Slow motion photography of flintlock in action

[Gary]

Guys, want to see a flintlock in action? You'll see sparks bounce out of the pan before the ignition. Well worth watching. Click Here

 

[jeepwj992002]

Cool video Gary! :hatsoff:

 

[Larry Pletcher]

I posted that video to youtube on January 13. The one you saw stopped the video too soon. Try the following address to see the rest. There appear to be a couple of spark explosions that show after this video is stopped. My son and I are adding a narration and a closing credits page that will replace the video you see. I placed "Olympus" in the information page. Since "Olympus" appears on the video, someone from Olympus may have placed this one.
Regards,
Pletch
Link

 

That was great. The othere thumbnails were cool too. Unfortunately - I got no sound.... :hatsoff:

 

[Headhunter]

I can honestly say that is the neatest thing I have seen all day.

HH

 

[Larry Pletcher]

The video I posted on Jan 13 has no audio. My son is using Adobe Premier to add a narration. The copy he is working on will also have the ending page giving credit to Olympus Industrial. It was their midwest manager who worked with me. When Kevin is finished with the video that has these additions, we will replace the one I did on the 13th.

We have a total of 12 video clips, 8 of which we will eventually post. Most use the large Siler you saw here. We filmed it bevel up and down, sawed agate bevel up and down, 4f and 2f priming powder, and the lock up side down. We also did a Chambers round face lock with no frizzen spring. These were all done at 5000 fps using a color camera.

We tried doing a video of a flint rifle firing with color, but there lighting became a problem. We did get it done but used a monochrome camera at 15,000 fps. Light was still a problem. We had 3000 watts on the lock video and could have used another 10,000 watts on the rifle video.

The only video I posted is the one you saw. That was chipped flint, bevel up, with Swiss Null B as the priming powder. I don't know if you noticed but in the lower left you can see the plunger from my fixture coming up to strike the sear.

BTW this Siler lock is well made with a lot of hand work done. In many tests that I have done, it averages .0388 seconds from sear strike to pan ignition. This would place it in the top 25% of all the locks I have timed.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Gary]

Thanks Pletch!

 

[shmrck1]

Gary,
Neat!
snake-eyes :hatsoff:

 

[silverfox]

Wow?? All the more reason to wear shooting glasses. When you see all that hot spark flying toward the back of the lock and the late burning piece of powder.
Thanks for the show.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[mbw907]

I did not realize that a frizzen bounced around like that. Really good video!

 

[Larry Pletcher]

I did not realize that a frizzen bounced around like that. Really good video!

In the video of the Chambers round faced lock, the frizzen comes back and contacts the top of the flint. In all fairness, we did that one without a frizzen spring, just to see what would happen. While it hit the flint, it did not rebound as often as I had expected.
Regards,
Pletch

 

[howdydoit]

I agree very cool video.

 

[don1836]

Cool. But it looks more CG than real to me.

 

[Gary]

Don - Colonial Williamsburg did the same study in black & white and the results were the same. However, Pletch's is better because his is in color! Now, if we can have a talkie version that would be real cool. But, one step at a time.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

I have been in contact with Gary Brumfield, at Williamsburg, as we did this latest video. In '88 when he worked on this he used a 4000 fps video that use a loop of magnetic tape. It was, as you said, a momochrome camera. When I was given this chance to work with Olympus, Grant Ferguson, Territorial Manager of their High Speed Video division, had a monochrome and a color camera, both were capable of 30,000 fps - if there was enough light. We could do the locks in color at 5000 fps, but when we tried the rifle we wanted 15,000 fps, and the color camera needed more light than we had (3000 watts). Because the monochrome would function with less light, we used it for the rifle shots.

I'm anxious to get the video with the better credits up because I want to cultivate this relationship for the benefit of the NMLRA. Grant liked the idea of working at Friendship.

For the sake of giving proper credit:

Olympus Industrial America
Grant Ferguson
Territorial Manager
High Speed Video Division
Cust Service 866-642-4725
[url] www.olympusindustrial.com[/url]
Grant is based in Cincinatti OH. I believe his area includes Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Zonie]

Great photography!
zonie