Myth Busters steam cannon

[Darksmith]

This is one of those topics that hard to find which section to put it in, so I'm putting it in here because it's on t.v.

I just turned on the Myth Busters, and they are trying to make a steam cannon that was first designed by Archimedes. One of the only sources for this is a one page sketch be Di Vinci.

I love the Myth Busters, and this episode I just adding to that. Hopefully they get good results.

[Lazaras]

Old ep. They can't get the thing to work right, and unlike with their attempts at debunking Tesla this one should be right up their ally as they're both(or at least jamie) engineers and have experts to consult.

[Darksmith]

Nuts.

I havn't seen this one before so I was hoping that it would be a new one. Oh well, it's still new to me, and they always entertain me regardless of the outcomes.

[CapnHarlock]

If memory serves, they managed to propel a projectile about 7 feet - this should only be considered a further challenge for Steampunk nventors.

[Darksmith]

They were able to get a few feet with a tennis ball out of their mini/trail cannon. The tennis balled warped from the pressure, so it's lost some of the power.

I would love to undertake a project like this, but sadly I don't have the means nor the space to do anything like this. Even making a mini one would be fun.

[Darksmith]

The final cannon that they made was just a very large boiler with a barrel mounted on the steam exhaust. There was a valve closing off the exhaust so the boiler was sealed and could build up pressure. They attatched an actuator to open the valve. It took a while for the boiler to heat up, and they started running out of time and ended up firing the cannon when it reached about 60-70psi(they wanted 180-200psi) and the 24 pound cannon ball went about 1000feet. I'd have to say that's a pretty impressive result.

And I feel the need to apololgize about the constant updates about this, I could have easily just waited till the show was over and do one post about it, but I got excited and felt the need to share right away.

[Col. Adrianna Hazard]

Don't bother apologizing. If you hadn't been updating it, I would have been! I also saw this episode for the first time yesterday, and it was a cool idea, even if it didn't work well. I feel a challenge has been set for any of the steampunks who want to attempt this myth.

[Darksmith]

Trying to do it with the origional plans, and in a way that would have been practical for the technology of Archimedes got busted, no good results with that. But I think with the modern method, being able to launch a 24 pound ball about a mile, with only 60psi was pretty good results. Get the psi up to around 200, and you're launching that thing a few miles, to me thats pretty impressive. I'd totally like to build a little mini one.

It would be interesting to see how tiny it could be made. Shoot out little marbles, heated up by a candle or a little torch. it would be oh so cute.

[Lazaras]

Or a bunsin burner. Yes that would be very cute indeed. Wonder how improvements could be made on the design so it could be more effective.

[Darksmith]

I'm not sure what sort of improvements could be made. As limited as my technical knowledge is, it seemed pretty effective. Seal the boil, build up pressure, vent boiler down barrel, pressure goes down barrel and puts force behind projectile.

The only things that I can see that would help out effeciancy would be playing with the boiler size, amount of water, stuff like that, playing with the barrel length, and finding the right weight of projectile for the size of the contraption.

[Lasairfion]

Heh, I saw this one a while back on some random Sky channel. I was very impressed with the final modern type steam cannon. It certainly went a long way, although the relative safety of said weapon was somewhat suspect. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to have to fire it twice.