This Chemist’s Pandemic Hobby? Firing Medieval Cannonballs.

[oldbrownhat]

Gunpowder used in cannons helped change the nature of warfare, but it took a while to get the recipe just right.

NY Times article here.
(Limited access if, like me, you don't have a NYT account. But there are others which quote it, such as puffnachrichten. Plus a good one in WIRED .)

Cool job! She's a tenured professor of chemistry at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

From the WIRED article, "Riegner's expertise is in forensic chemistry and developing techniques to remotely detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs), like the kind that were a threat to US troops during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The exercise in re-creating medieval recipes helped Riegner become a better problem solver when it comes to understanding how current explosives are made, she says...

"...In the early days of the pandemic, Dawn E. Riegner, a chemist at an elite college, found that she had time on her hands because of the empty classrooms. So she filled her downtime with an explosive diversion.

Dr. Riegner talked three of her colleagues — and her daughter — into studying how well different kinds of gunpowder recipes from the Middle Ages performed in firing projectiles out of a replica cannon. Her ambitious plan was relatively easy to carry out because she's a tenured professor of chemistry at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., which gave her access not only to top scholars and laboratories but world-class firing ranges.

"It's a silver lining of the pandemic," Dr. Riegner, whose usual research centers on better detection of explosives and chemical warfare agents, said in an interview of the gunpowder study. "It's been one of the greatest things..."

Her daughter prepares to light one off. How many kids get to do this, especilally as part of an official experiment at West Point?

 

[Redbert31]

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

 

[messmergreen]

Never heard of such a hobby but looks like fun. My new weird addiction is transcription. After reading this article https://www.skillcоurses.com/best-online-transcription-courses-training/ i decided to make a training myself and learn something new. Hopefully it can take me to a new quality level in this and have a better understanding on what am i actually doing.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Looks like a blast.





Off to me room is I.

 

[Greyman50]

Hummmm, can't remember how many " cannons" my friends and I made when kids, and made our gunpowder. We all kept all our fingers and eyes. Lots of fun, excellent hobby.

 

[Onomea]

Interesting.

The article says that as cannons improved it changed the very nature of warfare because offense became more powerful than defense in siege warfare.

Prior to effective cannon, it was feasible to hole up in your castle until the attackers gave up. With effective cannon, the walls no longer held over time.

 

[DWalt]

For those interested in such topics, there was a book first published back in the 1940s, titled "Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" by Tenney L. Davis. It is probably still available. I have a copy. It goes into great detail about all of the black powder recipes and manufacturing methods used from the medieval period onward. It also contains an enormous amount of information about explosives, smokeless propellants, and pyrotechnics. It's easy to spend many hours studying it.

It is still available. See: [ame]https://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Powder-Explosives-Tenney-Davis/dp/0913022004[/ame]

 

[Rudi]

I've always wanted a cannon.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...Prior to effective cannon, it was feasible to hole up in your castle until the attackers gave up. With effective cannon, the walls no longer held over time.

"People who live in stone houses shouldn't throw stone cannonballs..." (or something like that.)

 

[zeke]

Can remember when our local stores stopped selling saltpeter.

 

[Imissedagain]

I've always wanted a cannon.

Ask and ye shall receive.
[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Go5xOnGzrTU[/ame]
I always play this LOUD as I look up and give thanks that I do not have to Rehair 100 bows today.

 

[DWalt]

Interesting.

The article says that as cannons improved it changed the very nature of warfare because offense became more powerful than defense in siege warfare.

Prior to effective cannon, it was feasible to hole up in your castle until the attackers gave up. With effective cannon, the walls no longer held over time.

It also rendered armored knights obsolete. Two essential factors most responsible for the growth of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries were superiority of British artillery and gunpowder and the invention of the marine chronometer.