The McGlashan BB Machine Gun is a training weapon capable of firing BBs.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the USAAF and US Navy used thousands of MacGlashan BB machine guns to hone the skills of aerial gunnery

Air gunner

An air gunner a.k.a. aerial gunner is a member of an air force aircrew who operates flexible-mount or turret-mounted machine guns or autocannons in an aircraft...

. This much larger gun is cycled by an electric solenoid

Solenoid

A solenoid is a coil wound into a tightly packed helix. In physics, the term solenoid refers to a long, thin loop of wire, often wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a magnetic field when an electric current is passed through it. Solenoids are important because they can create...

 and powered by compressed air

Compressed air

Compressed air is air which is kept under a certain pressure, usually greater than that of the atmosphere. In Europe, 10 percent of all electricity used by industry is used to produce compressed air, amounting to 80 terawatt hours consumption per year....

. The air pressure is higher, at 180-200 psi, but the velocity is 500 to 600 ft/s (152.4 to 182.9 m/s)

MacGlashan Air Machine Gun company also made a Coin Shooting Pistol

Coin shooting pistol

Coin Shooting Pistols are devices designed to fire common currency of various denominations.One of the earliest known in the United States is for a patent filed Nov. 11, 1909 by Theodore Zens...

for the carnival trade that would shoot nickels during the 1940's.