Comments on: Mythbusters Cannon Ball Firing Mishap Animated

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:05:12 +0000

Maybe that explains what went wrong!

By: C.R. Thornton

C.R. Thornton — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:49:44 +0000

“a six-inch ball of lead”

???

Muzzle-loading cannons didn’t fire lead balls. Too heavy. They mostly used iron balls.

By: Glenn Bartley Kansas City Mo

Glenn Bartley Kansas City Mo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:11:45 +0000

The mishap with My mythbust team was a acc,I know people and they are very safe minded people,the best humans you whould meet,they would help anybody out if ya asked,I’m glad no one was hurt but if it did they would stand tall and take care of any issue. God Bless the MythBusters Team…

By: Rick Pikul

Rick Pikul — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:11:49 +0000

There was also a longer period where skipping shot was a common naval cannon technique, as it more reliably struck near the waterline.

As for Waterloo, it is important to note that the French fielded a significant number of howitzers firing shells. The muddy ground resulted in the shells burying themselves before exploding, muting the explosion and minimizing the amount of shell splinters[1].

The mud would have had little protective effect against skipping shot. Wellington had positioned his forces on the reverse slope, which itself is a more than effective protective measure.

[1] At the time shrapnel was a closely held British military secret. No one else had yet figured out to put a load of shot or a coil of notched wire between the charge and the casing.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:04:16 +0000

My understanding is that there was about a 20 year period (maybe longer) where bouncing bronze or iron balls shot from ground level (not high ground) with a bounce zone was the preferred artillery strategy. Grape shot fired that way is like having fifty drunk riflemen (which is not bad) shooting at your enemy all at once.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:02:07 +0000

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:33:49 +0000

@Thomas#10: I’ve never seen any books claim that the shot was meant to bounce. The big deal was that these things were huge (shotput size or larger – after all the shotput was originally the projectile of a large bore gun), carried enough energy to smash through shields and tear through a number of people, and could kill at long range. Arrows could also kill at long range but didn’t fare well against shields. If the shot grazes the ground it does skip but it loses an awful lot of energy as well. If people deliberately attempted to make shot skip then that was a dubious tactical decision and not the primary mode of using the weapon. The article also states that the shot was lead – lead deforms easily, does not bounce so well, and is just too damned heavy to be of practical use in a large bore gun. This ancient type of gun typically had bronze or iron shot (although golf-ball sized lead shot was used sometimes, making the gun some sort of huge shotgun). Modern large bore rifled guns do use lead in the projectiles, but the barrels are made with far greater precision and the explosives used are vastly superior to the old black powder.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:48:49 +0000

I would not assume their rates would go up at all. First, I’d like to know two things: a) per personnel time, or production time, or some other metric, how many cannon balls into the house events occur in making TV shows and movies on average, compared to for Mythbursters, and b) what their rates currently are.

Just thinking back to the time, when I was living in Boston, and an event at a scene for a movie broke about five hundred glass windows in a residential neighborhood. Or the risks stunt actors take on a lot of movies. I think that Mythbusters may be fairly tame!

By: Art

Art — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:18:09 +0000

Thankfully nobody hurt. Insurance should cover the damage. I would expect that their rates will rise astronomically. Sounds like they need to invest in a tall reinforced concrete wall –possible backed by a nice, thick berm of rocks, gravel and dirt– to keep the ballistic fun and games on-site. That, and/or moving out into a remote area, should go a long way in keeping the insurance people happy, and the general public safe.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:34:29 +0000

As I understand it bouncing was the idea with old cannons. You aimed low and wanted the ball to bounce around through the enemy lines. One of the reasons Napoleon lost at Waterloo was that the ground was so soggy that the cannonballs didn’t bounce, just stuck in the ground.