Yes. Archimed again. He could use the tube for focus each mirror on one ship'splace. The tube should be mounted on a mirror at an angle 90 degrees to the surface of mirror. Ever soldier brings his tube of his mirror on one place of static or moving ship. Ever if he had mirrors from bronse this method make fire with big mirrors count. P.S.: Sorry for my english

I think the OP is saying that the tubes are mounted in front of the mirrors like a satellite dish. If that's what they're saying, busted. Archimedes didn't have the technology for precision glass-making(for lenses).

no. simple tube for aiming. through which we can see the place which hit the reflected beam. simple small tube on each mirror. like a telescope but without lens. all mirrors are independent. without any carcass.

like this ppictures...
front view
top view

A simple sight would prevent a lot of problems.

Aligning one mirror is easy because it's either hit or miss. When a group does it, nobody knows who is hitting and who is missing unless they take it in turn to move their mirror.

No. Any mirror will be calibrate before burn ship. Calibration is simple: looking through tube and change angle of mirror-tube until will look light spot (for current sun position). It's make each soldier for its mirror.
When we need Great Burning Beam each soldier simple look through its tube to one place of ship (for example, began of mast or evil roman captain). It's all. Ships and captains will be cinders

Find button keyword "Tzetzes" for the actual Byzantine myth. This is what the MB tested. Unless you are a medieval Byzantine, you lack the credentials to change the myth,

It was a device, NOT a group of men. It operated at ranges that modern solar furnaces can NOT operate at.

paganagap, I think you are falling under the same misconception as Adam when he tried to focus his supposedly parabolic array of mirrors...

You DO NOT aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular directly towards the target!!! You aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular along a line the bisects the angle between the target and the sun.

quote:

Originally posted by Arthedain:
Find button keyword "Tzetzes" for the actual Byzantine myth. This is what the MB tested. Unless you are a medieval Byzantine, you lack the credentials to change the myth,

It was a device, NOT a group of men. It operated at ranges that modern solar furnaces can NOT operate at.

There are solar furnaces that operate at much larger distances than what would likely have been used by Archimedes. The original description of the device used levers and pulleys to aim the multiple mirrors on a common spot. This would be much more effective than the manually aimed method, but I don't think the MB are up to designing the archimedian aiming system.

quote:

Originally posted by erikmartin:


You DO NOT aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular directly towards the target!!! You aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular along a line the bisects the angle between the target and the sun.

If you knew the approximate time of the invasion, you could mount the tubes so that they would allow you to point along the axis of reflection. But, knowing the approximate time of the invasion precludes the need for the array in the first place.

quote:

You DO NOT aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular directly towards the target!!! You aim the mirror by pointing its perpendicular along a line the bisects the angle between the target and the sun.

You are right! but I mean CALIBRATED tubes. Where angle is not 90 degrees, but right for us for target and sun position. Tubes that can changes angle. As very simple realization (in XXI century) it can be mirror, tube and bubble gum for mount tube on mirror. In old Archimed time we could use Wax.
Man calibrates his tube looking through it at the target (eg a stone) and adjusts the mirror so as to see the gleam of it through a tube.
For current time of day (time of calibration +/- some time) it will work with a small error for different distances to the target. But, because the calibration is very simple, soldiers can quickly calibrate their mirrors after some time.