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Subdeacon Joe

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Posts posted by Subdeacon Joe

    Efficency Expert

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    The efficiency expert concluded his lecture with a note of caution: "You do not want to try these techniques at home!"

    "Why not?" asked a man from the audience.

    "After years of not paying attention, I suddenly noticed my wife's routine at breakfast," the expert explained. "She made lots of trips to the refrigerator, stove, table and cabinets; often she carried just a single item at a time. So I asked her, 'Hon, why don't you try carrying several things at once? It'd be much more efficient.'"

    "Well, did your suggestions save much time?" the attendee asked.

    "Actually, yes," the efficiency expert responded. "It used to take her twenty minutes to get breakfast ready. Now I do it in seven."

     

    Napoleon

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    Light Field Gun, 4.62" bore, smooth bore, 1, 227#, 66" bronze tube (or 1,249# iron tube). Could fire solid shot, common shell, spherical case shot, and cannister. Range at 5o elevation 1,663 yards (2 1/2 pounds of mortar powder and 12# solid shot).

     

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    Hollyweird and lack of gun knowlege

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    My wife and I like to watch old Perry Mason movies. The other night the story revolved (no pun intended...or maybe intended) around a guy who decided to murder his wife, using a bolt-action scoped rifle to be fired from a convenient rifle rooftop into her bedroom. He is about to squeeze the trigger (trigger finger inserted into the guard right up to the knuckle. But he changes his mind and doesn't shoot. He deposits the rifle (with a round still in the chamber) in a handy vent pipe.

     

    Later, his wife is found shot to death. The bullet however penetrates the body and winds up badly smashed in the fireplace, too badly to get any clear rifling data from. The investigating officer says the bullet weighed 158 grains. Asked if the rifle also shoots that weight of bullet, he says yes! Perry then proposes that any number of .38 Specials or .357 Magnum revolvers could fire a 158 gr. bullet. No mention is made of the barrel groove diameter of the rifle. Now, I looked through the latest Lyman loading book and some others, and the ONLY .35 caliber rifle that is listed for a 158 gr. .35 caliber bullet is the .35 Remington. I suppose there are bolt action rifles chambered in .35 Remington, but for the most part that cartridge was mainly chambered in lever action and pump action rifles. (Turned out the wife committed suicide with a revolver, and there were other, more intricate details in the plot, not important here.) But using a pistol bullet in a .35 Remington rifle... :wacko:

     

     

    OK, that's getting pretty darned esoteric. Without looking it up, how many of the regulars here know the full gamut of calibers, weights of bullets, etc?

    The Little Things

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    I thought, during the Big Fuss, the Yankees used friction igniters.

     

     

    For the most part, for discharging the piece, yes. At sea I believe fuse and linstock were the rule - you didn't want that hot primer tube bouncing around on the lower gun decks.

     

    For exploding shells here were also timed plug fuses, contact fuses, various types of screwed in fuse (e.g. Borman fuse), both time and contact, even combination fuses that utilized a time fuse and a contact fuse in the same fuse body.

     

    The Tables of Fire that were on the inside of the lids of limber chests gave ranges, elevations, and time in flight.

     

    689px-AMERICAN_CIVIL_WAR_ARTILLERY_PROJE

     

     

    That way the boys at the limber chest (loading table) knew how to cut the fuse for timed fuses - couldn't very well use a contact fuse for the round shells from s smoothbore.

    The Little Things

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    It turns out that artillery companies leave a lot of stuff on the battlefield after an engagement. For most units, commanders report soldiers killed and wounded. In artillery companies they also report their losses of horses. This is logical as artillery horses are the prime movers for an artillery battery. But the artillery even goes beyond that. We get a good idea of the kinds of equipment necessary to keep the artillery running from the reports of two Federal artillery commanders at Antietam.
    After detailing the movements of the battery for the month and the losses of men and horses, Stewart continues: “All axle strips of battery more or less broken occasioned by rapid firing and the uneven nature of the ground not having cannoneers sufficient to run the guns to more favorable positions. One limber disabled by cannon shot; 24 horses killed and 12 wounded; Required for use in the battery: 46 horses and 12 water buckets, 2 tar buckets, 1 sponge bucket, 60 blankets 50 curry combs, 50 horse brushes, 3 spare poles, 1 spare wheel and 6 to be exchanged; 6 picks and [illegible] 6 shovels, caisson, 4 hand spikes, trail, 4 sets lead harnesses, artillery, 2 near & 2 off; 15 wheel traces, 24 whips, 6 saddler's awls, and handlers, [illegible] lbs. square and flat iron, 25 head stalls and 4 bridles.”

     

    What appetizer would you bring to a party?

    in SASS Wire Saloon

    Posted

    A friend takes blocks of cream cheese, splits them in half, rlls each half into a log then rolls the log in Chili powder. Gooood, simple and easy spread on crackers.

     

    Oh! Cream cheese!

     

    Get a big block of it (like the 3# block from a food service place). Cut a pound of it off and let it soften.

     

    Peel some carrots and rough chop them. Rough chop some celery and a few green onion. Put 'em all in your food processor and chop 'em fine.

     

    Take the softened cream cheese and put it in a mixing bowl and whip it with an electric hand mixer. Add in the chopped veggies, a little salt, a goodly amount of ground black pepper, and Tabasco (or your favorite pepper sauce) to taste. Beat well, transfer to container and refrigerate. Serve with crackers, tortillas, toast, whatever Heck, slather it on deli sliced ham, add some pickle, and roll it up.

     

    Other good mix ins are green onion and spinach.

     

    Toasted sesame seeds.

     

    Smoked salmon and capers.

     

    Or ??????

     

    Something to play with.

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