this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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he's serious. The old casting method for round shot was to dump a measured amount of molten lead from a tower into a pool of water 40 feet below. the molten lead would form a sphere in free fall and fully set in the water, so it was convenient to define gauge diameter by fractional weight of a pound. Twelfth pound sphere fits a 12 gauge gun, etc.
The problem is it's impossible to tell whether you're joking or being serious. Throwing molten metal off the tower sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever, but apparently is a real thing.
Here's where it gets political. I learned about shot towers in passing years ago and thought that was a good idea. You learned about shot towers in passing, but then with a detailed explanation, still thought that was ridiculous. One of us is prone to rational thought and the other is not. This is a 17th century conversation happening now.
Ah no, it's just that from reading this, I imagined it being poured outside, not inside the tower.
Like, someone looking at Galileo doing his experiments dropping weights off Pisa tower, and saying:
— What if we put a bucket underneath? What a splash it'd make!
And another one going:
— Yeah! And why just weights, let's throw molten lead off! What safety concerns? Haven't heard any
That's actually fascinating. Thank you.
No problem. There's always a reason, and usually a pretty interesting one, for old odd hold overs like this, but it's been 200 years since shot towers were a thing, only history buffs and muzzleloader enthusiasts really know about these.