A continent and an ocean: some shot!
Posted on 12/07/2011 6:54:14 PM PST by marktwain
A cannonball misfired by the "Mythbusters" TV show crew blasted through an East Dublin home Tuesday afternoon while its occupants were asleep. It then smashed through a window of a minivan parked a few hundred feet away.
No one was injured, and the home's residents did not wake up until the dust was settling on top of them, said an Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
The cannon was shot at the Sheriff's Office bomb range behind Santa Rita Jail about 4:15 p.m., said the spokesman, J.D. Nelson, who is also a consultant for the Discovery Channel TV show. He had been at the site with show producers all day, he said, though he said he was not by the cannon when it fired.
which they built -- at the range more than 50 times without incident, Nelson said.
Tuesday was different.
The cannonball was supposed to go through a few water-filled barrels and a concrete wall. Instead, it passed over the barrels, through the wall, and then took a "very unfortunate bounce that sent the ball skyward," Nelson said.
About 700 feet away, it bounced in front of a home on Cassata Place, then tore upward through the home's front door and out midway up the back wall of the two-story house. Light could be seen shining through a round, cantaloupe-sized hole from inside the house out to Tassajara Road.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
I'm still working on the build/buy decision on the part of the timbers. I could buy a woodlot, rent a portable sawmill... and maybe actually get the trebuchet with a few $$s from the woodlot.
Or I could just go to Lowes and have it next week. And be out the cash and opportunity cost.
I'm torn. It's a certain cognitive humdinger.
/johnny
That's by the Camp Parks Army Reserve Base. They should have known better. They should have aimed the cannon at Pleasanton. We hate Pleasanton. It's too... pleasant.
-PJ
In the Civil War many a MidWest farm boy lost a lower leg when he kicked at a cannonball rolling through the Infantry lines. Mother Nature in the name of inertia is a bitch!
I thought the headline was a metaphor, and not a very good one. But they’re talking about a real canonball!
I just checked on Google Earth. Ann Arbor doesn't have a city wall. So forget the siege towers, and concentrate on arty, foot, and horse.
/johnny
Yup, See Post 23.
Northern exposure had a couple of interesting trebuchet moments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWxrt3bEnBs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJgt-HO0_kY&feature=related
It went all the way from Alameda County, California to Ireland? Wow!
I rarely watch the show any more. Having BHO on, and sucking up to Jon Stewart was way too much to overlook.
Any way, I saw an early epi in which a producer, on the phone with the insurance carrier, prevented one of them from trying some movie stunt [that Buster survived with shock tags intact] because the insurance carrier wouldn't approve.
I wish I hadn't seen your dratted picture. I'm going to spend the next 2 hours stuck in a spread-sheet, and pulling prices. ;)
And figuring out how to explain to my heirs that daddy just has different hobbies....
I won't have to explain it to my grandsons... They get that kind of 'go boom' stuff.
/johnny
Each show probably covered under a blanket general liability policy written for the production company and then placed under several surplus policies full of exclusions.
The eternal quest of the hand loader. How much powder can I put in that case. How much lead can I put in front of the powder with out the whole damn thing blowing up and how far and how fast will it go, accurately of course. Might I be so bold as to suggest they forgot the part about accuracy and how far.
It reminds me of my youth. In 1961 (I am old now) I was doing a bit of experimenting with acetylene. I figured out how to make it and then decided to burn some. Unfortunately due to my ineptness I allowed some air to get in the mixture. It did not burn, it exploded along with the glass container it was in. My grandmother came running out of the house to where I was. I had numerous small scratches and cuts on my arms but nothing to my face and eyes. She asked what happened. I answered 100% truthfully, "I think I made a mistake."
She did not know about the nitroglycerin that I had made and keep in the freezer. I disposed of it post haste.
My best friend in high school was the son of a chemist. His dad was a great guy. Unfortunately he gave us unsupervised access to his lab. It is a damn miracle that we did not blow up both our houses.
“I wonder what their insurance rates are to film a show like that?”
Now?
About 5 time what they were before this stunt!
Well, “technically”,:
“Inertia: tendency of an object to resist changes in its velocity.”
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l1c.cfm#state
Major ooops! If only they’d make this into a show entitled, “We are professionals, please do not attempt this at home”, lol.
You might want to review what happened with the Roloff's pumpkin chunkin' trebuchet on "Little People, Big World" from a few seasons ago. Not a pretty sight. Two in the hospital.
A continent and an ocean: some shot!
Love this “Unpimp The Auto” VW commercial using a trebuchet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuC6jeKjTdg
The other two are funny, also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWScRkqqRo&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgEvy60bZYI&feature=relmfu
Where do you think they dispose of the toy guns, chicken fingers and Advils seized from elementary school felons?
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.