Pistol fires red paint at fleeing auto

Popular Science 2, 1932



[St. Louis police have a new pistol that fires a red paint bomb at a fleeing automobile.]

So that gangsters and hit-and-run drivers cannot escape pursuing police cars in crowded city streets, a St. Louis, Mo., inventor has devised a pistol which shoots a small celluloid shell about the size of a hen's egg. Upon hitting the body of a fleeing automobile it creates a large splash of red dye. This identifies the car as one wanted by the police. The barrel of the pistol is about two inches in diameter, and the projecting mechanism is a spring which will shoot the shell over 900 feet. The nose of the shell is soft rubber, underneath which is a pin valve that releases the dye.