Cannon Shock Waves in Ultra Slow Motion

[Grumpa]

Just caught up to this thread. WOW! Formidable weapons.
When my Brother was a Pittsburgh policeman, a long hidden storage area was uncovered while digging in what had been the old Arsenal during the Civil War. (In modern times, the area had become a park!) Lots of grapeshot cannon balls, many with the powder charge and fuse still in them. He picked up one that was about two thirds complete - so you could see the grapeshot neatly stacked up, but the charge and fuse were gone.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[RiverRat]

Great Video! I Love my cannon!

 

[SamTex1949]

I was wondering about that, I figured that no one was actually using "standard / full " loads for safety reasons alone, So now to imagine what that was like !

I'm a life-long cannoneer. What isn't said is that the full service load is about 3x the powder charge allowed by modern rules and that these old timers were running pressures too dang close to bursting the tubes (barrels) back in the day.

 

[Lige]

Very interesting showing how inefficient they are, can see unlit powder thrown out of the muzzle.

Great video. Instructive too. I wish my cannon wasn't so rusty but it did spend 100+ years under water.