Castle Aching

[Adams442T]

You very welcome - it didn't fit in with my Highbridge Wharf scenario. While we have a Martello Tower here in Seaford - photos are available, with re-enactors even - they never saw the need in the Bristol Channel.

I don't think the tower would stand much battering from a Britain's match-stick firing field gun. The masonry is exceptionally light-weight foam. Sorry if that is a serious security breach.

 

I have a Britains '8 inch Howitzer'.  Not the post-war version, but a 1916 issue, which fires - on spring loaded 'shells' - lead projectiles of about 1/2 oz in weight.  Last time l test fired, it cracked a window which SWMBO still hasn't forgiven me for................

[ChrisN]

You very welcome - it didn't fit in with my Highbridge Wharf scenario. While we have a Martello Tower here in Seaford - photos are available, with re-enactors even - they never saw the need in the Bristol Channel.

I don't think the tower would stand much battering from a Britain's match-stick firing field gun. The masonry is exceptionally light-weight foam. Sorry if that is a serious security breach.

 

I am not suggesting that you do this but my youngest son, with maybe the middle son built a Warhammer 40k fort out of styrene sheets that you get in packaging.  I am not sure how they did it as neither smokes but they produced 'pock' marks I it with heat that looked incredibly like cannon ball holes.

[Nearholmer]

Well OT (Quelle surprise, Rodney; quelle surprise!), but am I suffering from false memory syndrome when I recall that some Brittans 'cannons' fired small, presumably mazac, projectiles, as recently as the 1960s?

 

Did the "match firing" ones come with a dozen or so little projectiles that got lost down cracks between floorboards/ put into the baby's ear holes by your brother, causing a trip to A&E/ eaten by the dog?

 

K

Edited March 15, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Adams442T]

Well OT (Quelle surprise, Rodney; quelle surprise!), but am I suffering from false memory syndrome when I recall that some Brittans 'cannons' fired small, presumably mazac, projectiles, as recently as the 1960s?

 

Did the "match firing" ones come with a dozen or so little projectiles that got lost down cracks between floorboards/ put into the baby's ear holes by your brother, causing a trip to A&E/ eaten by the dog?

 

K

 

Usually with a dozen 'shells' in a brown paper envelope.  I recall that they were made of lead, even after Britains stopped hollowcasting in 1966, and later they went into plastic abominations that bounced off rather than beheaded infantry.  

[Mrkirtley800]

During my late teenage years I was working as a trainee chemist in the laboratory of a power station. My best mate at the time was also a trainee chemist in the gas board. We were into building model naval ships and making the guns to fire quite crudely by sealing one end of a piece of narrow brass tube, ramming down a length of igniter wick (used for model jet engines at the time) and then ramming a piece of brass wire on top. By heating the sealed end with a match, we got the thing to fire with passable power.

I was building a model of one of the Aurora class light cruisers, armed with six, six inch guns in three twin turrets.

My parents used to go out on a Saturday evening so on one occasion Bernie and I decided to try out one of my gun turrets.

We pulled the table to one end of the kitchen, drew the curtains over the window and covered it with my mothers baking board, in front of which we put a target.

The gunturret was clamped on top of a box on the table, and the two guns loaded.

Just as we were about to start there was a knock on the door. It was my mothers long standing friend with husband George.

I had to invite them in and promised a cup of tea but first we needed to do our test.

Edythe was wearing one of those daft hats with long feathers sticking up, and she was of a nervous disposition. I sat her in the chair behind the gun and just to one side. Imagine fine leg position in a cricket match.

George was fascinated, and held the match to set off the guns.

It was a bit unfortunate that one gun went off before the other, and the turret freed itself from the clamp and spun round as the second barrel discharged. There was quite a large crack as each one went off and Edythe jumped visibly each time, especially when she noticed bits of feather floating down in front of her eyes.

We had done a one in a billion shot and the second gun had cut the top part of one of her feathers off.

She jumped up out of the chair and dragged the reluctant George off home.

Strangely I never saw them again. When I think about it now, I get cold sweats. Supposing the gun had discharged a split second later, it could have hit her and done some damage, even taken one of her eyes.

The first gun to go off missed the target.

Derek

Edited March 15, 2017 by Mrkirtley800

[phil_sutters]

Well OT (Quelle surprise, Rodney; quelle surprise!), but am I suffering from false memory syndrome when I recall that some Brittans 'cannons' fired small, presumably mazac, projectiles, as recently as the 1960s?

 

Did the "match firing" ones come with a dozen or so little projectiles that got lost down cracks between floorboards/ put into the baby's ear holes by your brother, causing a trip to A&E/ eaten by the dog?

 

K

The one I remember having was this one  http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTYwWDEyODA=/z/z90AAOSwp5JWURSO/$_1.JPG which had a flat plate that struck the protruding back end of the projectile, when the 'trigger' was pulled. (That doesn't seem the right word for a field gun's firing mechanism). While it might have had purpose-made rounds, they must have been fired into the grass or under the sideboard, because I only remember using used match-sticks. They were also used in the bog-standard 25 pounder, I had.

I hope those trying to steal our identities are noting all this down to be able to make a convincing job of it.

Edited March 15, 2017 by phil_sutters

[ChrisN]

I had a 25 pounder that fired match sticks.  No idea who made it, but it may still be in the box of stuff that I still have.  I am sure it would be banned these days as being dangerous.

[Nearholmer]

The Tale of Edythe's Feather reminds me of a particularly dangerous and effective mortar that my brothers made. It consisted of a yard-long section of iron pipe, about 6" in diameter, set with one end firmly in the ground, at an elevation of about sixty degrees. Around the base of this, they created a very good small bonfire. The projectiles were old paint tins and, get this, aerosol paint cans, that had been put in the skip at the back of a motorbike re-spray place.

 

Projectiles were loaded, one at a time, and, as the heat exploded each one, it shot about 100ft into the air, over a belt of tall trees, into the street beyond!

 

Amazingly, nobody was killed or injured, but a chap from one of the houses in the street got so angry about it all that he must have been in peril of a heart attack.

 

Kevin

Edited March 16, 2017 by Nearholmer

[ChrisN]

I have to say this.  A chemist I knew at university said that while at school he and a friend where making what could only be described as a bazooka from, if I remember correctly a piece of scaffold pole.  They blocked one end, filled it with explosive and a projectile.  They decided that for the first time they would not hold it over the shoulder.  They lit it and it exploded, leaving my friend both terrified and grateful as it would have taken his head off.

 

I have no stories of my own of explosives as I am a physicist.

[TheQ]

Having lived in the outer hebridies  where the Army go and try their shoulder launched missles. I went to dinner one day and one of the army guys was moving very carefully with assistance, he was black all down one side of his face and one hand. He was one of the team when a missile went off in the tube. The guy holding it not suprisingly was flown to directly to hospital on the mainland. I'm guessing they were only loaded with fuel or there wouldnt be enough left of the guy holding the tube to fly anywhere...

[BG John]

I have no stories of my own of explosives as I am a physicist.

Death rays?

 

I think I've changed my mind about the law now criminalising even the most minor bits of childhood naughtiness, that used to be a normal part of growing up. I'm mostly concerned about the risks of being on the receiving end! I suppose the downside is that the most reckless, who must have removed themselves from the gene pool, and earned a Darwin Award, in the past, will still be amongst us, potentially causing mayhem, and at least adding to the general level of ignorance and incompetence we all have to put up with!

[Anotheran]

I have no stories of my own of explosives as I am a physicist.

 

Are you saying physicists don't do explosions? I beg to differ...

 

Are you sure that none are of your making?

 

Now the only way any of the above could possibly be anywhere near on-topic is if someone in CA had built a nice little observatory like this one from 1906 in Aldershot...

 

Kind regards, Neil

[corneliuslundie]

As the topic has moved on (back) almost to CA I won't regale you with stories of our experiments with explosives down by the River Taff in the school lunch hour. But we also used to set bangers with long time fuses (potassium permanganate soaked string) in the ventilation bricks behind the teacher on duty at break, and then retire to a suitable distance and look innocent. It was easy in those days to buy all sorts of dangerous chemicals at the local chemical supply firm. Oddly, we all survived.

Jonathan

[ChrisN]

Are you saying physicists don't do explosions? I beg to differ...

gg-run177878-evt188723900-3d.jpgCrab_Nebula.jpg1024px-Castle_Bravo_Blast.jpg

 

Are you sure that none are of your making?

 

Now the only way any of the above could possibly be anywhere near on-topic is if someone in CA had built a nice little observatory like this one from 1906 in Aldershot...

800px-Aldershot_observatory_01.JPG

 

Kind regards, Neil

 

The nearest I have got is the last one as I have worked with unsealed radioactive sources all my life, but medical ones.  I was thinking of the way my sons described the sciences at school, if it moves it is biology, if it smells it is chemistry, if it doses not work, it is physics.

[Edwardian]

What a bunch of hooligans you were!

 

A private observatory at Aching Hall! Very Captain Aubrey! 

[Northroader]

We mixed our own gunpowder with all the proper ingredients, packed it in a box with fuse and decided the school boys toilet block (outdoor) would be the best place for a test. It didn't go off "bang", just generated a ginormous cloud of thick smoke which slowly drifted away, leaving a big patch behind. Bit of a let down.

[Mrkirtley800]

Just over the hill from where we lived in Leeds during the war was ah company called Astra. They were engaged on some sort of war work but as a side line made model guns and tanks of a fairly large scale. A friend at school had an anti aircraft gun, but my dad bought me a fort gun. It was a gun in an armoured shield, obviously an approximation of a shore battery. It fired percussion caps, and there was a fine hole between the breech and the barrel. The idea was that the explosion of the cap would sent the gases down into the barrel and shoot out a bit of wooden dowelling. It didnt work very well.

I entered the world of work some years later, and found our laboratory had a small library of text books. During some lunchtimes when not playing snooker in the games room, I would look at some of them. One in particular -- Organic Chemistry, by Cohen, which was an enjoyable read. One chapter, in particular caught my eye, on organic mercury compounds. In it was a bit on mercury fulminate, its properties and preparation. I think it was used as a detonator on the real railway and was so simple to make. One lunchtime, when no one else was in the lab, I made a small quantity and took it home. Bernie and I then bored out the barrel of my fort gun to 4.6mm - the right size for an air gun pellet.

We filled the hollow in a pellet with fulminate, cap in the breech and fired it. It didn't half go.

We used the gun to knock old model ships to pieces in our front room. The models were at the far end, so we had a firing distance of about 16 feet. Unfortunately the pellets not only destroyed our model ships, but made a mess of the skirting board. My dad, when doing the decorating, used to rub the woodwork -- door and window frames and skirting boards -- silky smooth, so when he found the best room skirting trashed by our target practice, he banned us from the house.

Derek

Edited March 16, 2017 by Mrkirtley800

[Edwardian]

This just gets worse ...

 

Here we have Northroader and MRKirtley800 reliving some childhood japes:

[Mrkirtley800]

Yes, it all happened over sixty years ago. Where have all those years gone, and I still have all my fingers.

Derek

[choo1choo]

Evening All,

 

Some of the best fun of my misspent youth was building Airfix house kits,putting them in the garden when parents were out,and exploding Brocks bangers in them. Not many of them ever made it to my layout but they exploded very well indeed.

 

What a yobbo!

 

Craig 

[corneliuslundie]

I feel there is scope for a separate thread here but I fear that it would make the discussion too visiible and have us banned from RMWeb.

Jonathan

[Northroader]

And a visit from the special branch... ho, hum, back to Norfolk.

[Northroader]

P.s. Have you ever stuck one of the old bangers made from guncotton in the hole for the wire at the top of a concrete fencing post? The reinforcing rods go like a peeled banana. Wonder why they don't make proper bangers any more?

[jwealleans]

Returning to closer to the OT, will you be revived enough to visit us at Ormesby this weekend, James? If so I'll try to remember to bring those converted pseudo-GE Ratio 6 wheelers down with me.

[Edwardian]

Thank you, Jonathan.

 

I hope to be, but I have not made any advance application for an exeat.  The Boy will be at school tomorrow morning, which makes most Saturdays tricky, I don't recall if the event is both Saturday and Sunday. 

 

I'd like to interest the whole family on the basis that there is a really splendid house to look round too.