By Barry Courter

City Beat

John Lamb, resource development manager at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga, may or may not actually appear on an episode of "MythBusters" around the first of the year. Whether he makes the final cut or not, Lamb said he thoroughly enjoyed contributing to one of the shows.

If you haven't seen the Discovery Channel program, you should do yourself a favor and watch it. It is science made fun.

Hosted by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, the show seeks to prove or disprove urban legends, and they go to some pretty elaborate lengths to do so. They've done everything from challenge the idea that jumping up at just the right moment in a falling elevator would save you to whether yawning is actually contagious. The find-a-needle-in-a-haystack challenge was also good.

Lamb, it just so happens, is a bit of an expert on a thing called a Winans steam gun. Producers at "MythBusters" contacted him about a year ago for a segment on a different steam gun they were building. Over the last 12 months or so, they talked with him about doing something on the Winans gun.

Producers flew Lamb to California the Thursday before Memorial Day and back the next day.

So, you are wondering, what is a Winans steam gun and why do we care? The gun is interesting in itself as it did exist, but no one knows if it was ever fired or if it ever actually worked, according to Lamb. The myths and legends surrounding it are another story.

In 1861 in Baltimore, riots broke out after President Lincoln ordered Union soldiers South by train. They were mobbed in Baltimore. Coincidentally, an inventor named Charles S. Dickenson was in Baltimore showing off his steam gun, a wagon-size contraption that used steam power and centrifugal force to throw shrapnel at an enemy.

According to Lamb, city leaders were looking for any and all means to quell the mob, and they nabbed the steam gun and took it to a man named Ross Winans, a somewhat controversial and wealthy character who had made his name and fortune in the railroad business and as an inventor. City officials wanted him to make the gun work.

Members of the mob and the press saw the contraption outside his warehouse, and because of Winans' reputation, all kinds of stories, theories and rumors about its use and lethality began to circulate. The gun has since been identified with Winans.

"That is what fascinates me about this," Lamb said. "In doing the research, the newspaper accounts were being updated throughout the day and in the days following, so you can almost get a real-time look into what was happening.

"Ross Winans was very abrasive and controversial and stubborn, and once the gun was associated with him, even by just being seen by his warehouse, the story took off."

Lamb likens it to the coverage of the events surrounding 9/11. He has been collecting data for a book on the subject for a couple of years now.

In addition to describing to the "MythBusters" people what he knew about the workings of the gun, Lamb also talked about the legends surrounding it.

"I don't know if they will use it, but it was very gratifying to be able to talk about it, and seeing how they do things for the show was very cool. They are very professional, and there is a lot that goes into what they do that people don't see."

* Last week I reported that Jessica Morris had left WTVC NewsChannel 9. I was premature in my reporting. I should have reported that she will be leaving the station in about a month, according to Ms. Morris.

"I'm getting out of television," she said. She said that though she is not 100 percent sure of her future, she is planning to leave the area and could possibly get into politics in some behind-the-scenes capacity.

* More than 50 films will be screened Oct. 4-7 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., during the fourth annual Secret City Film Festival at the Oak Ridge Playhouse.

For more information, call the Oak Ridge Convention & Visitors Bureau at (865) 482-7821.

E-mail Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com