Master Gunner's Test Question 3

[robinghewitt]

I hope you are all remembering to honour God. have his image always before you and fear him more than other soldiers do. Working with powder or the gun you have your own worst enemy in your hands so you require three fold attention. You must act as a man without fear and inspire great confidence in those around you.

For Q3 I will just remind you what a gun looks like. Notice the tube of priming powder in the touch hole, the wooden plug and the stone ball centred and secured with wooden wedges.

The third question is: can a small quantity of powder blow up a gun or can you shoot further with it than if you fill the chamber up to the plug?

 

[musketman]

Yes, because the vapour beavers will eat through the wooden plug and force the stone to roll the wrong way and plug the bore...

Actually, it's like when we load a round ball with a gap between the powder and the projectile, the "GAP" will bulge the barrel and it could rupture...

So, the small charge leaves a "GAP" of air to bulge the cannon...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Ye humble me as a disloyal servant. Lest I be hoisted on my own pitard I will sequester myfelf this day and glorify His name.

It is a truth that some powders are more energetic than others, as when Brother Jerome got into the communal wine a bit largely and added the fulminate of mercury in error. After reading the last papers of Brother Immolius, those as were not destroyed or rendered illegible at the time of his Ascention, the Brothers here decided as one to limit the volume of powder to no more or less than twice the diameter of the bore. We have also elevated Brother Igor, whose simple ways are no doubt a sign of his Blessedness (and because he agreed - as thou knowest his quill is short of a nib, so to speak) to be our Punk Monk and have the greatest honor of testing each new batch of powder in yon test cauldron, out beyond the sheep pens.

Your servant,

 

[Musketeer]

Well, Squire, since logic and reason would indicate that a barrel full of powder would give more velocity and would be safer, since there'd be no air between powder and ball, and since all the correct answers so far have defied logic and reason, I'd have to say that the answer would be that a smaller amount of powder would be better. I think I'm finally understanding the 1380 mindset: the more illogical the answer, the more likely it is to be correct. :shocking: :thumbsup:
P.S. I also based my answer in part on the fact that your drawing only shows a small amount of powder! :thumbsup:

 

[robinghewitt]

Impeccable logic. You don't think the vapour beavers act as wadding? ::

Perhaps I should mention that his best gunpowder mix is 6 parts saltpetre, 2 parts sulphur and one part charcoal.

 

[Musketeer]

Indeed! Vapour beavers make excellent wadding. Here's a pic I found in an old book that looks similar to the cannon in the above drawing.

:thumbsup:

P.S. The vapour beaver's fur acts as a sort of crude bore "mop" that allows many consecutive shots w/o cleaning!
:crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

P.P.S. Interestingly enough, as I write this post, I'm listening to the song Remember I Was Vapour by Gary Numan. :shocking: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[musketman]

OK, I got it...

When the touch hole is lit, it makes a vaccum in the bore, pulling in the wooden plug to compress the charge...

Then when the charge is ignited, the wooden plug works as a plunger, sending the stone in flight...

 

[robinghewitt]

In my experience gunpowder tends to blow, I have never known it to suck :crackup:

 

[Musketeer]

Wrong again, Musketman! With all those vapour beavers in there, the plug has no "compression" room! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I consulted with Brother Maynard, keeper of the Holy Book of Armaments and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, and he found no reference to the sucking of black powder.

A Reading From the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying,
"Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy."

And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals...

Now did the Lord say,

"First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

Perhaps you are confusing it with the sucking of in-lines . . . straws, that is?

 

[musketman]

Wrong again, Musketman!

Won't be the first time... :redface:

I guess I'll have to unmask myself now in shame...

 

[robinghewitt]

 

[Stumpkiller]

Robin!

I'm surprised and disappointed in you. You know the Geneva Convention forbids the loading of dumb-dumbs as projectiles. :shake:

 

[Musketeer]

Strange but true! I ran across an old box of shotshells at the local gun shop the other day. The box said Rabbit & Squire Loads . I figured they just forgot to put the two L's at the end of Squirell , but when I got home and opened the box I found this:

:shocking: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[robinghewitt]

The third question is: can a small quantity of powder blow up a gun or can you shoot further with it than if you fill the chamber up to the plug?

There I say: if you fill the gun up to the plug then the fire has no place to expell the shot until a part of the powder has burned and the vapours have displaced the plug. If you fill the chamber about one quarter to one third with powder, it is possible for the charge to burn away in a short time and the vapours can exert their power. This way you shoot further and can also burst a gun more easily than if you fill the chamber with meal powder right up to the plug.

 

[Griz]

Ye humble me as a disloyal servant. Lest I be hoisted on my own pitard I will sequester myfelf this day and glorify His name.

Quite impressive. :applause:
Sorry for side tracking the thread.My appoligies.

 

[madstone]

Might I humbly interject something "my ole" Uncle Jim used to say was to be found in "Dooteronomy". "Tamp thy ball firmly upon charge or wad or bulgeth thy barrel" Believeth not in Vapours nor allow another to charge thy gun"

 

[Holley]

Wow!!! Looks like I have been missing the fun in this area. :blah: Ok...I an not a Master gunner...but would you believe I have shot the cannons at the Castillio de SanMarcos in Old St. Augustine? :: Yup, they do allow us Ladies....accent on "Lad"ies to train and fire the big guns a la 1760. There are about 5 of us ladies who can fire the cannons for the National Park Service, from the 300 year old gun decks. :blah: :blah:
[url] Uh....in[/url] my paper test....we never did "suck" we just "blow" that ball right out. Love the smoke rings lifting above the big boats with sails. Too bad they do not let us fire with real "balls". :curse:

Some of you guys would love to go to Cannon School. Usually held around Mothers' Day. Then the thrill :imo: :hmm: :applause: of fireing off that gun deck is something you cannot imagine. Think of Walter Drake, Pirates and the Spanish soldiers going at each other those many years ago...and I have the privilage of either fireing the big guns or pushing the tourist over the walls. :crackup: :crackup: So I am a Safety Officer when not playing soldier. :results: They only like to let the girls play when the guys do not show up for weekend fun and games. :shocking: Who knows how many flat tires some of these gentlemen have suddenly gotten in the last few years?? :: :hmm: :shake: I will never tell!!!! :thumbsup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[Musketeer]

Who knows how many flat tires some of these gentlemen have suddenly gotten in the last few years??

So that's what keeps happenin' to my tires?!!! :shocking: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[madstone]

Tipis,
I am delighted to hear from "the ladies"! I really believe the women of the frontier were the "anchor" that kept their menfolks from doing silly things like cutting off their shirt tail for patching material. In these "ole hills" many stories are told of women defending their home and hearth against Indians, wolves, bears, etc. while their men were out "playing militia". It takes guts to follow some "worthless feller' into the wilderness and seeing to it he grew more corn than just to make a little whiskey! One of my ancestors would leave the wife for months at a time, allegedly to long-hunt, she had to tend the crops and gardens, fix the meals, raise the brood of kids and try to keep everybody's "butt" covered with some kind of clothing. This while milking the cow and quilting..
Nothing prettier than a fair lady's face streaked with soot from BP! One could use the 'rammer/sponge" to accidentally put knots on the heads of recalcitrant men who might wish to relegate ladies to "second choice" as cannoneers! :m2c: