So your stuck in the year 100... how do you conquer the world?

[Vesayen]

You don't have an industrial base behind you..... well nothing like what we have today, I think a howitzer would be alot harder.

Plus as said, no google.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Re: Challenge:

Originally posted by Vesayen
I don't need gunpowder, black powder is way easier to make.

Black powder is the same as gunpowder.

Originally posted by Vesayen
Mix them all together using water(so its less likley to blow up in my face), let it dry.

It doesn't blow up, just burns quickly.

Originally posted by Vesayen
Bronze is not the ideal(sic-crappy) material for a cannon, but it will do. Build a forge, melt down copper and tin-both of which are relativley to easy find... melt it down. Make a clay mold..... metal working, is easy.

How do you build the forge?

[Agathon]

I think massive explosions from black powder mixed with improved agricultural techniques would be all I would need to get the local indian tribes behind me.

You have such ambitions. I'd trade my iPod for women.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by BeBro


Of course

Danke.


You start tomorrow.

[JohnT]

"Bigum Chief needs batteries, Cherry-Assed Loud Mouth!"

[Vesayen]

Re: Re: Re: Challenge:

Black powder is the same as gunpowder.

No it isnt, it substitutes out the charchaol for some chemical compound I don't know how to make.

It doesn't blow up, just burns quickly.

Unless you confine it to a small space and it ignites, then you get the effect of an explosion .

How do you build the forge?

Really for the temperatures needed to make bronze, you don't need anything fancy.... a really low level clay or even easier, sand forge will work.

Make clay bricks. Make a base of clay bricks and 4 walls a ceiling. Have a small circular opening on the top to let out the smoke and let in oxygen, but keep the heat inside. There are several different designs you can use for the inside of it. Use that to make the tools. You can use the forge to melt the bronze and channel it into the mold.

Really, if you build a bronze cannon it would proboably be best to do it in ONE solid piece, since it is destined to explode anyway.

Dig out a hole in the sand in the shape of the cannon barrel and line it with clay. Use that as a mold.

For fuel, produce charchaol which involves taking wood and spreading it. Light the wood on fire then carefully tend the ashes as they smoke to get the desired effect. You can just use wood, but smelting works better with higher temperatures, which means higher quality fuel.


Despite the fact I *KNOW* how to do it, I am confident many apolytonites could figure it out-the only hard part is knowing how to find the components for black powder.

[JohnT]

I'm pretty sure that bronze-age forging technology was applicable in 100AD, UR.

[Vesayen]

I'm stuck in New York, I can't go ask some Roman blacksmith to do it for me lol. I don't the Rohanke or Iriquoi(sp?) would be much help in that department.

People overestimate how easy metal working is. You want to make steel or one of the million of complex metals we have today? That isn't as easy..... working with bronze or copper or tin, really is not particularly complicated.

[Qilue]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Challenge:

Originally posted by Vesayen

No it isnt, it substitutes out the charchaol for some chemical compound I don't know how to make.

http://www.hackman-adams.com/guns/aboutgunpder.htm

The difference is that the powder used in guns changed and thus, after gunpowder changed to a reduced smoke type, the original gunpowder was renamed to blackpowder to avoid confusion.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

get hella horses and roll everyone over.

[Ben Kenobi]

Great.

That blows being the only white guy here.

What would my name be?

[Qilue]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Great.

That blows being the only white guy here.

What would my name be?

Oh-be-one-left-out

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Vesayen


I'm in a dorm room, I have all the technical information I need between me and the guy across the hall, to build a radio from components of nature.

And if it was the year 1600 you might just be able to build a radio given this knowledge.

[KrazyHorse]

Re: Challenge:

Originally posted by VJ
Ok smart guy Vesayen: As a typical Apolyton user, would you like to share with us the exact method of refining gunpowder, the material fundamentally required for the use of cannons (without the help of almighty Google, which you can't really use if you're stuck in the year 100)?

Charcoal is easy to make. Burn wood in an earthen mound

Sulphur can be found in deposits along riversides, and was well known to the ancients

Potassium nitrate can be made from nitre-bearing earth (any fertile soil will do). Pour boiling water through the dirt, strained through a charcoal/cloth filter. Let cool, then decant the liquid, reboil, then add alcohol. The white crystals which form are potassium nitrate. Scoop them out and dry them. They're ready for use.

Mix the above ingredients in 10:15:75 ratio. Grind with a mortar and pestle (best to add water or alcohol then mix the sludge, then dry for safety's sake).

Bronze is a decent material to use for early cannons. Bronze-working techniques were well-known in much of the ancient world. The centre-bore technique driven by either animal or waterwheel would probably be a useful innovation.

[KrazyHorse]

All without using the Intrawebs