Apologies for my voice quality in this, but I am Covid positive and a bit sick at the moment, so I had to film this in lots of short bits because my voice kept giving out. Getting better now though thankfully!
Sorry to hear that you caught Covid. Take care and best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Take it and I wouldn't worry about recording nny new videos until you're revoered, I'm sure that everybody here will understand if you don't make any videos while you focus on recovering.
Casting that much metal takes money, resources, an industrial base, and skill. Wood is cheaper, it grows on trees pretty much everywhere. If you get a Wooden cannon wrong and it does explode the results are going to be devastating in the immediate vicinity however the chances are that a miscast bronze or iron cannon will be far worse, just ask James II of Scotland.
Mythbusters once constructed a wooden cannon...it did work. There are videos here about the wooden cannon[and the bamboo cannon, used in the Star Trek episode, "Arena"]
It worked too well if I remember right. The cannonball overshot the target and went bowling through some residential neighborhood several hundred yards away.
With the points made at the end about "getting one shot" and "filling an area with shrapnel", it almost sounds somewhere in between a cannon and an IED.
Hell even a one or two shots of cannon can trick an enemy in to an extended cautious artillery exchange, rather than proceeding in to an aggressive short ranter bombardment of a fortification. The longer you keep the enemy artillery shooting from long range fearing counter fire the longer your walls will hold out. The moment their artillery begins setting up just outside of rifle range your walls and other defenses will begin to fall.
Wooden guns were used in WWII. Although they were non firing. In the Doolittle raid, to save weight all the machine guns were removed from the B-25s and replaced with wooden rods painted to look like guns. Rommel used wooded guns, both in North Africa and most famously the gun batteries on the coast of Normandy, where he had emplacement made for 16" navy guns but the guns hadn't been made yet, so he put big logs that had been made to look like 16" rifles in instead. Which was enough to make them a main objective on D Day
I wouldn't compare non-functional decoys with actual fireable weapons. Though the use of decoys especially in WW2 is quite interesting. The UK made entire decoy military bases with wooden and balloon vehicles and people who's job it was to create fake radio-chatter to draw German bombers away from real bases and cities. Speaking of Rommel, I believe his British opponents also used wooden tank-mock-ups as decoys against him in North Africa at some point.
Not true that is in the movie only one rear turret per plane had guns removed with mock tail cannons made from brooms. The gunners of the group would shot down 3 zeros and damage others. So Some had guns and gunners which ones is lost to history. Also the guns and ammo would have been removed before getting to the ship or a Naval base as the Army Air Corps would not be responsible for some sailor steeling machine guns and ammo. Plus the paper work involved then logistics to get them back home or pay the army back for them if not returned is just to much.
The "cherry wood cannon" is an our unofficial Bulgarian symbol. In every traditional style Bulgarian restaurant there's a mockup of the famous cherry gun :)
Here in the Philippines, bamboo cannons are still made in the provinces. They're not used as weapons and instead used for celebrations in the same way fireworks are used. They usually don't use gunpowder, instead using chemical reaction of calcium carbide and water, that makes acetylene gas, which fills the barrel and is then ignited. Sometimes they are reinforced using rubber. They are called "lantaka" the indigenous word for cannon.
in Slovenija and in Balkans in general we have a simmilar tradition but we use purpously made steel cannons or we use barrels and metal cans. we call them mortars. Also the gas produced by reaction of calcium carbide and water is acetylene not hidrogen.
@@lukethedank13 Thanks for the correction. You're right about the type of gas. It's acetylene. The same one used for metalwork. Some people here also use metal pipes to make their cannons but for most people that's a little too much since one of the main reasons for making cannons is to be frugal. If people have money to burn on noise makers, they'd usually rather spend it on fireworks. That's also why the tradition mostly remains in the provinces since it has a reputation of being "cheap", "rural", and "poor".
About Gustavus Adolphus, in interrest in the leather canon was an attempt to increase the mobility of artillery so it could be easily redeployed on the battlefield. This experiment with leather canons proved unsuccessful and were replaced by 3 pounders. His ideas on the use of artillery had a lot more success tho as illustrated in the battle of Breitenfeld
I knew about Adolphus and his use of leather cannon from Age of Empires 3. They're quite good at turning historical facts into game play, and they often include a bit of history in a popup box. Of course, being a unit in a video game, there is a lot of abstraction to balance it and make it unique, but I love the fusion of history and RTS. It's a fun way to get people interested in real history.
Yeah, definitely Gustavus Adolphus was using them more for lightness and mobility than a lack of metals, he was all about the use of combined arms and really extended the Dutch ideas of variaence from the earlier Tercio formations
There is a traditional festival in north east of Thailand that still making some bamboo rocket with slow burn gunpowder or bombs out of bamboo. But lately they turn to PVC pipe for easy production yet the fragment or PVC pipe is more lethal and messier than bamboo.
I would like to do some research on the Augustus Adolphus and English civil war aspect of these. Surprised you didn't mention the Quaker guns. I am glad I am not the only one thinking about the Gorn.
It was actually Gustavus Adolphus, who was King of Sweden during the 30 Years War on the Continent. There were actually very few leather guns used in the 'English Civil War' (aka the War of the 3 Kingdoms) as they weren't actually that reliable, and the mobility that was their main raison d'etre wasn't as important.
Regarding the inner metal tube being used in wood barrels, the right word would be liner - using a separate line for the inside of the bore is still a modern practice, with barrel exteriors being made out of carbon fiber or other less wear resistant metals, with a steel liner within.
Ft. Boonesboro… during the American Revolution, settlers on the Ky frontier constructed a wooden cannon, used during a raid by the Shawnee, exploded on the 2nd or 3rd shot, but helped in repelling the native forces… I believe it was carved from a Gum log…
Most famous use of Bamboo in a cannon? IMHO in the Star Trek TOS episode Arena, where Kirk triumphs by constructing a gun from local resources, including an 'alien plant' that looks remarkably like Bamboo.
The latest use of wooden cannon I know of is the civil war in Russia back in 1920s. As far as I remember one of the cannons is on display in Novosibirsk local history museum.
One of Adam Savage's recent Tested videos referenced this. This was the myth that taught them that special effects explosions are not the same as real explosions. They had a movie pyro "expert" help them set up the 5 pound explosion. Then they all backed off to what their expert figured was a safe distance, set it off, and watched as pieces of their cannon sailed over their heads.
6:26 "Metallic tube, usually copper - copper alloy." Wow, you speak almost like a museum description tablet. :D It probably was used for ceremonial purposes i guess.
"well we fired our cannons till the barrels melted down so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round." I might have to make a cannon now with a black iron pipe and a end cap set with high temperature glue and some oak slats. Add a few tight bands every four inches and it just might work.
One step further down the ladder, there were also so-called "Quaker guns." These were little more than logs painted black and propped up in defensive positions to fool the enemy into thinking they were cannons. Better than a single-use weapon is the weapon which you never have to use. If your cannon dissuades people from attacking, then it's done its job, and a wooden mock-up is just as good as the real thing (and much cheaper).
@@Aconitum_napellus It comes from the American Civil War. It was particularly effective against General George McClellan, who developed a reputation for overestimating the strength of the enemy, and Quaker guns were used to fool him into not attacking. There's one story of an opposing general marching his troops in circles and noisily moving his artillery to convince McClellan that the enemy army was bigger than his, and it worked. General Johnston said something like, "Only McClellan could fail to attack such a weak position."
@@nfo1776 I really doubt the practice originated in the US civil war, I would expect the practice to be much older than that. Cannon have been around for many centuries after all.
I've read of leather cannons before, but not wood. From what I recall, one of the advantages of the leather guns was that with their lighter weight, they could be moved through swampy or mountainous terrain much more easily than conventional guns and could be set up in locations where the enemy would not normally expect artillery fire from. Great video!
When you word it that way, it made me realize that the actual position where the gun is set up could be unexpected. Not only by being unreachable for heavy iron guns, but for example on soft boggy ground where the iron gun would simply sink in the mud.
Bamboo canons are still common in the Philippines, they are used as alternative to firecrackers during New Years. I think in Indonesia too they have bamboo canons. Historically though, gunpowder technology was already present in the Philippines when the Spanish arrived, but such weapons weren't used in massive scale, the technology is brought through trade with Malay-speaking kingdoms as evidenced in the terminologies.
I was unaware of wooden cannons, but there is a story I know of. In the American civil war, in one battle one side painted holes on the ends of logs to fool the opposing side into thinking they were better armed than they were. It makes more sense now that I know that a real cannon could look like a log.
I perform English Civil War Living History in California with the Free Artillerie Company, Army of The Marquis of Montrose (we portray Scottish Royalists supporting the restoration). One of our members is a master gunsmith who not only has helped many members with the process of building reproduction arquebuses, but some years ago he built a reproduction leather cannon for our group based off of x-rays taken of 17th century leather cannons recovered from the Baltic Sea - cannons that once belonged to Gustavus Adolphus. Talking with the public about this technology typically raises eyebrows, as it so fundamentally subverts people's expectations of what a cannon is or can be.
Interesting. Do you also have/intend to procure a Scots Frame Gun? These were much more prevalent in the Highlands where James Graham was operating than Leather Guns.
Very interesting video Matt. I'm surprised you didn't mention the modern development of very similar technology. There is a trend in expensive modern rifles for using carbon fibre sleeved barrels. The goal is to use less metal so as to lose weight while maintaining strength and rigidity. It's A very similar idea to the leather cannons of history.
Excellent video! I was sure when I clicked that it would be all about decoy guns. I'm reminded of American Third System fortifications, many of which were never fully outfitted with guns, and most of which were never attacked. That those forts got by with in some cases only a handful of guns out of what had been planned to be dozens, strikes me as a strong indicator that a gun with a very limited durability might have served adequately. I am surprised that no story of composite or otherwise lighter guns for naval use came up. It seems to me that a lighter weight armament could have been a huge advantage aboard ship.
The romanian guns could not be used against austro-hungarian forces, austria-hungary was created in 1867. They were used against mostly hungarian revolutionary forces in the romanian counterrevolution in a failed hungarian war of liberty in 1848-49. Also, some hungarian forces are also said to use wooden cannons in transylvania at that time
The metal cannons didn't necessarily last that long either. The brass used in a lot of early cannon and even the iron used up until metallurgy improved in the late 1800's was soft and the heat and corrosive effects of the burning gasses would erode them fairly quickly. Depending on the model (field guns were generally made lighter and wore out faster as a result) the expected life could be as few as 500-600 shots before they'd have to be replaced. Even a modern artillery piece keeps a close record of how many shots have gone through the barrel and how large the powder charge used for each shot was so that they can be rebuilt before they get too worn out.
Even into the modern era with naval guns, some of those would be past their service life after 2-300 rounds through them, not rendered unusable but the wear limits had been reached and they'd go back to being fitted out with new ones and the old ones possibly re-lined with a new barrel if it was expedient to do so. Artillery pieces over the history of them do have some sense of risk and expendable nature to them, a lot of crews got blown up over the centuries and more than a couple of important people nearby also received an unhealthy dose of blackpowder doing what it does. So with the wooden cannons they're more or less a one and done, after that if you're still alive once the smoke clears, someone might make a call to go again... in which case statistics will start coming into play which aren't in anyone's favour!
@@krissteel4074 I also follow a channel called Drachinifel about naval ships, mainly focusing on post Dreadnought era, and, apparently, one of the minor perks of being posted to an American battleship or the larger cruisers is that they'd have to rotate back to the United States to get their main guns' barrels replaced after providing fire support to some of the landings during the island hopping campaign in the Pacific.
A last ditch landmine type of defensive weapon makes absolute sense. I'm always struck by how awesome our ancestors are / were....."we need cannon, we don't have much metal"...."meh - cut that tree down and wrap it in cow"
In wwll a geman soldiers magazine / Zeitschrift ,Von der Front für die Front' ( From frontline for frontline) existed. It contained tipps from soldiers to make military usefull things by ,do it yourself with things you have'. It seems that german soldiers used selfmade , selfshot traps' using log or timber pieces.
I would think there's a HUGE advantage to having a crappy gun vs none, in terms of simply menacing the enemy and making them think twice about coming into range in the first place. They may also not know that it isn't a perfect bronze or iron one. Or, an enemy that charges a position with the expectation that there will be little resistance, suddenly taking cannon-fire, might very well turn-tail and flee in disaray.
It was a huge advantage of moving light canons in terrain where your enemy can't move their heavy canons. Wooden canons are perfect for hit and run tactics, you can shoot and run away, just leave them there. They are easily moved across steep terrain, swamps and rivers, they float. And they literally grow on trees.
Probably "foo gas", I'll bet it's originally a corruption of the French words "feu gasse" which would literally be "gas fire" but in spirit more like "gas blaster".
A few such canons made from a cherry trees were used against the Ottomans during an uprising in my country as late as 1903 , as we know they blowup during the first or second shot, injuring the shooters
It worked on film screens too. Captain Kirk used it to nearly slay the lizard before they were both saved. Maybe a future topic for Matt.
2 года назад+2
Forget about wood lol. Back in Song or Ming Dynasty, (can't remember on the fly) a Chinese Engineer tried to introduce the Chinese Emperor to a cannon made out of flint to get fundings and the results were so... lackluster that the Emperor told him no.
A nice fantasy defense option could be canon bores through your fortifications wall. Loaded with shot, using a large stone breach block and with the barrel ends cosmetically capped to keep them a surprise you have a nasty surprise for the besiegers when they rush the walls. With one volley your make pink mist out of thousands of men and machines. Probably an innovative act of desperation by the defenders who know they can only hold the wall for so long.
2 года назад
@@DrewLSsix The Flint Cannons were considered failures because of how easy it can explode. It isn't really a fantasy when the Chinese have traditionally fortified their walls with Ballistas (three legged Bed Crossbows). Some even had smaller Trebuchets on them. Chinese walls are typically larger than their western counterparts, more people can walk shoulder to shoulder on them Towards the later stages of Song Dynasty, they had proto Cannons on their walls until they couldn't maintain due to a bunch of problems. (Corruption, betrayal and politics etc...) Then the Mongols got their hands on these techs from the Chinese Engineers.
Saw this on mythbusters years ago but did definitely not know how widespread the use of them were! Most interesting about the mythbusters cannon was actually how durable it was and how relatively difficult it was to make, even with modern tools.
I mean widespread is a relative term,,, in the overall scheme they were used a lot,, but in a given place they were never used, so like,,, compared to the amount of metal cannons (regular), they really didn't see any use,, but if you look at all of history, there are examples where they were worth it.
I'm kind of wondering why nobody seems to have developed cannons you can reinforce with sand (like a wide barrel and a small one and you fill the space in between with sand). It would be easy to transport and you can find sand almost everywhere. Major downside I can think of is the time to deploy. Or am I missing something?
When you mentioned leather cannons, I wondered if you would bring up Sweden. When you brought up Gustavus Adolphus, I thanks Age of Empires 3 for not lying to me!
The notion of wooden cannons only needing to be shot once to be, essentially, a worth-while effort, does make sense. Even in WW2, I'm looking at something like the panzerfaust that were basically lightweight single use artillery that could be produced in large quantities, cheaply, carried around, you only got one use out of it, but it was more practical to supply that to the troops rather than only supplying reusable RPG launchers. - At a smaller scale, the single shot Liberator pistols made to be cheap, mass produced, and only needing to be shot once, maybe twice, to have an impact and an effect in the course of a tactical engagement.
Same idea behind LAWS rockets. Cheap, single use, fire and run like hell. Reusable weapons are great, but sometimes they're just too cumbersome for one reason or another.
So, what would be the best wood for this? One of the ironwoods which are hard but possible shatter? Or yew, strong and flexible? Or rosewood that would resonate like a bell?
Well, if we're trying to engineer the best possible wooden cannon... we should make it a plywood constructed of all of those, in layers like tree rings. Using your examples I'll guess the ironwood in the bore, yew on the outside to take the flex, and rosewood sandwiched between to dampen the vibration. However I personally think we should use solid aromatic cedar; the ballistic performance may be lacking but if it fails and blows to sawdust our artillery positions will smell great.
A point to ad to the discussion is that Black powder (used until the 1880's) as a gun powder is slower burning than modern smokeless gun powders and you could get away with using inferior materials in the making of barrels. In muskets and cannon iron was used for a long time but with modern powders high quality steel is a must.
Mythbusters once tried making and shooting cannons made out of ice. Surprisingly enough they did work. Not too well, but they worked. Compared to that, wood and leather reinforced metal seems very plausible.
Improvised, mass produced, disposable guns... So the Saturday Night Specials had such a looong history before liberator pistols and other "junk" from both WW. Wow! Anything to fight oppressors, I guess!
Really cool topic! My favorite use of a wooden cannon was at the battle of Boonesborough in 1778 Kentucky. The defenders rigged up a wooden cannon reinforced with iron bands, was said to have gotten off two shots before cracking.
As a matter of fact I did know about wooden cannons. Another RUclips who goes by Tex of the Black Pants Legion mentioned it during a livestream. Exploding aside, I wonder how common the wood catching fire was.
The American Mythbusters show did a couple of separate episodes on a large wooden cannon & one on small 'leather' cannons. How would you compare those experiments to the research you've done. Frankly the mythbusters seemed more interested in blowing up stuff than honest demonstration & experimentation.
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Apologies for my voice quality in this, but I am Covid positive and a bit sick at the moment, so I had to film this in lots of short bits because my voice kept giving out. Getting better now though thankfully!
Hope you recover well.
Hope you make a full recovery mate, and that you and yours say healthy from here on out.
I hope it’s not too bad and that you make a speedy and full recovery
Sorry to hear that you caught Covid. Take care and best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Take it and I wouldn't worry about recording nny new videos until you're revoered, I'm sure that everybody here will understand if you don't make any videos while you focus on recovering.
Drink pineapple juice
The world's first cannon was made of a bamboo tube in the 10th century A.D. china apprx, often a forgotten weapon today
put a "Obscure French" tag on it and send it to Ian's Forgotten Weapons channel for review
@@wastedangelematis lol
In Fiji I was shown a bamboo canon used to celebrate Diwali ( Indian tradition).
Casting that much metal takes money, resources, an industrial base, and skill. Wood is cheaper, it grows on trees pretty much everywhere.
If you get a Wooden cannon wrong and it does explode the results are going to be devastating in the immediate vicinity however the chances are that a miscast bronze or iron cannon will be far worse, just ask James II of Scotland.
@Turcopole - kerimcan ak Yes. I only mentioned James II because he got killed by the explosion of one of his own cannons.
Mythbusters once constructed a wooden cannon...it did work. There are videos here about the wooden cannon[and the bamboo cannon, used in the Star Trek episode, "Arena"]
It worked too well if I remember right. The cannonball overshot the target and went bowling through some residential neighborhood several hundred yards away.
The ingenuity of human beings throughout history when determined to kill and maim each other will never cease to amaze me.
Absolutely fascinating topic!
came from the Live where it was mentioned
I remember seeing a leather-bound canon in a visit tothe Palace Armoury in Valetta, Malta.
With the points made at the end about "getting one shot" and "filling an area with shrapnel", it almost sounds somewhere in between a cannon and an IED.
Basically a directional grenade, or a shotgun.
I almost think of these wooden guns as almost like Claymore mines, somewhat single use items, but if it works it can be devastating
Desperation breeds ingenuity.
Hell even a one or two shots of cannon can trick an enemy in to an extended cautious artillery exchange, rather than proceeding in to an aggressive short ranter bombardment of a fortification. The longer you keep the enemy artillery shooting from long range fearing counter fire the longer your walls will hold out. The moment their artillery begins setting up just outside of rifle range your walls and other defenses will begin to fall.
Wooden guns were used in WWII. Although they were non firing. In the Doolittle raid, to save weight all the machine guns were removed from the B-25s and replaced with wooden rods painted to look like guns. Rommel used wooded guns, both in North Africa and most famously the gun batteries on the coast of Normandy, where he had emplacement made for 16" navy guns but the guns hadn't been made yet, so he put big logs that had been made to look like 16" rifles in instead. Which was enough to make them a main objective on D Day
I wouldn't compare non-functional decoys with actual fireable weapons.
Though the use of decoys especially in WW2 is quite interesting. The UK made entire decoy military bases with wooden and balloon vehicles and people who's job it was to create fake radio-chatter to draw German bombers away from real bases and cities.
Speaking of Rommel, I believe his British opponents also used wooden tank-mock-ups as decoys against him in North Africa at some point.
Not true that is in the movie only one rear turret per plane had guns removed with mock tail cannons made from brooms. The gunners of the group would shot down 3 zeros and damage others. So Some had guns and gunners which ones is lost to history. Also the guns and ammo would have been removed before getting to the ship or a Naval base as the Army Air Corps would not be responsible for some sailor steeling machine guns and ammo. Plus the paper work involved then logistics to get them back home or pay the army back for them if not returned is just to much.
We fired them in Napoleonic era Balkans. But mostly as signals though
The "cherry wood cannon" is an our unofficial Bulgarian symbol. In every traditional style Bulgarian restaurant there's a mockup of the famous cherry gun :)
Here in the Philippines, bamboo cannons are still made in the provinces. They're not used as weapons and instead used for celebrations in the same way fireworks are used. They usually don't use gunpowder, instead using chemical reaction of calcium carbide and water, that makes acetylene gas, which fills the barrel and is then ignited. Sometimes they are reinforced using rubber. They are called "lantaka" the indigenous word for cannon.
in Slovenija and in Balkans in general we have a simmilar tradition but we use purpously made steel cannons or we use barrels and metal cans. we call them mortars.
Also the gas produced by reaction of calcium carbide and water is acetylene not hidrogen.
@@lukethedank13 Thanks for the correction. You're right about the type of gas. It's acetylene. The same one used for metalwork.
Some people here also use metal pipes to make their cannons but for most people that's a little too much since one of the main reasons for making cannons is to be frugal.
If people have money to burn on noise makers, they'd usually rather spend it on fireworks. That's also why the tradition mostly remains in the provinces since it has a reputation of being "cheap", "rural", and "poor".
Fascinating. Thanks for relating that.
nice pics from The Mission what a great movie that was.
Such a cool bit of history. Thanks.
About Gustavus Adolphus, in interrest in the leather canon was an attempt to increase the mobility of artillery so it could be easily redeployed on the battlefield. This experiment with leather canons proved unsuccessful and were replaced by 3 pounders. His ideas on the use of artillery had a lot more success tho as illustrated in the battle of Breitenfeld
I knew about Adolphus and his use of leather cannon from Age of Empires 3.
They're quite good at turning historical facts into game play, and they often include a bit of history in a popup box.
Of course, being a unit in a video game, there is a lot of abstraction to balance it and make it unique, but I love the fusion of history and RTS.
It's a fun way to get people interested in real history.
Yeah, definitely Gustavus Adolphus was using them more for lightness and mobility than a lack of metals, he was all about the use of combined arms and really extended the Dutch ideas of variaence from the earlier Tercio formations
In some Total War games wooden cannons are first guns you can get.
There is a traditional festival in north east of Thailand that still making some bamboo rocket with slow burn gunpowder or bombs out of bamboo.
But lately they turn to PVC pipe for easy production yet the fragment or PVC pipe is more lethal and messier than bamboo.
In the philippines, there are canons made of pvc pipies, call it "boga" or "lantaka" depending on the region
I would like to do some research on the Augustus Adolphus and English civil war aspect of these. Surprised you didn't mention the Quaker guns. I am glad I am not the only one thinking about the Gorn.
It was actually Gustavus Adolphus, who was King of Sweden during the 30 Years War on the Continent. There were actually very few leather guns used in the 'English Civil War' (aka the War of the 3 Kingdoms) as they weren't actually that reliable, and the mobility that was their main raison d'etre wasn't as important.
Regarding the inner metal tube being used in wood barrels, the right word would be liner - using a separate line for the inside of the bore is still a modern practice, with barrel exteriors being made out of carbon fiber or other less wear resistant metals, with a steel liner within.
Ft. Boonesboro… during the American Revolution, settlers on the Ky frontier constructed a wooden cannon, used during a raid by the Shawnee, exploded on the 2nd or 3rd shot, but helped in repelling the native forces… I believe it was carved from a Gum log…
Most famous use of Bamboo in a cannon? IMHO in the Star Trek TOS episode Arena, where Kirk triumphs by constructing a gun from local resources, including an 'alien plant' that looks remarkably like Bamboo.
Still surprised Gorn tanked a hit from a diamond artillery round, 40 years later. My young self was very impressed.
It's very effective against the Gorn.
The latest use of wooden cannon I know of is the civil war in Russia back in 1920s.
As far as I remember one of the cannons is on display in Novosibirsk local history museum.
Mythbusters made a wooden cannon and then reinforcing it with metal bands. It did not blow up until they put in 5 lb of powder and sealed the muzzle.
One of Adam Savage's recent Tested videos referenced this. This was the myth that taught them that special effects explosions are not the same as real explosions. They had a movie pyro "expert" help them set up the 5 pound explosion. Then they all backed off to what their expert figured was a safe distance, set it off, and watched as pieces of their cannon sailed over their heads.
Here's Adam talking about it: ruclips.net/video/D_yHttkfWCA/видео.html starting at about three and a half minutes in.
I just visited the German National Museum yesterday and was wondering about the wooden cannon there. Great Timing for this Video
6:26 "Metallic tube, usually copper - copper alloy."
Wow, you speak almost like a museum description tablet. :D
It probably was used for ceremonial purposes i guess.
The old Myth Busters did a video on this topic. Theirs was shockingly tough.
Video still on RUclips and i what's that on TV when it was new new.
"well we fired our cannons till the barrels melted down so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round." I might have to make a cannon now with a black iron pipe and a end cap set with high temperature glue and some oak slats. Add a few tight bands every four inches and it just might work.
One step further down the ladder, there were also so-called "Quaker guns." These were little more than logs painted black and propped up in defensive positions to fool the enemy into thinking they were cannons. Better than a single-use weapon is the weapon which you never have to use. If your cannon dissuades people from attacking, then it's done its job, and a wooden mock-up is just as good as the real thing (and much cheaper).
I'd heard of the concept but hadn't heard it called that.
@@Aconitum_napellus It comes from the American Civil War. It was particularly effective against General George McClellan, who developed a reputation for overestimating the strength of the enemy, and Quaker guns were used to fool him into not attacking. There's one story of an opposing general marching his troops in circles and noisily moving his artillery to convince McClellan that the enemy army was bigger than his, and it worked. General Johnston said something like, "Only McClellan could fail to attack such a weak position."
@@nfo1776 I really doubt the practice originated in the US civil war, I would expect the practice to be much older than that. Cannon have been around for many centuries after all.
@@WJS774 I meant the term originated in the Civil War, as far as I know.
There was a Mythbusters episode on the Swedish leather cannon. It was very neat.
If you are to defend a narrow sector, you can simply dig it in. Made one out of a sewage pipe in the army.
Always happy when theres a new SG video!
I thought that I am fairly good at Sweden and Augustus Adolphus, but I have missed that they experimented with leather cannon.
Great topic
Necessity is the mother of wooden cannons
Fantastic video! Do you have any book recommendations on this topic? Specifically, in regards to its use by indigenous people.
I loved this quick skim, and it would be great if you could pick one or two examples to look at in more depth.
At the Battel of Fort Sanders Nov.29, 1863, Knoxville, Tennessee morters were made from wood. The morters blew up killing the gun crew.
I've read of leather cannons before, but not wood. From what I recall, one of the advantages of the leather guns was that with their lighter weight, they could be moved through swampy or mountainous terrain much more easily than conventional guns and could be set up in locations where the enemy would not normally expect artillery fire from. Great video!
When you word it that way, it made me realize that the actual position where the gun is set up could be unexpected. Not only by being unreachable for heavy iron guns, but for example on soft boggy ground where the iron gun would simply sink in the mud.
Scholglad vid drops, life stops!
Bamboo canons are still common in the Philippines, they are used as alternative to firecrackers during New Years. I think in Indonesia too they have bamboo canons.
Historically though, gunpowder technology was already present in the Philippines when the Spanish arrived, but such weapons weren't used in massive scale, the technology is brought through trade with Malay-speaking kingdoms as evidenced in the terminologies.
Thank You
Thank you.
I was unaware of wooden cannons, but there is a story I know of. In the American civil war, in one battle one side painted holes on the ends of logs to fool the opposing side into thinking they were better armed than they were. It makes more sense now that I know that a real cannon could look like a log.
I knew about wooden cannons but I didn't think it was that many different countries
Good stuff!
Fun and interesting. Thanks !
3:20 "The Mission" (1986) Great movie.
I perform English Civil War Living History in California with the Free Artillerie Company, Army of The Marquis of Montrose (we portray Scottish Royalists supporting the restoration). One of our members is a master gunsmith who not only has helped many members with the process of building reproduction arquebuses, but some years ago he built a reproduction leather cannon for our group based off of x-rays taken of 17th century leather cannons recovered from the Baltic Sea - cannons that once belonged to Gustavus Adolphus. Talking with the public about this technology typically raises eyebrows, as it so fundamentally subverts people's expectations of what a cannon is or can be.
Interesting. Do you also have/intend to procure a Scots Frame Gun? These were much more prevalent in the Highlands where James Graham was operating than Leather Guns.
I know I saw some actual cannons with wooden cladding, done in an octagonal or hexagonal design.
Very interesting video Matt. I'm surprised you didn't mention the modern development of very similar technology. There is a trend in expensive modern rifles for using carbon fibre sleeved barrels. The goal is to use less metal so as to lose weight while maintaining strength and rigidity. It's A very similar idea to the leather cannons of history.
The Chinese had firelances and handgonnes made out of bamboo, and they also had wooden and stone cannons.
Excellent video! I was sure when I clicked that it would be all about decoy guns.
I'm reminded of American Third System fortifications, many of which were never fully outfitted with guns, and most of which were never attacked. That those forts got by with in some cases only a handful of guns out of what had been planned to be dozens, strikes me as a strong indicator that a gun with a very limited durability might have served adequately.
I am surprised that no story of composite or otherwise lighter guns for naval use came up. It seems to me that a lighter weight armament could have been a huge advantage aboard ship.
And based on the Mythbusters' testing, if you pack enough powder into the wooden cannon, you get yourself an IED.
The romanian guns could not be used against austro-hungarian forces, austria-hungary was created in 1867. They were used against mostly hungarian revolutionary forces in the romanian counterrevolution in a failed hungarian war of liberty in 1848-49.
Also, some hungarian forces are also said to use wooden cannons in transylvania at that time
I believe there were wooden mortars useed during the siege of Vicksburg during the ACW.
What about a glass cannon?
Composite barrels go way back? Who knew the grandfather of a carbon fiber wrapped rifle barrel was invented so long ago.
Wishing you and yours well 😊
I wooden have thought that woodwork.
Stop doing things like that before the children imitate you.
Some time reality can be more weird then fantasy. Thanks for this perl 🙏🏻
The metal cannons didn't necessarily last that long either. The brass used in a lot of early cannon and even the iron used up until metallurgy improved in the late 1800's was soft and the heat and corrosive effects of the burning gasses would erode them fairly quickly. Depending on the model (field guns were generally made lighter and wore out faster as a result) the expected life could be as few as 500-600 shots before they'd have to be replaced.
Even a modern artillery piece keeps a close record of how many shots have gone through the barrel and how large the powder charge used for each shot was so that they can be rebuilt before they get too worn out.
Even into the modern era with naval guns, some of those would be past their service life after 2-300 rounds through them, not rendered unusable but the wear limits had been reached and they'd go back to being fitted out with new ones and the old ones possibly re-lined with a new barrel if it was expedient to do so.
Artillery pieces over the history of them do have some sense of risk and expendable nature to them, a lot of crews got blown up over the centuries and more than a couple of important people nearby also received an unhealthy dose of blackpowder doing what it does. So with the wooden cannons they're more or less a one and done, after that if you're still alive once the smoke clears, someone might make a call to go again... in which case statistics will start coming into play which aren't in anyone's favour!
@@krissteel4074 I also follow a channel called Drachinifel about naval ships, mainly focusing on post Dreadnought era, and, apparently, one of the minor perks of being posted to an American battleship or the larger cruisers is that they'd have to rotate back to the United States to get their main guns' barrels replaced after providing fire support to some of the landings during the island hopping campaign in the Pacific.
Really excellent point. The only question is does the material last the requisite number of shots?
fascinating
Are there any record on which species of wood was used?
Chalk another one up for the mighty stick; it can be a cannon too!!! Thank you for another great vid Matt!
Myth busters did an episode with one they made. I think they also did one with an ice cannon as well.
Any concrete information on the success and failure rates of these things?
A last ditch landmine type of defensive weapon makes absolute sense.
I'm always struck by how awesome our ancestors are / were....."we need cannon, we don't have much metal"...."meh - cut that tree down and wrap it in cow"
More like a Claymore mine.
In wwll a geman soldiers magazine / Zeitschrift ,Von der Front für die Front' ( From frontline for frontline) existed. It contained tipps from soldiers to make military usefull things by ,do it yourself with things you have'. It seems that german soldiers used selfmade , selfshot traps' using log or timber pieces.
I know I can't be the first to mention Captain Kirk's fight with the Gorn.
I would think there's a HUGE advantage to having a crappy gun vs none, in terms of simply menacing the enemy and making them think twice about coming into range in the first place. They may also not know that it isn't a perfect bronze or iron one. Or, an enemy that charges a position with the expectation that there will be little resistance, suddenly taking cannon-fire, might very well turn-tail and flee in disaray.
It was a huge advantage of moving light canons in terrain where your enemy can't move their heavy canons. Wooden canons are perfect for hit and run tactics, you can shoot and run away, just leave them there. They are easily moved across steep terrain, swamps and rivers, they float. And they literally grow on trees.
Brave, brave, brave Sir Robin ran away...
This reminds me of the fougasse (no idea how to pronounce that) where you basically just dig a hole and use it as a mortar.
Probably "foo gas", I'll bet it's originally a corruption of the French words "feu gasse" which would literally be "gas fire" but in spirit more like "gas blaster".
so, this is a hollow stick that shoots balls? Shad would be proud.
A few such canons made from a cherry trees were used against the Ottomans during an uprising in my country as late as 1903 , as we know they blowup during the first or second shot, injuring the shooters
Amazing. Ya fight with whatcha got .
It worked on film screens too. Captain Kirk used it to nearly slay the lizard before they were both saved. Maybe a future topic for Matt.
Forget about wood lol. Back in Song or Ming Dynasty, (can't remember on the fly) a Chinese Engineer tried to introduce the Chinese Emperor to a cannon made out of flint to get fundings and the results were so... lackluster that the Emperor told him no.
A nice fantasy defense option could be canon bores through your fortifications wall. Loaded with shot, using a large stone breach block and with the barrel ends cosmetically capped to keep them a surprise you have a nasty surprise for the besiegers when they rush the walls. With one volley your make pink mist out of thousands of men and machines. Probably an innovative act of desperation by the defenders who know they can only hold the wall for so long.
@@DrewLSsix The Flint Cannons were considered failures because of how easy it can explode. It isn't really a fantasy when the Chinese have traditionally fortified their walls with Ballistas (three legged Bed Crossbows). Some even had smaller Trebuchets on them.
Chinese walls are typically larger than their western counterparts, more people can walk shoulder to shoulder on them
Towards the later stages of Song Dynasty, they had proto Cannons on their walls until they couldn't maintain due to a bunch of problems. (Corruption, betrayal and politics etc...)
Then the Mongols got their hands on these techs from the Chinese Engineers.
Saw this on mythbusters years ago but did definitely not know how widespread the use of them were! Most interesting about the mythbusters cannon was actually how durable it was and how relatively difficult it was to make, even with modern tools.
I mean widespread is a relative term,,, in the overall scheme they were used a lot,, but in a given place they were never used, so like,,, compared to the amount of metal cannons (regular), they really didn't see any use,, but if you look at all of history, there are examples where they were worth it.
I'm kind of wondering why nobody seems to have developed cannons you can reinforce with sand (like a wide barrel and a small one and you fill the space in between with sand). It would be easy to transport and you can find sand almost everywhere. Major downside I can think of is the time to deploy. Or am I missing something?
When you mentioned leather cannons, I wondered if you would bring up Sweden. When you brought up Gustavus Adolphus, I thanks Age of Empires 3 for not lying to me!
Love this. Please rest up. You are a treasure, Matt.
geez found the photo of our cannon. mid evil, bog iron taking up space with heavy beam on two legs, thanks
The notion of wooden cannons only needing to be shot once to be, essentially, a worth-while effort, does make sense. Even in WW2, I'm looking at something like the panzerfaust that were basically lightweight single use artillery that could be produced in large quantities, cheaply, carried around, you only got one use out of it, but it was more practical to supply that to the troops rather than only supplying reusable RPG launchers. - At a smaller scale, the single shot Liberator pistols made to be cheap, mass produced, and only needing to be shot once, maybe twice, to have an impact and an effect in the course of a tactical engagement.
Same idea behind LAWS rockets. Cheap, single use, fire and run like hell. Reusable weapons are great, but sometimes they're just too cumbersome for one reason or another.
So, what would be the best wood for this? One of the ironwoods which are hard but possible shatter? Or yew, strong and flexible? Or rosewood that would resonate like a bell?
The ones in Bulgaria were made from cherry trees.
@@witalian1 That would be a good one. Apart from the lack of cherries the next year. War is hell.
Well, if we're trying to engineer the best possible wooden cannon... we should make it a plywood constructed of all of those, in layers like tree rings. Using your examples I'll guess the ironwood in the bore, yew on the outside to take the flex, and rosewood sandwiched between to dampen the vibration.
However I personally think we should use solid aromatic cedar; the ballistic performance may be lacking but if it fails and blows to sawdust our artillery positions will smell great.
@@johnladuke6475 Sandalwood is a tranquilliser, so if that failed spectacularly, it would relax the wounded so they were not as traumatised.
@@pattheplanter If we're considering the wounded we should add some willow bark.
A point to ad to the discussion is that Black powder (used until the 1880's) as a gun powder is slower burning than modern smokeless gun powders and you could get away with using inferior materials in the making of barrels. In muskets and cannon iron was used for a long time but with modern powders high quality steel is a must.
I believe there were also bamboo guns in Japans history.
Mythbusters once tried making and shooting cannons made out of ice. Surprisingly enough they did work. Not too well, but they worked.
Compared to that, wood and leather reinforced metal seems very plausible.
were firearm barrows also made from Aluminium alloys?
Improvised, mass produced, disposable guns... So the Saturday Night Specials had such a looong history before liberator pistols and other "junk" from both WW. Wow! Anything to fight oppressors, I guess!
Really cool topic! My favorite use of a wooden cannon was at the battle of Boonesborough in 1778 Kentucky. The defenders rigged up a wooden cannon reinforced with iron bands, was said to have gotten off two shots before cracking.
I had to rewind the one painting. I was wondering if the artist painted a horse kneeing a guy in the nuts while 2 guys hold him from flinching.
As a matter of fact I did know about wooden cannons. Another RUclips who goes by Tex of the Black Pants Legion mentioned it during a livestream. Exploding aside, I wonder how common the wood catching fire was.
If you char the exposed bits beforehand, it would be pretty fire resistant. Also keeps out the bugs.
The chines made rockets out of paper a long time ago, quite effective too.
Reminds me of the Green cannon from Terry Pratchets Nation
_Mythbusters_ season 2 episode 6 - "Lightning Strikes Tongue Piercing/Tree Cannon/Beat the Breath Test".
RIP Grant Imahara
The American Mythbusters show did a couple of separate episodes on a large wooden cannon & one on small 'leather' cannons. How would you compare those experiments to the research you've done. Frankly the mythbusters seemed more interested in blowing up stuff than honest demonstration & experimentation.
The old adage, go with what you've got, adapt, improvise, and overcome.
I remember myth busters doing a leather cannon episode once
I think the Mythbusters made one of these. Pure wood iirc, stone ball.
Worked pretty good. Until they decided to blow it up intentionally.