to launch nets to catch those pesky humans. While the original design was not intended for this we believe it will be trivial to adjust the units.

Current technologies are begining to waiver in effectiveness and just last week we had one rude human scream out some babble along the lines of "You damned dirty apes".

Thanks,
Dr. Itchy
Human Catching Services

Slingshots

[radpole]

I have seen simple slingshots that are probably reaching 160ft easy with rolled up tshirts. They are probably only a few dollars, although it takes three to operate.

blah.

[silverhalide]

How is this different from taking your handy home air compressor and attaching it to a PVC pipe? I did this with a 1/2" pipe once when I was a kid-- I could clear acorns into the neighbors yard pretty easily. I couldn't find a bigger pipe so I couldn't launch anything significant.

T-Shirt Cannons are Old News

[thelizman]

MTX Audio shot out T-shirts at the 1997 CEMA show using a gas powered cannon. Am I supposed to be impressed?

Re:T-Shirt Cannons are Old News

[droleary]

Am I supposed to be impressed?

No, I think you're just supposed to be glad you can finally return fire like our undershirt wearing founding fathers intended. Yet another reason to thank the NRA for all their hard work!

Nothing new

[Anonymous Coward]

Really it's nothing ne. Kansas State Unv uses one at basketball games to launch shirts and other K-State stuff into the stands. It's a big hit. I was in their pep band as a tuba player. One time we managed to get the mascots attention. I waved my sousaphone side to side to make him notice me. He aimed at me a with a small jump on my part hit the bullseye. The rolled up shirt hit the bell dead center and slipped into my horn. It was hilarious. Back on topic. These things aren't exactly new. What w

Now if it could...

[questforme]

put me in the shirt when I'm shot with it(like the Jetsons) then you would have something. Nothing like getting dressed in .5 seconds.

Yeesh...

[scaramush]

50 comments, and 25 of them are about the Simpsons. And you know what the sad part is? Not one of them has spelled "Maude Flanders" [thesimpsons.com] name right.

Remember, boys: It's M-A-U-D-E.

Not:

Mad (personal favorite)
Mod
Maud

I tell you. Get killed off by a T-Shirt cannon and all respect is gone... ;) ;)

Re:Yeesh...

[Jugalator]

So it's official then..

100% of all Simpsons geeks don't read story taglines. :-)

Disclaimer: This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

Re:Yeesh...

[CaseyB]

Why do you think "d'oh" is correct? It isn't a contraction, and there is no epiglottal stop after the d. Hence it is correctly spelled according to phonetics: "doh".

Wrong dept. again...

[mcgroarty]

This should have been "from the slashdot-editors-don't-get-out-much dept."

Next up: "Auto shows copying Comdex and Linux Expo! Rumors of booth babes outside tech sector!!!"

Mr. President!

[haystor]

We cannot allow a t-shirt cannon gap!

A cheaper solution

[bm_luethke]

If someone is interested in a cheaper solution (or to make thier own) see here [spudtech.com]

The also have some really cool stuff with machined aluminum potato cannons using propane and oxygen!

ouch!

[Anonymous Coward]

Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers, SnoBiz® or other snow flake products, rose pedals, balloons (uninflated), etc.

Good lord, they've come up with something worst than browser pop-ups...

(yeah the hot dogs would hurt too).

Re:ouch!

[DMDx86]

Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers, SnoBiz® or other snow flake products, rose pedals, balloons (uninflated), etc.

Good lord, they've come up with something worst than browser pop-ups...

Well, in that case you will need a popup stopper [geocities.com]

Advertisements as ARTICLES?

[mesach]

Is this an AD???

I didnt see any how to? just a "where to buy"

If I subscribed to /. would i have seen this article? or would it have been thrown out with the banners?

WHAT THE HELL?

Re:Advertisements as ARTICLES?

[Graspee_Leemoor]

You may think that this slashdot story is just a blatant ad for the way overpriced product, blah blah, company rubs its hands together with glee, BUT the reality is that because it's so overpriced there are already lots of posts linking to instructions telling you how to build the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

End result, bad for the company.

graspee

arena football

[b17bmbr]

if you've never been, you gotta go. they have beenusing them there for years.

I'm holding out...

[thrillbert]

...For the Wet T-Shirt Cannon..

Spring break anyone?

---
Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby a month. -- Wernher von Braun

PVC under pressure?

[Sinter]

It occurred to me that the launching tube is made out of PVC. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't PVC pipe usually used for drainage applications, and thus not suited for high-pressures? And thus, couldn't the pipe (theoretically) shatter and explode? I certainly wouldnt want to be holding that thing anywhere near my crotch when it fires...

Re:PVC under pressure?

[Dynedain]

Depends on the rating of PVC...for instance, 1/2" 'schedule 40' PVC pipe must be able to withstand water pressurized to 600psi.

Lousy

[kyoko21]

Is it just me, or was this story reallly ... unnecessary? The maker of the t-shirt cannon was on an episode of Monster Garage and I have to say, that was definitely much cooler than just this lousy t-shirt launcher. At least with them, they were rapid firing newspaper bundles. Talk about extreme paperboy :-) (Where is Atari when you really need them!)

Do we need a gun license for this?

[AtomicBomb]

I am not quite sure about US, but, if you are living in UK or other countries with similar law, you may need a gun license to operate this.

Usually, a gun is defined as a device which can fire a projectile/bullet with an energy of greater than 2J measured at the muzzle.

Assuming the weight of a T-shirt is 40 g, the max height it reaches is 50m, ignoring all the loss due to friction/air resistance, the min energy is mgh=0.04*9.81*50=19.6J...

Take care!

Re:Do we need a gun license for this?

[jeff67]

I can't find a citation right now, but I'm pretty sure that a "gun" has to have a combustable propellant in the US.

Launchers are at all pro/college sporting events

[Anonymous Coward]

At UT... they even have launchers that look like big coke bottle shotguns. This is nothing new... boo on Slashdot!

boo...

[GrendelT]

dude, these thing have been around awhile... i've seen these things at the Houston Aero's hockey games and Houston Astros' games...
get something new and cool... altho these are cool, they ain't new...

I saw one of these

[ByteHog]

I was at a WWE smackdown at the Spokane Arena [spokanearena.com], and they had a t-shirt cannon, but from what I could tell, it didn't have a CO2 cylinder. The distance that it shot seemed to be controlled by a pneumatic arm or something. It seemed easy enough to reload it, just stick one or two shirts in the barrel, and it was ready to fire.

It had an awesome range though. I want one!

In a bid for ratings....

[ZaMoose]

a local Philly radio station tested out the deleterious effects of such a device on one of their associate producers. Grab a look here [y100.com]

standard mascot equipment

[lseltzer]

The Phillie Phanatic [mlb.com] has had one of these for many years.

Self-advertising

[sielwolf]

If you thought the T-shirts at ThinkGeek were cool-

Well I guess I'm out. ;)

Blue Man Group

[wowbagger]

Why, when I read this story, did I get an image of Blue Man Group using this to fire things out into the audience?

1400 bucks for a CO2 tank and a trigger?

[Aqua OS X]

Damn, I could slap that thing together for a couple hundred bucks. Who would seriously pay 1400 bucks for that thing?

Re:Obligatory Quake Reference

[flogger]

I doubt it, but if you pointed it at the ground and jumped you could do a Shirt-Propelled Jump.

Re:If you think the T-shirts at ThinkGeek are cool

[bdhein]

Are you a neurosurgeon looking for business here?

Seriously, how many people reading /. don't think ThinkGeek T-shirts are cool?

Re:Ich bin ein FIRST POSTER

[benna]

I gotta hand it to ya. At least you are a creative troll.

Re:Stupid Simpson's qoute

[martyn s]

"They make me nervous"