XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips
From: wthyde1953@gmail.com
Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 10/14/2025 3:57 PM, Mark Jackson wrote:
>> On 10/14/2025 4:26 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> On 10/14/2025 12:09 PM, Robert Woodward wrote:
>>>> In article ,
>>>> Paul S Person wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:22:10 -0500, Lynn McGuire
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> xkcd: “Physics Insight”
>>>>>> https://xkcd.com/3154/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> “When Galileo dropped two weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
>>>>>> they
>>>>>> put him in the history books. But when I do it, I get 'detained by
>>>>>> security' for ‘injuring several tourists.’”
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have been to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is quite
>>>>>> a ways
>>>>>> up. Articles can achieve significant velocity from there.
>>>>>
>>>>> IIRC, at some point Galileo was in charge of the Pisan artillery.
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if he was trying to find out why their "time on target"
>>>>> computations [1] never worked with Aristotle's view of how things
>>>>> fell.
>>>>
>>>> I have some doubts on whether that concept would occur to him. IIRC,
>>>> the
>>>> whole idea of "Time on Target" was for explosive shells.
>>>
>>> Were explosive shells used before the USA Civil War ?
>>
>> Do you know the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner?"
>>
>> (Earlier possibilities include 13th century China and 14th century
>> Venice.)
China,definitely, and I know of Venetian use in the 15th century.
>
> Ah ! Very true.
Those were Congreve rockets which he British were using with very mixed
success at the time. When Wellington wanted to stress just how well a
certain battle had gone, he commented that event the Congreve rockets
had all flown in the direction of the enemy. Generally he was happy if
fifty percent of them headed in the enemy's general direction.
Most British (and American, and French ...) wooden warships did not
carry explosive ammunition. The exception, for the British, were
specifically designed "bomb ships", which generally carried one very
large cannon firing fused shells. Much to my surprise the British did
have five bomb vessels and a rocket ship (which fired the aforesaid
Congreve rockets).
That was a most unusual force but Cochrane was not one to stick to
tradition.
I definitely would not have wanted to be on a wooden ship which was
firing Congreve rockets. But it seems to have survived.
The bombs from the ships would have packed a bigger punch, but they
lacked the red glare. And they were also pretty ineffective against
fortifications.
William Hyde
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