How to protect intelligent fluids from heat damage?
So, Second Earth had/has a firearm problem. Since my magic is really just advanced science, I can't create firearm-disabling fields, so instead, I created a spell that should be able to ruin firearms.
The "Gun Jam" is a strawberry-flavoured intelligent fluid, that can move on its own and harden in response to physical trauma, meaning it's shear-thickening, though the increase in shear viscosity can be controlled.
Upon coming into contact with a firearm, it can seep into its internal parts. The jam usually targets the rifling and the firing pin, as it can block both.
However, there's an issue specific to it.
It's a thing on Second Earth that micromachines can't stand heat and guns can get pretty hot. Of course, in intelligent fluids, the micromachines are suspended in a liquid, but that won't be enough to completely alleviate the issue.
How can I minimize heat damage to the Gun Jam?
2 answers
The Strawberry Jam can freeze parts in place that don't heat up much. Parts of the trigger mechanism would be a good candidate. So is making the lock stuck in safety mode.
Also, you don't have a heat problem until the gun is fired. If the Jam prevents that, then there is no heat issue. The only problem might be to gum up a recently-fired gun. Again, though, there should still be sufficient critical cool parts of a recently fired gun.
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This is not a bug, it is a feature
The gun isn't hot until you fire it. That first shot will, due to the trauma, cause the jam to solidify and block the bullet. At the same time, the heat will deactivate the jam, but the solidification has already happened - essentially in the death throes of the jam. So it will actually work better because now it is stuck (rigor mortis) in the solid state and won't simply undo itself after a few minutes the way the same jam would when installed in a simpler, cooler machine as originally designed (e.g., safety mechanism for power tools).
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