Could Benjamin Franklin Really Have Built a Centripetal Gun?

Probably not. The technicians and mechanics of the day were limited by the tolerances of their tools. The achievements described in Benjamin Franklin and the Wendigo Plague are almost a hundred years too advanced. On the other hand, the principles were simple enough. Who knows what might have been accomplished if the people of that time had possessed the incentive to make a steam powered weapon?

Joerg Sprave of the Sling Shot Channel on YouTube (search How to turn a drill into a monster shotgun) has done the best job I've ever seen of showing how a centrifugal (or was it centripetal?) gun works. His video captures what I had in mind for General Gage's expedition to retake the Ohio Territory.