quote:

Or in other words the manufactorers rate their heaters to be able to withstand a set pressure, information MB would have little trouble getting their hands on.

I contacted a water heater company about this. They had seen the mythbusters episode and are going to use it as exampe of why t&p valves are so important. While you are correct that they RATE their water heaters, they do not certify or in any way guarantee that the materials and methods used to construct them WILL NOT FAIL in the event of over pressure. They shouldn't, but they can. I think that they should have constructed a simple electric boiler using a proper guage of steel and proper welds and had it certified. Guys that build 1/2 scale tractors and locomotives do it all the time.
On the show the water heaters did not fail, the water heater company did its job correctly and built a good product. But these guys always stress that they are professionals. Amateur model builder must build boilers to a higher standard. Mythbusters should as well.

quote:

But these guys always stress that they are professionals. Amateur model builder must build boilers to a higher standard. Mythbusters should as well.

As I said, as long as they could get enough steam to rotate the barrel at the required speed it didn't matter how the steam was produced-They could have done the same test with steam from a nuclear reactor if someone from the US Navy had offered the use of one of their big carriers.

I have no doubt that MB would be quite capable, in terms of skill, of making a steam engine themselves. But this would have taken time and money to do, and more time to ensure it was safe to use (They might have the skills, but not the experience). Given that a dedicated steam engine wasn't required this would have been a compleate and total waste of time. The heaters they used were almost certainly left over from the exploding water heater myth, and as such a known quantity and didn't require an outlay of more money. All major points for a TV show on a tight budget and with little time.

I believe that the sound the boilers made could be explained as a resonance frequency derived from the excited water molecules and any trapped gas bubbles.
See the tv show Invention Nation episode "New Cool" for one explanation of the relationship of sound and temperature from, a company that is harnessing this phenomenon.

quote:

Originally posted by cybermortis:


The projectiles were steel, not plastic. I'd assume steel ball bearings which were easy to obtain. Adam mentioned they were going to use steel balls just after Jamie made the barrel. The error of assuming they were plastic no doubt comes from the colour they where when loaded-This was most likely nothing more than MB painting the projectiles so they would be easier to see during the tests.

It is quite curious as to why they chose to use a steel ball for this myth when lead balls would more then likely have been just as easily accessible, not to mention more historically correct.

The density, and as a result, weight of the projectile could have played a significant part in whether the gun was lethal or not. The density of steel (low grade) can be found to be roughly 7820 kg/m^3, whereas Lead has a density of 11340 kg/m^3. Therefore, lead is roughly 1.45 times more dense than a low grade steel.

I'd imagine this probably would have generated a longer shot in the 20 degree incline test, while the possibility of a lethal shot could be more prevalent in this case.

I can confirm that one gas been built. I live near it and we are about to begin a restoration project. Some believe that it is a replica, but there is no proof of that. Here's the link to see it. You will have to scroll down once you get to the page.

Link to Photo Steam Gun Picture

Sorry, I meant has, not gas. Also, I have done further research on the one in Elkridge. I IS a replica. It was built in 1961 by Joe Clark and Mark Handwerk for the Civil War centennial celebration in Maryland. Since I am not that far from it, I went down and was closely looking at it yesterday. As said in the article, this was never meant to fire.

Baltimore Newspaper Report

Great arguments here, people. Just saw the episode. (MB tends to air in northern Europe a bit later than in the US) Skipped straight to page 4, so I don't know if someone has e-mailed MB about this, but I'd love to see the myth re-tested, even if it would be just to confirm its potential laethality.

As a Civil War history enthusiast, combining the Civil War and Mythbusters is like having chocolate on your chocolate cake.

Using steel balls is consistent with the history of the war. Lead and other common items, such as salt, were in short supply in the south. It is a fact however that the south had to scavenge battlefields for lead to recycle.

Combined with a shortage of gunpowder, this machine makes an odd kind of sense. The fact that they tried it demonstrates how acute many of the supply problems of the south had become.

I thought the show demonstrated pretty well that the technology could have worked - sort of - but not well enough to be an effective weapon. In terms of throwing projectiles, a cannon loaded with grape shot or cannister would have been more effective and practical. Between keeping the steam up, moving the weapon around, and getting it to fling projectiles with enough force and accuracy to make any difference, it seems to me the weapon might have been more of a liability than an asset.

It's an interesting piece of history that I had never heard of before, and I am glad the Mythbusters took the time to explore it.

This episode was so cool. It acually worked too!!

I would be very interested to know at exactly what angle the ball would leave the pipe.

At the point of the leaving the pipe I presume the velocity of the ball has two components, one from the angular velocity of the end of the pipe and the radial velocity it has acquired from the movement along the pipe.

The angular velocity would become a linear velocity once the ball was no longer confined by the pipe according to the simple equation

Va = r * w
= r * 2 * pi* f

where
r = length of pipe from centre of rotation
f = frequency
w = angular velocity in radians s-1

assuming
r = 0.3 m
f = 2000 rpm

Va = 0.3 * 2 * pi * 2000/60
= 62 ms-1

but this velocity is at tangent to the direction of the pipe, and I have yet to see how to determine the velocity along the barrel! I think the acceleration along the pipe is changing as the ball moves, there is probably an integral in there somewhere of all the centripetal acceleration for all positions of the ball in the pipe! When this velocity along the pipe is calculated call it Vp.

So total velocity will be

V = SQRT[ Vp^2 + Va^2]

and if the respective values Va and Vp are valid then the direction could be worked out.

Jamie and Adam's conclusions were pretty accurate except for the "lethality". Although the gun failed to penetrate the hogs skin, it was mentioned that it "probably" would have broken a bone. This is all that is needed when engaged in a combat situation. All you need to do is reduce the enemies fighting efectiveness which includes wounding or otherwise getting the soldier to leave the field of battle. If you broke the bones of all soldiers on the field they would no longer be able to operate as an effective fighting force which would give you the advantage and the ability to take the field from the enemy. If you are wounded and in PAIN you may be less likely to want to go out and fight again, if you are dead you're dead. Maybe we should use this technique in Iraq?

Ok I love mythbusters and that said once in a while i see an episode that makes me wonder, this one for example with The Confederate Steam Gun was realy kewl but, in this episode and the other steam weapon episode they seemed to have one major issue that was beaten in times past, We have real live steam engines in history powering several things Railroads being the easiest example of what i can think of, and welp just so happened to be used in the Civil War just where they got this Myth, next in a slighty more modern era, it is no myth that Machine guns could be timed to shoot though Proppeler blades on air craft, so with a bit more math and or a gun expert of its type perhaps this could have gone way farther, like the one episode with the Death Ray I hope this will be revisited in episodes to come. I think if they had realy concentraited on the timing issue, and also realy cracked into the steam power of that era alot could come of this myth.

I totally agree with the other posters. The "lethal" projectiles should have been made of lead. Steal is not as dense as lead. Pretty obvious since they proved in several episodes that copper pennies don't have enough mass to be fatal and the ice bullet the same thing.
It could be just a case of editing. They may have stated they were lead but it ended up on the cutting room floor. They should either set the record straight or redo the test with lead projectiles.

As I was watching this one I kept thinking that they should remove the safety collar, surround it with several large canvases and fill the machine gun with paint balls! That would be fun to watch! The resulting "art work" could be signed by the Mythbusters and auctioned for charity!

I know this episode was a while ago, and this question may have been asked already (don't feel like reading 4 pages of blog to find out...) And I am no civil war expert, but wouldn't the confederates have used lead instead of steel ball barrings? The reason being (as Jamie is never short to remind us) Mass Mass Mass. At the speed the gun was going, I bet lead balls would be plenty deadly. Could we get a re-test?

I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but you should always check the other pages before posting. I understand the what you mean, however.