Five Minute Histories: The Shot Tower

Today we visit one of Baltimore’s iconic landmarks-the Shot Tower! Thanks for watching and we’ll see you Friday.
This is our series called "Five Minute Histories." Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we’ll record a short video about a different historic place in Baltimore and post it on our Facebook page and website. We continue to honor Governor Hogan’s request to social distance.

[@CoolAsFreya]

Just a little physics correction: the reason shot towers work to make nearly perfect spheres is due to intermolecular forces between the liquid's (lead) molecules, and a sphere is the shape with the smallest volume to surface area ratio, so it is the lowest energy state for the droplet to be in. Great video covering the history and stories of this particular tower though!

[@adamgh0]

That's why the Earth is a sphere. I always ask flat earthers what shape a drop of liquid takes in the absence of a surface. Hint: It's not a flat disk.

[@jayizzett]

Lakes and oceans do not curve. To compare to a water droplet is absurd

[@mark-wn5ek]

Yeah…what he said!

[@gb-jg1ud]

@@adamgh0 the earth and other objects floating in the cosmos are round for a different reason and that is primarily gravitational attraction in the void of space, and nothing to do with liquid material properties. But yes in outer space you could make perfect spherical bearings and shot because of the material cohesion low gravity and it was actually done on the space shuttle experiments with plastic and resins.

[@gb-jg1ud]

@@jayizzett he is partially correct , see my answer in this thread

[@theluth9046]

I'm 72 years old now I grew up in the Pimlico area and went downtown quite a lot and I always liked when I got near The Shot Tower because it was so neat for a kid to look at I enjoyed it and I can still see it in my mind. I was explaining to my grandkids yesterday about how shot was made a long time ago and I was close but I did not get a ringer and so I went online and I found your video and so great a video and I'm going to send it to them and also I subscribed because it was it's about Baltimore and it's great I love that place but I moved out when I was 14 and I moved to the mountains of Virginia and that's where I am to this day but my heart still in Baltimore and the Pimlico area! Thanks so much for making this very interesting video and bringing back memories for this old mountain man! Oh yeah, I mispronounced Baltimore, it's, " Bawl-ah-mur "

[@piatpotatopeon8305]

I appreciate the effort to beat the noise! That was one of the first things I noticed when the video began.

[@lwoodt1]

I think these videos should be called . Five Minute Histories + Plus.

[@SRambo-hx8sl]

The Shot Towers are a great attraction for Tourist.

[@michaelw.urbansr.8617]

Thanks a lot i enjoyed the tidbit and plan to visit the tower soon?! :)

[@mistervacation23]

They don’t think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it - or any other man

[@AugustusTitus]

Punt guns were in common use at the time of the shot tower. Typically 2 GA (in comparison to a 12 GA shotgun), loaded with pellets, and shot into entire flocks of birds. Basically a boat-mounted cannon loaded with shot.

[@danielortman2534]

I was there Sunday and it was locked. It looked like it was supposed to be open when I checked online.

[@michaelw.urbansr.8617]

Well i hear theres a claim by an Australian Drop tower in Tasmania and they claim to have the tallest drop tower in the world? LOL but their video was done back in 1979....hehe but its still up for view. Someone else posted it here a bit more recently! lol But they still claim to be the highest at 198ft lol

[@mauriceee1434]

How about the drinking water pipe that came out of a stone wall in herring run park?

[@baltimoreheritage1006]

We will add it to our list! (Weirdly enough we just visited that area today!)

[@mauriceee1434]

@@baltimoreheritage1006 great my father used to take us their and fill jugs of water in the early 60s . Best water I ever had.

[@1notgilty]

How would you like to be the guys who had to carry lead bars up those stairs all day long? It was the original stair master!

[@AL-qi4nh]

Are visitors allowed again inside?

[@mikeblueblaze]

Ask Baltimore City Hall they were making money with the Shot Tower tours

[@AL-qi4nh]

@@mikeblueblaze thank you 😊

[@sprutxz]

Damn comments hidden

[@douglasthompson8927]

I`m confused..I was always told the the shot tower`s main claim to fame was that it was the tallest building in the US when it was built..you may have said that in the video but I didn`t catch it..everytime I`ve ever been there I`m always amazed that although it`s pretty tall it`s basically a low rise structure in the middle of a modern urban downtown area..things have changed and it really wasn`t that long ago when it was built overall

[@612ZtoMhS]

He said it was the tallest for 18 years

[@jayizzett]

@@612ZtoMhS he was too busy typing and not listening.

[@johnmoser3594]

I can't see how that would work. People would just burn the gas station down, repeatedly, and you'd lose your entire investment.

[@dutchdenson8156]

In todays Baltimore it absolutely burned down.

[@dy9278]

And then women discovered at least one superior use for arsenic. Yeah Ladies

[@1notgilty]

I hear that they wore OLD LACE. ;-)