Primed and Loaded | 18th Century Mortars

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@michelehumphrey852 3 жыл бұрын

I enjoyed the live cannon demonstration during my last visit. The audience participation was fun as volunteers were invited to simulate loading and firing the gun. Sadly, I was too short to volunteer. 😆

@marioacevedo5077 Жыл бұрын

These mortars were short range weapons. In "The Last of the Mohicans" there's a great battle scene where the French are digging trenches to drag their mortars close to the British fort. The British watch, knowing that once the mortars are in place, they'll rain destruction on the fort and force the surrender.

@ThePhilipish 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for the video. It was exactly what I was looking for. Good concise info, where there was little elsewhere. My main question, what the ball is made of and how it worked, was answered upfront, big win! Thank you!

@JYFMuseums 2 ай бұрын

You're welcome, and thank you!

@curtisbullock9739 9 ай бұрын

I saw a group of union civil war reenactors at South Mountain in Maryland once - they had a cannon with a ~3 or 4” bore that was really interesting. I don’t think they fire it, but they were very knowledgeable about the battle and about how the cannon would have been used.

@SuperRandomNinja1 3 жыл бұрын

This is a cool video definitely adding to my playlist of founding fathers era and before level weapons tech

@Bayan1905 11 ай бұрын

I've often wondered if a coehorn could be mounted horizontally and used as a cannon, almost like a shorter version, like a mountain howitzer in a way. I've tried researching them but can't find much. Of course, if you type in Hobit, no matter how it's spelled, you get a million posts about the Lord of the Rings characters, none on what Heny Knox did.

@JYFMuseums 11 ай бұрын

According to Jerome A Greene's book, "The Guns of Independence" Ch. 9 pg. 191, he writes the following: "From this battery, bombs were dispatched from the 10 inch mortars mounted on reinforced howitzer carriages personally designed by Henry Knox." The battery he refers to is a company commanded by William Ferguson of the 4th Continental Artillery. The howitzer carriages would have allowed the mortars to be mounted as field guns. There is a reference to "Hobits" in "Military Dictionary" by Simes, dated 1768, which says: "Hobits, are a sort of small mortars, about 8 inches diameter, some seven, some six: they resemble a mortar in every thing but their carriage, which was made in the fashion of that belonging to a gun, only much shorter: they march with guns and are very good for annoying the enemy at a distance, with small bomb, or in keeping a pass, being loaded with cartouches."

@kaptainkaos1202 Жыл бұрын

Very nice video! You were a really good presenter!

@JYFMuseums Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

@JO3BID3N-is-a-P3D0 Жыл бұрын

cool demo !

@michaelwight2740 Жыл бұрын

Could you do one showing the tools used to clear and fire?

@hintoflimetostitochip7978 Жыл бұрын

This is what the internet was made for. Thank you! ❤

@Bidimus1 Жыл бұрын

The quote that included shapnel I think was not of the period you represent as the term Shrapnel is named after Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), a British artillery officer, whose experiments, initially conducted on his own time and at his own expense, culminated in the design . Otherwise a very good video.

@JYFMuseums Жыл бұрын

Henry Shrapnel is the creator of spherical case shot, an anti-personal time fused exploding artillery shell that was packed with small iron or lead balls. By the 1850s spherical case shot was being called “shrapnel shell” and by the early 20th century any exploded fragment of a metal body or fragment of an artillery shell was being called shrapnel. The quote you are referring to (at the 7:45 mark?) is from the English translation of A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution by Johann Conrad Döhla, with the translation, editing and an introduction written by Bruce E. Burgoyne. It is one of the best narratives of the Revolution written by a common soldier. Johann Conrad Döhla kept his diary during his service in North America as one of thousands of Hessian soldiers whose service was sold to the British by their sovereign. He crossed the Atlantic in 1777 with the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments, serving in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island before reinforcing the British efforts in Virginia. Döhla was at Yorktown and after the surrender of the British army endured two years as a prisoner of war. We do not know the original German word used by Döhla in his original diary, or why Bruce E. Burgoyne as the translator/editor chose to use the word shrapnel. But translations are not always a word for word literal translation, but often a translation of the theme. Shrapnel may have been the best word to convey the context of the theme in the German to English translation.

@Bidimus1 Жыл бұрын

Then it is a poor translation of some German word for fragment.. that in modern German is...Fragmente It may well be a good translation of events but on technical issues less so.