A friend of mine during WWII served on a Tin Can as a Yeoman (that means that he fired expert on a typewriter) and his battle station was a 105mm, the biggest piece on a Tin Can. Most of the others were 20mm. A 105mm at sea is the equivalent of a pea shooter. About useless unless you count using for antiaircraft. They never used hearing protection. They all became severely hearing impaired. The sound would resonate throughout the ship and affected everyone aboard.
Meeting Ian in person and showing him around the Battery was amazing and so much fun! You are more than welcome back at any time! If you come to visit again we will have done even more to restore the Battery to it's former glory! Best wishes and I hope to see a bunch of your fans come here and enjoy a day with us!
It’s no longer capable of being fired. Fort Rinella was left derelict for a number of years and thieves stripped the cannon for metal parts to sell for scrap. A lot of essential components were lost and cannot be replaced.
Lol I would think a 30 pound parrot rifle barrel would do well as a long range projectile. Probably would have a high ballistic coefficient due to the shape.
I love how this gun literally has this absolutely glorious cutting edge hydraulic mechanism to load it and then there's literally a guy pulling a cord to fire it and destroy his eardrums
This really isn’t unusual at all. The modern artillery guns we use in the American military use a cord to fire. It’s so you can be far enough away to not get severely injured or killed by the gun recoiling. I’ve fired a 115mm recoilless cannon and it literally just had a button on the side that you slap
Armstrong, The big guns seller: Well hello there, would you like to buy this 100 ton cannon? Me: Yeah, sure but.. how am I going to load it? Armstrong, The big crane seller: Well hello there!
of course, you will need to have a crew trained, one for firing and one for loading and one for maintenance, here are our prices for a full training course and literature.
Eighty years ago I was born about two miles away from that 100-ton gun and I spent my youth at Rinella playing with other children in that Fort, which in those days hardly anyone ventured to go there. Under and around the gun there is an underground area which is quite large and in those days some building contractor or the Military had housed all his building structural tools in there. We played about in that area for about 10 years with no one caring about its historic value. Very close by, there is a Fort Ricasoli and also the area where they have a film facility. I saw the water gigantic water tank being built for Raising the Titanic and also saw the model being raised. The level of the tank was such that it blended with the real sea at the background. The model itself was quite impressive. Also, I saw some scenario from "The Gladiator ". My brother has one of the air-cooled radial engines which they used at the film facilities to make storms and wind with it. It is a 550 Hp aircraft engine. There is so much to see and the historic places could be more appreciated by both the locals and the tourists. Some years later at the age of 16, I went to Chatham Dockyard and then attended the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. I used to go to Bambrough Castle, which I learned that it belonged to Lord Armstong, the man who built the 100- ton gun and other armaments. Later on, in life I went to Barmbarough Castle where I was hosted by Lord Armstrong relations, his grandson I believe, but I am not sure. My wife, my daughter and I were given the run of the castle and it was a very pleasant surprise that I was treated so nicely by the relatives and descendants of Lord Armstrong who build the 100- ton gun, near which I still live to this day at Kalkara!
@@TarmanTheChampion I am pretty sure every kid in Washington has been to Camp Casey. Flagler, Fort Stevens in Oregon, all so cool for any kid, no matter their age.
The escalation in guns afterwards was even more insane. The peak in naval artillery were the 9x460 mm guns of the Yamato class, each having a 150 ton barrel, firing a 13-ton broadside up to 42 km/26 mi. At up to 2 shells per minute, rather than reloading 6 minutes like this one.
It wasn't al *that* mad compared to this period, when you consider that the ships of the 1940s generation were 45,000 to 60,000 tons displacement, carrying these high-power 16s and super-heavy 18s, three to a turret - but the monster-gun design generation of the 1870s to late 1880s were 'mere' ten- to eleven-thousand tonners (Fourteen in the case of the massively-engined 'Italias'), carrying a quartet of these pre-nuclear megaweapons, making each piece a *far, far* greater percentage of the entire fighting machine's mass overall. The 40s behemoths were safely inside the day's envelope - these ones just tore through theirs with abandon.
@freebeerfordworkers Er, it kind of was. As with 'dutch tilt' or 'dutch angle' referring to a skewed angle, usually used in films now. It implies drunkenness, as does 'dutch courage'. Brits took up gin pretty enthusiastically, but that doesn't stop it being a point of mockery. Also I suspect you're not from Britain if you think that respecting someone and taking the piss are mutually exclusive. See the number of military jokes and stereotypes about everyone from closest allies, to different branches of the British military who absolutely relied on one another, to their most dangerous enemies. No one is spared. If Dutch courage is alcohol, British courage is humour.
@freebeerfordworkers Origin and use are not the same thing. Listerine was invented for disinfecting floors but they found they could charge more if they sold it as a hygiene product.
"We missed the ship, Major!" "Bugger! We'll just have to live with the tidal wave the missed shot created sinking it instead. Not very gentlemanly, but such is war"
Actually in war back then it wasn't unusual at long ranges to only hit your enemy once for every 100 rounds fired. so line of battle ships had a large number of guns, up to 70 per side. With the monster guns that came along 2 to 4 major calibre guns became the norm. One advantage the fort had was that it was elevated high on a cliff so it could fire down on the enemy, who due to limited elevation of their own guns, couldn't fire up at the fort. I think the calibre of the 100 ton Armstrong gun was 17.6 inch. A 2000 pound shell was about the same as a later 15 or early 16 inch breech loading guns
@@briananthony4044 Not so with this gun. Visited it quite recently, they have records showing that it achieved essentially a 100% hit rate on training shots against ships they put out in the bay. It being so static and predictable was a huge benefit.
@@briananthony4044 From what I´ve read, both sides in the battle of Jutland had hit rates of about 1-2%, so under battlefield conditions on ships, that "one hit per 100 shots"-rule held way into WWI
This is the real life Death Star! “Italia is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don’t worry, we will deal with your rebel ships soon enough. You may fire when ready…”
I've seen videos on this before, but everyone else only focused on the cannon itself. I agree with Ian here; the loading systems are the real magic of this installation. Brilliant stuff for the 1800s.
"It was a really embarrassing experience for the Italian navy, and in fact it took them almost a decade to get over it." Basically the entire military history of modern Italy in one sentence.
The Battery Steele on Peaks Island in Maine had 2 massive 16 inch guns back in the 40s, and they only fired once as a test, but they broke every window on the island
@War Zone That probably had more to do with celts living and breeding in Roman territory over the past 1500 years. Gestures were intregal to their language, and likely would have vestigial remnants as more celts had latin as a first language.
@War Zone Caesar died because he was traitor abusing the roman system to pay his debts and glorify himself at the expense of the very foundation of their republic.
@@liberationwasalie2982 a boy can dream a boy can dream lol. Honestly I'm not an individual whose concerned about over arching gun laws. There are enough storys about crazy finds of firearms stashes.
Char Aznable he was was doing the same thing with ships too, selling to both sides. a naval arms race is good for business especially if you are supplying everyone.
That is the uniform used by the Royal Maltese Artillery in the Fort during the 1880s. The pill-box with a yellow band was used for stationed artillery while the ones with a red band was for mobile artillery.
This is even cleverer than I first thought - and I thought it was pretty damned clever already! The idea behind the water accumulator is that you can leave the entire thing ready to go, but cold. In the event of something occurring, you then fire up the steam engine. You have 4 shots before that thing needs to be in full steam. Otherwise you'd have to keep the steam engine fired up 24/7 for as long as you needed it to be ready. This way you wouldn't. Brilliant.
The accumulators store energy and release it in short bursts to carry out various tasks like operating the lifts and the rammers. Stationary steam engines of the time typically weren't powerful enough to drive anything substantial by themselves directly. A lot of old steam-powered machinery from that period such as swing and lift bridges, dockyard cranes etc. used hydraulic accumulators to provide stored energy when needed, using it up in short bursts at intervals. It's just that our normal vision of steam power from those times is of steam locomotives and marine engines and they obviously needed to provide power for hours at a time to keep trains and ships on the move. For jobs like this a small steam engine plus accumulators was a better bet.
I'm pretty sure that none of that system was innovative, it was just big. I think the real tricky part would have probably been the construction of the cannon. there's a technical drawing of a cross-section of the cannon that shows that it's constructed of many interlocking bands of steel (or wrought iron, I'm not sure), and they all would have been huge and very difficult to shape and assemble. the machinery used in the factory to build the gun (furnaces, cranes, power-hammers etc) would have been much more impressive than the machinery required to operate the gun. you can find videos on yourube of factories forging giant steel objects. the machinery is extremely impressive, and it would be even more so if it had to be powered on site by coal-fired steam engines.
Pretty cool video! It's amazing how quickly land and naval large gun technology progressed up into 1940s. The 16" rifles used on the US Iowa-class battleships fired a 2700 lb shell using 660 lbs of powder, breech loaded, from a 120 ton rifled barrel soft mounted with recoil compensation, with a range of 24 miles and accurate enough to hit a target the size of an office building at maximum range. The barbette assembly including the turret mounting 3 barrels weighed 2500 tons.
The Iowas and indeed all of the big-gun battleships weren't that accurate -- here's a link to an actual "fall of shot" chart for test firings from BB-61, the USS Iowa itself after it was upgraded in the 1980s to use modern radar sighting and firecontrol systems (the NGFS). The "office building" used as a scale reference in the chart is the Pentagon in Washington DC, reputedly the largest such building in the world for a long time. 36,000 yards is just over 20 miles, not the theoretical maximum range of the 16"/50 guns. fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/bb-61-dnsn8709176_jpg.gif I suspect this was a "rigged demo" test with the Iowa stationary in reasonable weather conditions, not hammering along at nearly thirty knots in rough seas trying to engage an enemy force which was also dodging and weaving, making smoke etc. Really, WWII was the end of the big-gun battleships, most of which were sunk by submarine torpedoes and/or aerial bombardment from carrier-based aircraft which stayed well out of range of the dinosaur's mighty cannons.
The whole 100 years from 1820 to 1920 saw such huge leaps in technology, especially related to large and small firearms. It's literally mind boggling how quickly new systems were developed and then quickly discarded as even newer technology evolved. I've spent 40+ years studying this era, and still feel I've only scratched the surface.
@@robertsneddon731 The Iowas very rarely fired on ships, they were usually stationary in a harbor firing at land targets throughout their service lives. If you listen to some of the reports from the soldiers in Korea and in Vietnam who ordered fire support from the ships, It will give you a first hand telling of how accurate those guns were.
Along with Britians own Super Battleships HMS WArrior and HMS Black Prince, built in response to La Gloire. Warrior is in preservation at HM Dockyard Portsmouth along with other distingushed company HMS Victory and The Mary Rose. Warrior was outffited with 1836 Colt .36 revolvers (Check details for me folks!) Colt built a factory at Vauxhall in London to manufactuer them.
An excellent parallel. I wonder if men like Ian will be wandering around the ruins of missile silos in a century or two's time, talking about how impressive it was that they could deliver a few hundred kilotons of energy to targets five thousand kilometres away, considering the era... ?
Mmm naval rome empire command the world for 1000 years. Thats seems sufficiently for a book. :D american : people with short story and short memory . Lol
Actually from tests done in La Spezia in 1876 It was found that the belt armor(22 inches thick hardened steel, made in France by Creusot) was effective protection from the 100 ton gun. To be fair the round cracked the belt piece but also shattered on impact. Since the rate of fire and accuracy was low the citadel of the ship was basically invulnerable.This could not be said about the belt armor of HMS Inflexible ,which ,while thicker was made of soft puddled iron and was easily penetrated by a 100 t gun in these simulations.He is saying pure hogwash 😂.
theoretical range with max powder charge. Realistically at those times hitting anything at anything beyond point blank was pretty much a hail mary. The battle of Lissa (the battle Ian refers to at the intro of the video where the Italians got smacked) was fought at ramming distances (and I'm not kidding, there were several ships sunk by ramming), which points out how difficult it was to hit anything at any meaningful range. It wasn't until the 1910s, with the new Fire Control Systems, rangefinders and mechanical plotting tables, that fighting at long range was a possibility. Even Tsushima was fought at pretty close range (using WW1 and WW2 standards, that is). It's true that coastal artillery being land based (thus more stable and with finely and accurately prepared fire tables) had a much better accuracy than naval based guns. But even then, and by the 1880s, hitting anything of the size of a ship beyond a couple miles was more of a prayer than anything else...compound that by the fact that you're shooting once each 6 minutes and you have a real problem between your hands. TL:DR: yeah, 8 miles theoretical range. Useless at anything but point blank. Sure that the gun looks impressive, but as for it's true usefulness, let's say it was...very limited.
ramjb You don't have to hit the target to make the cannon effective. They could fix a timed fuse on the end of the shell, which was filled with even more gunpowder, and have it detonating over, besides and even UNDER the target. The shockwave and the shrapnel would do the work without hitting the target.
An interesting fact is that not all the gunpowder would ignite and was launched forward. Maltese hunters would then go around in front of the gun and collect the gunpowder for their shotguns.
I went to Fort Rinella a couple of years ago on my holiday to Malta and seeing the Armstrong Gun in person was unbelievable. The fort also do musketry, cavalry and artillery displays. The staff are highly knowledgeable and fantastic at bringing history to life. I’d definitely recommend anyone to go see it because I know I’ll certainly go again 😄
Umm , that happened when the gun was being shipped from Woolwich Arsenal to proofing at Shoeburyness. They manged to drop the gun off it's barge when loading. It spent 9 days on the bottom of the River Thames. The Times newspaer , AKA The Thunderer was not imprssed, the worlds most expensive gun dropped, and said so on it's front page.
@Snake in a Box 1 Mud test will commence when Karl arrives on site... and when they can get a ship filled to the gunwales with thick enough mud to do the test. Oh, and even then it might be delayed, as they'll have to wait for the army of drunk dudes with milsurp small arms (most likely the Varusteleka employees) to show up to cover the gun... since Ian and Karl might just have some trouble doing it single handedly in a timely manner with as big as that mofo is!
As a Maltese, it's always cool to see some of this stuff get more attention! Fun fact: the bridge shown at the very start of the video (to enter the fort), was originally a retractable bridge (basically the 19th century steampunk version of a medieval drawbridge), known as a Guthrie rolling bridge
With that paint job, I think Ian's afraid to admit it shoots mustard instead of cannonballs. Maybe we can sell it to the place that holds the record for World's Biggest Cheeseburger?
Couple of things: 1) It's nice to see Robert Webb found a job in historical tours 2) The guy who pulls that string WAS the best paid soldier in the garrison, his payment was in firing the biggest derp gun in history to that point
The guy that had the job to pull "the string" must have gone deaf in 1 shot, or had been chosen because he was already deaf (or because his commanding officer hated him) XD. I cannot imagine the concussive force you would feel standing right by that monster. Probably shakes you to the core. The whole system has a Very, Very cool design especially for its age.
What was omitted from the video is that the gunner who fired the gun hid in a little cut out in the wall to help reduce the percussive forces on himself. Still, it isn't something I would like to do. Also, when the gun was being test fired, residents in the area were advised to open their windows so that they weren't broken.
These were actually turrets a modern concept of cannons but not technically cannons these fired shells like howitzers the largest known cannon was an ottoman 110 pounder designed by a Hungarian engineer for Mehmet the conqueror the cannon ball itself was 110 pounds imagine the weight of the cannon it took 5 elephants to transport and 5 men to just load the ball oh and the dardanelles cannon was 1.8 ton and the ball itself was 1 ton lol
I’m from Newcastle Upon Tyne where these guns were made, the site of the construction still exists, it’s a key feature on the scenery around the river Tyne and has built things from warships, aircraft, tanks to munitions.
Everything about this was awesome. From the island itself, the hospitality and simon. The massive orchestra composed to keep that gun working was awesomely described. Ian, you were a pleasure to watch and listen to as usual ( i appreciate the fact that you weren’t constantly interrupting simon ). This was an awesome video. Thanks
The Maltese are such cool people. I loved my visit there, great food, great wine and a cultural heritage the would put other countries to shame. ❤️ MALTA!
I read a quote of a british gunner who had a gun blow the back out of it, describing it as "unsettling" Words like "tad" and "quite" "bother". A pitched battle as a "scuffle", demphasis is a big thing in the British armed forces. GI: "We are facing certain death" Tommy: "It is rather hairy isn't it?"
@@Ye4rZero But sadly not pressurised steam, thereby missing the punt when it came to industrialisation & subsequently missing the point of the original comment.
The historical context provided in your videos makes them so amazing to watch. Thank you for conveying both the impressive engineering that went into each artifact but also the historical context that makes them important. Love your videos!
Actually I have used blank 450gm black powder charges in 25Lb gun at Woolwich for just that purpose. The windows across the river shimmered after firing. I asked the H&S Officr was she worried? Her reply was 'No that side of the river isn't my responsobilty'.
There are 16 cannon shots in the overture, all in the last 3 minutes if I recall correctly. With a 6 minute reload time, you'd need to have 16 of them for the performance. OR... just one and seat the audience REALLY close. That way, they'll be deaf and rolling around in pain and won't care that the performance ended after only one shot.
That canon is very impressive but like you I’m most impressed with the automated loading system I never knew anything like that ever existed thanks so much for sharing, just amazing
hjp14 This cannon is one of the most amazing projects I've ever worked with! And to know that back in the 90s there were only volunteers working on its restoration is mind boggling. Now, almost 30 years later we are still not done, but we've grown so big thanks to our visitors and volunteers!
Simon Gustafsson Yes, it is a fascinating socio-historical artifact; everything is in such wonderful condition. Thank you for sharing the site and your knowledge with us! I'm sure you guys will have volunteers and helpers for a long time coming.
“There was danger of shattering windows in the city alongside here.” Makes me wonder how many injuries occurred just from operating the freaking thing.
I can answer that for you and it's a low number, 0 recorded injuries..It was never fired in combat, it only had 4 firings a year to make sure it was working/up to spec but what Ian failed to mention in regards to the 4 guns is this, only three actually survived at first due to the gun at the Napier battery being destroyed during fire trials, the crews operating that one were firing a shell every 2.5 minutes and cracked the barrel badly leading it to become too hard to hard to repair so they used that gun as foundation for a building...The gun at the Victoria battery was moved to replace it as the military deemed it a more effective site.
Worth keeping in mind that hearing loss wasn't considered a line-of-duty injury in those days, and I'm pretty sure the gunners involved in the regularly scheduled test firings would have suffered some.
As someone who really has no interest in guns at all, (some interest in general history), I find Ian's presentations fascinating. It's not just the discussion of the weapon but the background and context that he can include that makes them so interesting. Showing their place in history, and this is an excellent example. That he is now being invited to places to show stuff is a testament to the quality of his presentations. Great stuff.
Malta is great. Went for a week for £280. Mdina is absolutely gorgeous. Didn't get to go to any super cool stuff because I was with my bitch ex who complains at anything. Definitely go though.
I’ve only stopped off in Malta for a couple of days when HMS CAMPBELTOWN was there in 2004, but I’d go back any day. Very interesting place. Beautiful also.
That was the coolest thing I’ve seen on this channel ever. I agree, the loading system is the best part, and I also agree with the remark that to ordinary citizens in 1880 the whole thing would be like sci-fi. I try but fail to imagine what it must have been like to be within a mile of that thing when they fired it, and do I ever wish I could tour one of the ships that housed 4 of them. WELL DONE!!
The 100 ton guns were built at the Royal Arsenal Woolwich (Pronounced Wool-Itch) The Aresenal is on the south side of the River Thames, the Aresenal had it's own fleet of boats and tugs, with thier own Blue Naval Ensign. In addition there were two barges called Gog and Magog, after the to giants of the City of London. These guns were on the front page of The Times newspapers as the most expensive ever built. The proofing of the guns was done at Shoeburyness at the rivers mouth. In order to get there they were shipped on the barges, when a slight technical problem occured. They managed to drop the gun when loading it onto the barge! This again made the front page of the papers, It took 9 days to get it back out of the river. The two guns on HMS Thunderer, the first Royal Navy Turret ship, were also a nightmare. One was Double Charged, and blew causing 36 deaths. Following this the remaing gun was returned to Woowich for tetsing and never refitted. Reason I know this, I used to work at Woolwich and during the closure of the site did a lot of historical research for the decommisioning team. P.S the shells are not one ton. The Imperail Ton (The ONLY on ethat counted at the time) is 2240 lbs avouirdupois. The Colonials have trouble with thier Arthmatic My Lord!
Sorry I 'll try to clarfiy. The Shells wieghed 2000lbs In Imperial English measurment this is not 1 ton. An Imperial Ton is 2240lbs weight, so in England the weight of shell would be considered just under the Ton.
And imperial. Was also misspelled. Just saying. And testing. And arithmetic. And I think you meant two giants not to giants. And you left an L out of woolwich. Whole thing is kind of poorly executed. I'm sure you were joking but before you joke about us "colonials" and our math.... maybe proofread.
Brilliant video. After watching it, we visited Fort Rinella this summer while on holiday in Malta. Really interesting place to visit. The staff are very helpful and knowledgeable. Highly recommended a visit if you're in that part of the world.
If you like the technology that went into running this battery you'd probably like a trip to Cragside, the country house Lord Armstrong built for himself. It had loads of technological firsts and it's in a really beautiful part of northern England.
Actually, the Hungarian part AKA bean counters of the Austro Hungarian empire were the main reason they didn't have enough cartridges, good cannons, etc etc.
@@clungemagnet3388 not necessarily a problem. The officers were required by army law to speak more than one language in order to qualify for a commission, and many of the Slavic languages were mutually intelligible to a greater or lesser degree. The main issue was that the pre-war officer corps was essentially wiped out in 1914.
This was really interesting. Can't imagine the process in a rush when this was in action. I'm impressed if this thing actually took down a ship from a long distance. Aiming must have been a nightmare.
That accumulator is fascinating. I’d guess the reasoning over direct steam power was that this effectively stored the energy, like having a water tower
The accumulator was probably used as some sort of hydraulic capacitor because making a steam engine capable of directly powering the gun would have cost a lot more money and space, I doubt energy storage efficiency was a concern. The main feature of capacitors (whether they're storing water, electricity or something else) is that they can burst out really large amounts of energy whenever you need without any problem (where a steam engine could stall). So the water accumulators really fits machinery where you have short but strong and sudden needs of power (like moving the gun).
When you need a steam engine to load your cannon, no one is going to mess with you. When your range is measured in miles, no one is going to get close to you. When you need a bomb proof suite to fire the thing but don't have one, no one can accuse you of not having balls.
"There is no such thing as overkill, only varying degrees of certainty and I aim to be ABSOLUTELY certain." ...is what I like to say. I think this is an example of "Use more gun" was taken a bit too far.
They built this cannon to directly counter the italian cannons that could out-range the defenses already in place, so... no. They built this out of complete nessesity and it suceeded at keeping the italians away, the best gun is the one you don't have to fire at all. Or in this case is the one you fire 4 times a year to prove to your enemy that you can blast his ships out of the water the second they came over the earths horizon. So I guess you could say "The best gun is the one you never have to fire in anger"
It would cost 22,500 dollars to fire this once, at the current black powder price of 50 dollars a pound. A Toyota corollas curb weight is 2,315 lb, this gun almost launches a corolla each time.
Small mathematical note for you guys. If my information is correct, the standard rifle used by the British at the time would be a 1853 Pattern Enfield or the Snider Enfield conversion which used about 50 grains of powder. This cannon used approximately 3.15 million grains or about 63,000x the powder charge of a standard rifle.
"If you're interested in having this one yourself, there's a link in the description below to rock island catalog page"
Collection only.
two thumbs up for the lol
Built before 1889, so no FFL required.
Of course the law requires it be delivered with a 100kg red plastic plug in the muzzle.
Sold for $320,418 (handling & shipping cost not included)
New guy: Will i lose my hearing from firing this, sir?
Veteran: WHAT!?
I can relate lol
A friend of mine during WWII served on a Tin Can as a Yeoman (that means that he fired expert on a typewriter) and his battle station was a 105mm, the biggest piece on a Tin Can. Most of the others were 20mm. A 105mm at sea is the equivalent of a pea shooter. About useless unless you count using for antiaircraft. They never used hearing protection. They all became severely hearing impaired. The sound would resonate throughout the ship and affected everyone aboard.
@Clarissa 1986 ?
I think loosing one`s hearing was the least of their problems, I imagine anyone standing near would be turned int pulp when it fired :-D
And your teeth.
Meeting Ian in person and showing him around the Battery was amazing and so much fun! You are more than welcome back at any time! If you come to visit again we will have done even more to restore the Battery to it's former glory!
Best wishes and I hope to see a bunch of your fans come here and enjoy a day with us!
Thanks!
You have an exceedingly cool
Job 😊
What a great video thanks for your information you have a great job
Simon Gustafsson thank you for showing Ian/us around! It was really interesting.
Simon Gustafsson thank you for helping make this awsome video possible
I realise i'm spoiled when i half-expect him to shoot it..
Me too
I mean you can go there and fire cannons, just not that one sadly
It's probably worn out. 4 test fires/year times 20 years, plus a few extra tests, gets pretty close to a 100 shot barrel lifetime.
Yeah I felt entitled to lol
It’s no longer capable of being fired. Fort Rinella was left derelict for a number of years and thieves stripped the cannon for metal parts to sell for scrap. A lot of essential components were lost and cannot be replaced.
Disassembly is always the best part. It seems to have been forgotten this time.
@Roderick storey Not a musket. Its rifled
@Roderick storey Irony can be a tough nut to crack, right?! ;)
If you have a spare tactical nuke you can disassemble it yourself...
Wasnt enough space on the camera to do a 3 week long time lapse.
Imagine the size of -ballpoint pen- Universal Disassembly Tool it would have taken to do that.
If you ever ran out of ammmo for this cannon, you could load smaller cannon into this one and fire it.
Lol I would think a 30 pound parrot rifle barrel would do well as a long range projectile. Probably would have a high ballistic coefficient due to the shape.
Time the fuse just right and you could have it fire in midair! Oh, why did Mythbusters have to end...
moosemaimer Or the small cannon could fire first while inside, followed by a big one. This way you have 19th century full auto 150ton cannon.
Vadim Kavecsky best comment
Vadim Kavecsky
Hell yeah man. No more ammo, just load in a bulldozer.
I love how this gun literally has this absolutely glorious cutting edge hydraulic mechanism to load it and then there's literally a guy pulling a cord to fire it and destroy his eardrums
I wonder if they enlisted guys who were already deaf just to be the cord pullers
This really isn’t unusual at all. The modern artillery guns we use in the American military use a cord to fire. It’s so you can be far enough away to not get severely injured or killed by the gun recoiling. I’ve fired a 115mm recoilless cannon and it literally just had a button on the side that you slap
@@clownworld4655 Sure, but neither of those have a charge of some four sacks of black powder lmao
@@sohamsengupta6470 that makes zero difference. If anything the modern cannons are far more brutal
@@clownworld4655 You're telling me that the report of one artillery cannon firing is louder than four whole sacks of black powder?
Armstrong, The big guns seller: Well hello there, would you like to buy this 100 ton cannon?
Me: Yeah, sure but.. how am I going to load it?
Armstrong, The big crane seller: Well hello there!
Stonks
Apple of that time
And you’ll need a stand to hold your 100 ton cannon won’t you?🙂
of course, you will need to have a crew trained, one for firing and one for loading and one for maintenance, here are our prices for a full training course and literature.
Which is Ironic as Armstrong himself absolutely hated these guns, he much preferred working on smaller regular artillery.
Eighty years ago I was born about two miles away from that 100-ton gun and I spent my youth at Rinella playing with other children in that Fort, which in those days hardly anyone ventured to go there. Under and around the gun there is an underground area which is quite large and in those days some building contractor or the Military had housed all his building structural tools in there. We played about in that area for about 10 years with no one caring about its historic value. Very close by, there is a Fort Ricasoli and also the area where they have a film facility. I saw the water gigantic water tank being built for Raising the Titanic and also saw the model being raised. The level of the tank was such that it blended with the real sea at the background. The model itself was quite impressive. Also, I saw some scenario from "The Gladiator ". My brother has one of the air-cooled radial engines which they used at the film facilities to make storms and wind with it. It is a 550 Hp aircraft engine. There is so much to see and the historic places could be more appreciated by both the locals and the tourists.
Some years later at the age of 16, I went to Chatham Dockyard and then attended the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. I used to go to Bambrough Castle, which I learned that it belonged to Lord Armstong, the man who built the 100- ton gun and other armaments. Later on, in life I went to Barmbarough Castle where I was hosted by Lord Armstrong relations, his grandson I believe, but I am not sure. My wife, my daughter and I were given the run of the castle and it was a very pleasant surprise that I was treated so nicely by the relatives and descendants of Lord Armstrong who build the 100- ton gun, near which I still live to this day at Kalkara!
Thanks for sharing this. Long(re) life my friend. Cheers.
Bad ass! I live not too far from fort casey in WA state & its always fun to do turret crawls
Wow
@@TarmanTheChampion I am pretty sure every kid in Washington has been to Camp Casey. Flagler, Fort Stevens in Oregon, all so cool for any kid, no matter their age.
my father was from there and spoke of the Axis air raids when he was 5(ish)
grazzi hafna
Is it conceal carry?
Little on the big side for a concealed carry, maybe a truck gun?
I keep one of these under the seat of my old Dodge D100.
Not large enough for planetary defense so kind of concealed carry.
lel sup Jeremy
But does it take a glock mag
So, when does it go up for auction?
First, we have to find a 19th century steamer ship to transport it.
Jim Fortune Sorry, UPS refuses to deliver it saying it's too big...
Better yet, can I get overnight delivery on it?
@edi "While you were out, we left your packages with your neighbour Unintelligible Squiggle"
I dunno I'd check fed ex for the shipping cost
The escalation in guns afterwards was even more insane. The peak in naval artillery were the 9x460 mm guns of the Yamato class, each having a 150 ton barrel, firing a 13-ton broadside up to 42 km/26 mi. At up to 2 shells per minute, rather than reloading 6 minutes like this one.
It wasn't al *that* mad compared to this period, when you consider that the ships of the 1940s generation were 45,000 to 60,000 tons displacement, carrying these high-power 16s and super-heavy 18s, three to a turret - but the monster-gun design generation of the 1870s to late 1880s were 'mere' ten- to eleven-thousand tonners (Fourteen in the case of the massively-engined 'Italias'), carrying a quartet of these pre-nuclear megaweapons, making each piece a *far, far* greater percentage of the entire fighting machine's mass overall. The 40s behemoths were safely inside the day's envelope - these ones just tore through theirs with abandon.
“So we need a big gun”
“How big?”
“As big as they make them, then make it bigger”
"How big?"
"YES!!!!"
😄😄😄😄
Then there is the Schwehrer Gustav.
@@ammarokla7217 Yeah, being DOUBLE as wide as the whole SHIP these guns were placed on
An old saying , The British sailors loves their grog, while the French sailors drink Champaign, while Italian sailors stick to port.
?Hmm strange I thought the French drank Wine. :)
I do like how the English language is still full of low-level naval sass e.g. 'Dutch courage', 'Dutch tilt'
@freebeerfordworkers Er, it kind of was. As with 'dutch tilt' or 'dutch angle' referring to a skewed angle, usually used in films now. It implies drunkenness, as does 'dutch courage'. Brits took up gin pretty enthusiastically, but that doesn't stop it being a point of mockery. Also I suspect you're not from Britain if you think that respecting someone and taking the piss are mutually exclusive. See the number of military jokes and stereotypes about everyone from closest allies, to different branches of the British military who absolutely relied on one another, to their most dangerous enemies. No one is spared. If Dutch courage is alcohol, British courage is humour.
@freebeerfordworkers Origin and use are not the same thing. Listerine was invented for disinfecting floors but they found they could charge more if they sold it as a hygiene product.
If that was true, America would have been discovered a couple centuries later
"We missed the ship, Major!"
"Bugger! We'll just have to live with the tidal wave the missed shot created sinking it instead. Not very gentlemanly, but such is war"
Actually in war back then it wasn't unusual at long ranges to only hit your enemy once for every 100 rounds fired. so line of battle ships had a large number of guns, up to 70 per side. With the monster guns that came along 2 to 4 major calibre guns became the norm. One advantage the fort had was that it was elevated high on a cliff so it could fire down on the enemy, who due to limited elevation of their own guns, couldn't fire up at the fort. I think the calibre of the 100 ton Armstrong gun was 17.6 inch. A 2000 pound shell was about the same as a later 15 or early 16 inch breech loading guns
Half the crew would die from the sudden dehydration associated with terminal diarrhea seeing that shell coming towards them.
@@briananthony4044 Not so with this gun. Visited it quite recently, they have records showing that it achieved essentially a 100% hit rate on training shots against ships they put out in the bay. It being so static and predictable was a huge benefit.
@@briananthony4044 From what I´ve read, both sides in the battle of Jutland had hit rates of about 1-2%, so under battlefield conditions on ships, that "one hit per 100 shots"-rule held way into WWI
“If you have this shotgun in the garden, no one dares trespass” I really like that turn of phrase lol
@Knight-Sgt. Reyes it’s 2021. Nothing surprises me these days
This is the real life Death Star!
“Italia is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don’t worry, we will deal with your rebel ships soon enough. You may fire when ready…”
You fool! Deathstars are on the UK offensive weapons list!
"I will make it legal."
Good Luck!
Commie Hater no the deathstar laser is. You can have the death star.
R.I.P HMS Alderaan.
I've seen videos on this before, but everyone else only focused on the cannon itself. I agree with Ian here; the loading systems are the real magic of this installation. Brilliant stuff for the 1800s.
Armstrong had a house near Newcastle which ran on hydro-electric and hydraulics. Have a look at Cragside House on google.
@@jameswroe2403 I lived in rothbury a 2 min walk from cragside, its an impressive manor
"It was a really embarrassing experience for the Italian navy, and in fact it took them almost a decade to get over it."
Basically the entire military history of modern Italy in one sentence.
Clearly you didn't read Catch 22. In particular the passage about the cackling old man in the whorehouse.
They did well in the unification war though.
@@MrCmon113 Yeah, so good that Prussia said "Well, go f... yourself, Italy. Thanks for absolutly nothing." after the War ... ô.ô'
Even tho i'm italian i'll have to agree with you on that
Still we make food better than you
@Baron Von Grijffenbourg god i frickin'love you
The Battery Steele on Peaks Island in Maine had 2 massive 16 inch guns back in the 40s, and they only fired once as a test, but they broke every window on the island
That's great I love stories like this
Been there many times with my brother. The view from on top of the battery is absolutely beautiful
Can you imagine how LOUD this must have been....and because those poor Italians talk with their hands they wouldn't be able to cover their ears
@@keencolios591 Exactly. That is why they talk with their Hands.
@War Zone Caesar was stabbed 23 times
Lol
@War Zone That probably had more to do with celts living and breeding in Roman territory over the past 1500 years. Gestures were intregal to their language, and likely would have vestigial remnants as more celts had latin as a first language.
@War Zone Caesar died because he was traitor abusing the roman system to pay his debts and glorify himself at the expense of the very foundation of their republic.
The Ultimate Machine Gun..
This is the true definition of a Machine Gun,a gun that requires an actual machine to fire it.
Someone needs to let the NRA know so they can lobby some.shit and lawyer the AK back into existence
@@bruin1771 never gonna happen
@@liberationwasalie2982 a boy can dream a boy can dream lol. Honestly I'm not an individual whose concerned about over arching gun laws. There are enough storys about crazy finds of firearms stashes.
Any gun's a machine.
Is this gun required Form 10 to import to the US or transfer under
The bell boys at the hotels in Malta really go the extra mile.
Ἀντίγονος I was going to say theater usher.
Actually they go about 5 miles on a full charge...........
Gun designer sounds like donzi,selling boats to smugglers then to officials to catch the smugglers
Char Aznable he was was doing the same thing with ships too, selling to both sides. a naval arms race is good for business especially if you are supplying everyone.
That is the uniform used by the Royal Maltese Artillery in the Fort during the 1880s. The pill-box with a yellow band was used for stationed artillery while the ones with a red band was for mobile artillery.
This is even cleverer than I first thought - and I thought it was pretty damned clever already! The idea behind the water accumulator is that you can leave the entire thing ready to go, but cold. In the event of something occurring, you then fire up the steam engine. You have 4 shots before that thing needs to be in full steam. Otherwise you'd have to keep the steam engine fired up 24/7 for as long as you needed it to be ready. This way you wouldn't. Brilliant.
The accumulators store energy and release it in short bursts to carry out various tasks like operating the lifts and the rammers. Stationary steam engines of the time typically weren't powerful enough to drive anything substantial by themselves directly. A lot of old steam-powered machinery from that period such as swing and lift bridges, dockyard cranes etc. used hydraulic accumulators to provide stored energy when needed, using it up in short bursts at intervals. It's just that our normal vision of steam power from those times is of steam locomotives and marine engines and they obviously needed to provide power for hours at a time to keep trains and ships on the move. For jobs like this a small steam engine plus accumulators was a better bet.
Over five minutes in and he still hasn't lit it up yet. Was hoping for a ballistics gel test.
I am waiting for the mud test!
That's a different channel.
Give it to Paul Harrell for his meat target. He'll let us know if it fits his hand also.
:-)
LOOL was just thinking the same thing...
love how its playing "Rule Britannia" inside the reloading bay at 9:20
An incredible feat of engineering - especially the loading system - given the technology available. Absolute genius.
I'm pretty sure that none of that system was innovative, it was just big. I think the real tricky part would have probably been the construction of the cannon. there's a technical drawing of a cross-section of the cannon that shows that it's constructed of many interlocking bands of steel (or wrought iron, I'm not sure), and they all would have been huge and very difficult to shape and assemble. the machinery used in the factory to build the gun (furnaces, cranes, power-hammers etc) would have been much more impressive than the machinery required to operate the gun. you can find videos on yourube of factories forging giant steel objects. the machinery is extremely impressive, and it would be even more so if it had to be powered on site by coal-fired steam engines.
Pretty cool video! It's amazing how quickly land and naval large gun technology progressed up into 1940s. The 16" rifles used on the US Iowa-class battleships fired a 2700 lb shell using 660 lbs of powder, breech loaded, from a 120 ton rifled barrel soft mounted with recoil compensation, with a range of 24 miles and accurate enough to hit a target the size of an office building at maximum range. The barbette assembly including the turret mounting 3 barrels weighed 2500 tons.
The Iowas and indeed all of the big-gun battleships weren't that accurate -- here's a link to an actual "fall of shot" chart for test firings from BB-61, the USS Iowa itself after it was upgraded in the 1980s to use modern radar sighting and firecontrol systems (the NGFS). The "office building" used as a scale reference in the chart is the Pentagon in Washington DC, reputedly the largest such building in the world for a long time. 36,000 yards is just over 20 miles, not the theoretical maximum range of the 16"/50 guns.
fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/bb-61-dnsn8709176_jpg.gif
I suspect this was a "rigged demo" test with the Iowa stationary in reasonable weather conditions, not hammering along at nearly thirty knots in rough seas trying to engage an enemy force which was also dodging and weaving, making smoke etc. Really, WWII was the end of the big-gun battleships, most of which were sunk by submarine torpedoes and/or aerial bombardment from carrier-based aircraft which stayed well out of range of the dinosaur's mighty cannons.
The whole 100 years from 1820 to 1920 saw such huge leaps in technology, especially related to large and small firearms. It's literally mind boggling how quickly new systems were developed and then quickly discarded as even newer technology evolved.
I've spent 40+ years studying this era, and still feel I've only scratched the surface.
yeah just a turret weighted ~1700 t😅.
@@robertsneddon731 The Iowas very rarely fired on ships, they were usually stationary in a harbor firing at land targets throughout their service lives. If you listen to some of the reports from the soldiers in Korea and in Vietnam who ordered fire support from the ships, It will give you a first hand telling of how accurate those guns were.
The Maltese guide was excellent and helpful. Good for him. Fun video!
Agreed.
His english is pretty good, didnt really need subtitles even in the echo-less rooms
Robert Fritz - Okey 👍
Essentially, this was the Minuteman III missile silo of the 1880s.
R.C. Whitehead I love exploring the Nike missile sites in my area.
Ive heard Adidas is secretly working on something to rival them.
Along with Britians own Super Battleships HMS WArrior and HMS Black Prince, built in response to La Gloire. Warrior is in preservation at HM Dockyard Portsmouth along with other distingushed company HMS Victory and The Mary Rose. Warrior was outffited with 1836 Colt .36 revolvers (Check details for me folks!) Colt built a factory at Vauxhall in London to manufactuer them.
An excellent parallel. I wonder if men like Ian will be wandering around the ruins of missile silos in a century or two's time, talking about how impressive it was that they could deliver a few hundred kilotons of energy to targets five thousand kilometres away, considering the era... ?
5 km max range though.
"Modern Italian Naval Victories", the book, is about as long as "How to Boil an Egg"
Legend
@Johnny RoadTrain what?
Unless it's "navel victories"...those slick bastards know their way around bellybuttons.
And the best comment ever.
EVER!
Mmm naval rome empire command the world for 1000 years. Thats seems sufficiently for a book. :D american : people with short story and short memory . Lol
The framing the gun behind you before walking up and revealing how far away it has was and how big it is was perfect.
Forgotten weapons and Ian never cease to amaze me with the great content of there show. This was great.
Their
Charlie Scene thank you, please allow me to atone for my sins. I shall head off to my shed, and thrash myself soundly.
Andy Uk yeah why not
Let me point out some other mistakes, so you may further punish yourself
- Forgotten *W* eapons
- Th *eir*
- *channel*
Now change it before I kill you
Yeah Ben is absolutely right
19:20 "Hello, Italy? Our gun still works. Kind regards, Britannia."
That is the single best example of english cockiness anyone can come with
@@rogerpoca7428 lmaoo
Deference at its best!
Actually from tests done in La Spezia in 1876 It was found that the belt armor(22 inches thick hardened steel, made in France by Creusot) was effective protection from the 100 ton gun. To be fair the round cracked the belt piece but also shattered on impact. Since the rate of fire and accuracy was low the citadel of the ship was basically invulnerable.This could not be said about the belt armor of HMS Inflexible ,which ,while thicker was made of soft puddled iron and was easily penetrated by a 100 t gun in these simulations.He is saying pure hogwash 😂.
eight miles. EIGHT MILES. with black powder. good lord.
SuperAWaC Pretty incredible for sure, but it doesn't have a bayonet lug. Mark against Armstrong there 😕
It can actually shoot farther than that but 8 miles is the distance to the horizon. Supposedly.
theoretical range with max powder charge. Realistically at those times hitting anything at anything beyond point blank was pretty much a hail mary. The battle of Lissa (the battle Ian refers to at the intro of the video where the Italians got smacked) was fought at ramming distances (and I'm not kidding, there were several ships sunk by ramming), which points out how difficult it was to hit anything at any meaningful range.
It wasn't until the 1910s, with the new Fire Control Systems, rangefinders and mechanical plotting tables, that fighting at long range was a possibility. Even Tsushima was fought at pretty close range (using WW1 and WW2 standards, that is).
It's true that coastal artillery being land based (thus more stable and with finely and accurately prepared fire tables) had a much better accuracy than naval based guns. But even then, and by the 1880s, hitting anything of the size of a ship beyond a couple miles was more of a prayer than anything else...compound that by the fact that you're shooting once each 6 minutes and you have a real problem between your hands.
TL:DR: yeah, 8 miles theoretical range. Useless at anything but point blank. Sure that the gun looks impressive, but as for it's true usefulness, let's say it was...very limited.
ramjb You don't have to hit the target to make the cannon effective. They could fix a timed fuse on the end of the shell, which was filled with even more gunpowder, and have it detonating over, besides and even UNDER the target. The shockwave and the shrapnel would do the work without hitting the target.
An interesting fact is that not all the gunpowder would ignite and was launched forward. Maltese hunters would then go around in front of the gun and collect the gunpowder for their shotguns.
That museum guy is a legend, one of my favorite cameos 😂
Ian I don't think that's a support beam in that reloading hole, I think it's a "Keep those damn kids out" beam.
Yeah, probably.
I wonder if these were shipped in huge crates with ACME logos on them.
Beep beep
Instantaneous delivery ✓
* Gets squashed by a container *
Wiley E Coyote bought a couple of these @ acme surplus
Joni - Brilliant response!
I went to Fort Rinella a couple of years ago on my holiday to Malta and seeing the Armstrong Gun in person was unbelievable. The fort also do musketry, cavalry and artillery displays. The staff are highly knowledgeable and fantastic at bringing history to life. I’d definitely recommend anyone to go see it because I know I’ll certainly go again 😄
This was like having a tour in a museum, thanks for the experience Ian and the guy with a really cool Accent 👍😊
So, when's the mud test?
It's self-cleaning!
Why Jay r/whoosh
Legatus Lanius Bait or did you whoosh yourself
Umm , that happened when the gun was being shipped from Woolwich Arsenal to proofing at Shoeburyness. They manged to drop the gun off it's barge when loading. It spent 9 days on the bottom of the River Thames. The Times newspaer , AKA The Thunderer was not imprssed, the worlds most expensive gun dropped, and said so on it's front page.
@Snake in a Box 1
Mud test will commence when Karl arrives on site... and when they can get a ship filled to the gunwales with thick enough mud to do the test. Oh, and even then it might be delayed, as they'll have to wait for the army of drunk dudes with milsurp small arms (most likely the Varusteleka employees) to show up to cover the gun... since Ian and Karl might just have some trouble doing it single handedly in a timely manner with as big as that mofo is!
Thank you for the subtitles. Much appreciated. What a beast of a gun!!
As a Maltese, it's always cool to see some of this stuff get more attention!
Fun fact: the bridge shown at the very start of the video (to enter the fort), was originally a retractable bridge (basically the 19th century steampunk version of a medieval drawbridge), known as a Guthrie rolling bridge
Damn neat.
I love how this is all just literally steampunk. It gives some legitimacy to the idea. Plus is like to know more about these ww2 war rooms.
I'm just impressed by the lack of wind noise through the mic.
Shooting footage is missing.
XD the guy even said if they shot once it would destroy the windows in the near town XD so i hate to live next to the cannon XD
With that paint job, I think Ian's afraid to admit it shoots mustard instead of cannonballs. Maybe we can sell it to the place that holds the record for World's Biggest Cheeseburger?
I think the camera got crushed by the shockwave when Ian fired it.
Couple of things:
1) It's nice to see Robert Webb found a job in historical tours
2) The guy who pulls that string WAS the best paid soldier in the garrison, his payment was in firing the biggest derp gun in history to that point
God it really does look and sound like him
Hmm... black powder muzzle-loader? This cannon might actually be legal in California.
Depends on how many rounds the magazine holds...
Ghost cannon
No it's got a hundred-round magazine and therefore is clearly an assault weapon.
@@CruelestChris "assault"
@War Zone
Fortress cannons do. In the original meaning of magazine, as in "a room where the ammunition is stored." That are the joke.
"If you have a problem, use a gun, and if that don't work, use more gun"
This phrase is the meaning of this gun
When he was holding that wire at 6:11 I thought it was a firing wire and he was gonna light one off. Lol
A forgotten weapons video and a cup of coffee are the best accompaniments to breakfast.
The guy that had the job to pull "the string" must have gone deaf in 1 shot, or had been chosen because he was already deaf (or because his commanding officer hated him) XD. I cannot imagine the concussive force you would feel standing right by that monster. Probably shakes you to the core. The whole system has a Very, Very cool design especially for its age.
Brutal
The string-pullers probably had joint problems, cracked ribs, ruptured spleens, appendixes...
Mike F who actually AIMED the damn thing...???
@@taggartlawfirm right. The scale of the reloading system is impressive but how do you fine tune the accuracy of somthing that large?
What was omitted from the video is that the gunner who fired the gun hid in a little cut out in the wall to help reduce the percussive forces on himself. Still, it isn't something I would like to do. Also, when the gun was being test fired, residents in the area were advised to open their windows so that they weren't broken.
So wait. Your telling me they had ships with 4 of these things on them? H O L Y S H I T
A single volley I imagine would nearly flip the ship lol
humans have built a lot of angry boats
@@LaLloronaVT If they need to retreat they point the cannons to the back and fire away like the tank in Vice City
These were actually turrets a modern concept of cannons but not technically cannons these fired shells like howitzers the largest known cannon was an ottoman 110 pounder designed by a Hungarian engineer for Mehmet the conqueror the cannon ball itself was 110 pounds imagine the weight of the cannon it took 5 elephants to transport and 5 men to just load the ball oh and the dardanelles cannon was 1.8 ton and the ball itself was 1 ton lol
@@shukterhousejive pure gold 🤣🤣🤟🏻
“Ok”
-Ian McCollum, 2019
"Ok" x106
Guide: Says something about the Cannon
Ian: *OK*
Guide: yes, exactly
Take a shot for every Ok
@@ohhellno747 ok
I’m from Newcastle Upon Tyne where these guns were made, the site of the construction still exists, it’s a key feature on the scenery around the river Tyne and has built things from warships, aircraft, tanks to munitions.
Yeah, same, I'm fairly sure for a school trip I got to go to Armstrong's house and shit, and his rotating bridge is still in use today
@@kappatalist1014 Pretty sure it's also running on the original hydraulics. Just swapped the steam engine for an electric motor.
People build things, not places. And those people are all dead.
I too went to Armstrong's house, Cragside the first house in England to be run on electricity
derek watson I’m not sure but I think it was the first house in the world to be ran by electricity and have electrical lighting.
Everything about this was awesome. From the island itself, the hospitality and simon. The massive orchestra composed to keep that gun working was awesomely described. Ian, you were a pleasure to watch and listen to as usual ( i appreciate the fact that you weren’t constantly interrupting simon ). This was an awesome video. Thanks
OK
The Maltese are such cool people. I loved my visit there, great food, great wine and a cultural heritage the would put other countries to shame. ❤️ MALTA!
If my ears are not decieving me, the guide´s accent is swedish :)
@@magnusbrecha8466
I do believe your ears are deceiving you.
Guide definitely isn't Maltese (I'd know being Maltese myself)
"It would fire the cannon right into the fortification
[Note: this would be bad]"
My sides
What a great history, the British empire, the Italian nation, the Maltese island, its people and a very big gun, that island has a lot of history.
I love the fact that rule Brittania is playing in the background of the engine room
🇬🇧
•TheKaisTzar • 'The British Empire is eternal!' and it will rise again, stronger and more powerful than before.
British Empire will rise again,...< - - great they you can help more with standing up to Russia and China,... need all the help we can get.
11:30 my goodness the acoustics of that chamber are intense, it would be amazing to get impulse responses there
imagine what it would have sounded like in there when it fired.
"It would fire the Canon right into the fortification.
[Note: This would be bad]"
Lmao!
there is a turret, i think, in Gibralter where you can see where a gun fired into the side wall .
This note contains a big dose of britishness.
I read a quote of a british gunner who had a gun blow the back out of it, describing it as "unsettling"
Words like "tad" and "quite" "bother". A pitched battle as a "scuffle", demphasis is a big thing in the British armed forces.
GI: "We are facing certain death"
Tommy: "It is rather hairy isn't it?"
@@carbon1255 are you talking about Imjin?
@@jwadaow I can't remember I'm sorry.
9:00 The English harnessed the power of steam to drive the Industrial Revolution. The Italians thought of coffee.
The Africans first thought of coffee.
@@Ye4rZero But sadly not pressurised steam, thereby missing the punt when it came to industrialisation & subsequently missing the point of the original comment.
Well I mean, this thing is basically a colossal espresso machine.
Ye4rZero lol bud..
Teabag McPick Well, English tried to make a steam tea machine. They failed... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Have a good espresso people... 😀😎😘
Thank you for using subtitles, it makes is much easier to understand during the time in the echo-y rooms
The historical context provided in your videos makes them so amazing to watch. Thank you for conveying both the impressive engineering that went into each artifact but also the historical context that makes them important. Love your videos!
Is it just me, or would those be a PERFECT percussion instrument for the 1812 overture?
Actually I have used blank 450gm black powder charges in 25Lb gun at Woolwich for just that purpose. The windows across the river shimmered after firing. I asked the H&S Officr was she worried? Her reply was 'No that side of the river isn't my responsobilty'.
There are 16 cannon shots in the overture, all in the last 3 minutes if I recall correctly. With a 6 minute reload time, you'd need to have 16 of them for the performance. OR... just one and seat the audience REALLY close. That way, they'll be deaf and rolling around in pain and won't care that the performance ended after only one shot.
The ultimate flash-bang.
@@fuzzynurse 16 precisley timed shots! Thebells that acompany can be anywhere you like.
My ballistic calculator said ERROR when I tried to enter this cannons data in.
Shotgun in the garden, no one dares trespass haha
That canon is very impressive but like you I’m most impressed with the automated loading system I never knew anything like that ever existed thanks so much for sharing, just amazing
I have one of the ram rods in my front yard, it's holding up some power lines!
We went from:
"Hey, what's this string for? Oops!"
To:
"Hey, what's this button for? Major Oops!"
19:25 "shotgun in the garden;" I like that saying! I love how excited they both are about this leviathan.
hjp14 This cannon is one of the most amazing projects I've ever worked with! And to know that back in the 90s there were only volunteers working on its restoration is mind boggling. Now, almost 30 years later we are still not done, but we've grown so big thanks to our visitors and volunteers!
Simon Gustafsson Yes, it is a fascinating socio-historical artifact; everything is in such wonderful condition. Thank you for sharing the site and your knowledge with us! I'm sure you guys will have volunteers and helpers for a long time coming.
the sheer size of this is absolutely mind blowing, I would've loved to watch the firing process (but not doing the work)
Well, Ian actually did it. He finally found the most epic forgotten weapon ever made.
Fort nuts are familiar with the gun even if gun nuts aren’t.
“There was danger of shattering windows in the city alongside here.”
Makes me wonder how many injuries occurred just from operating the freaking thing.
In those times human lives were not so important.
Like in certain countries now.
I can answer that for you and it's a low number, 0 recorded injuries..It was never fired in combat, it only had 4 firings a year to make sure it was working/up to spec but what Ian failed to mention in regards to the 4 guns is this, only three actually survived at first due to the gun at the Napier battery being destroyed during fire trials, the crews operating that one were firing a shell every 2.5 minutes and cracked the barrel badly leading it to become too hard to hard to repair so they used that gun as foundation for a building...The gun at the Victoria battery was moved to replace it as the military deemed it a more effective site.
@@hans2406
It was 1880, not 2000 BC.
Worth keeping in mind that hearing loss wasn't considered a line-of-duty injury in those days, and I'm pretty sure the gunners involved in the regularly scheduled test firings would have suffered some.
@@hans2406 out with it. What coutries were you referring to and what's your political angle dutchie boy?
That thing is cooler than steampunk, because unlike most weaponry in steampunk, it actually works.
SteamDoomMetal
As someone who really has no interest in guns at all, (some interest in general history), I find Ian's presentations fascinating. It's not just the discussion of the weapon but the background and context that he can include that makes them so interesting. Showing their place in history, and this is an excellent example. That he is now being invited to places to show stuff is a testament to the quality of his presentations. Great stuff.
That place is a cornucopia of history that’s so damn interesting. Malta vacation is definitely on my bucket list. Thanks Ian!
Malta is great. Went for a week for £280. Mdina is absolutely gorgeous. Didn't get to go to any super cool stuff because I was with my bitch ex who complains at anything.
Definitely go though.
I’ve only stopped off in Malta for a couple of days when HMS CAMPBELTOWN was there in 2004, but I’d go back any day. Very interesting place. Beautiful also.
Great video. I travelled back in time and felt myself like a "steampunk gunner". Thank you
Well that was truly awesome! Thank you Ian, went to Malta as a kid but only got t see the Pop Eye village, not the amazing steampunk deathstar lol
2:18 there’s a cloud smiley face to the left of his head
That was the coolest thing I’ve seen on this channel ever. I agree, the loading system is the best part, and I also agree with the remark that to ordinary citizens in 1880 the whole thing would be like sci-fi. I try but fail to imagine what it must have been like to be within a mile of that thing when they fired it, and do I ever wish I could tour one of the ships that housed 4 of them. WELL DONE!!
A VERY good documentary. Everything is explained so clearly, and the pacing and detail of delivery explains everything very well indeed. Thank you!
The 100 ton guns were built at the Royal Arsenal Woolwich (Pronounced Wool-Itch) The Aresenal is on the south side of the River Thames, the Aresenal had it's own fleet of boats and tugs, with thier own Blue Naval Ensign. In addition there were two barges called Gog and Magog, after the to giants of the City of London. These guns were on the front page of The Times newspapers as the most expensive ever built. The proofing of the guns was done at Shoeburyness at the rivers mouth. In order to get there they were shipped on the barges, when a slight technical problem occured. They managed to drop the gun when loading it onto the barge! This again made the front page of the papers, It took 9 days to get it back out of the river. The two guns on HMS Thunderer, the first Royal Navy Turret ship, were also a nightmare. One was Double Charged, and blew causing 36 deaths. Following this the remaing gun was returned to Woowich for tetsing and never refitted. Reason I know this, I used to work at Woolwich and during the closure of the site did a lot of historical research for the decommisioning team.
P.S the shells are not one ton. The Imperail Ton (The ONLY on ethat counted at the time) is 2240 lbs avouirdupois. The Colonials have trouble with thier Arthmatic My Lord!
Sorry I 'll try to clarfiy. The Shells wieghed 2000lbs In Imperial English measurment this is not 1 ton. An Imperial Ton is 2240lbs weight, so in England the weight of shell would be considered just under the Ton.
About as much trouble as you have with your spelling. It's "Arsenal".
And imperial. Was also misspelled. Just saying. And testing. And arithmetic. And I think you meant two giants not to giants. And you left an L out of woolwich. Whole thing is kind of poorly executed. I'm sure you were joking but before you joke about us "colonials" and our math.... maybe proofread.
Typing not my strongpoint, then neither ifs football. :-)
51WCDodge their arithmetic* 😁
Brilliant video.
After watching it, we visited Fort Rinella this summer while on holiday in Malta. Really interesting place to visit. The staff are very helpful and knowledgeable.
Highly recommended a visit if you're in that part of the world.
If you like the technology that went into running this battery you'd probably like a trip to Cragside, the country house Lord Armstrong built for himself. It had loads of technological firsts and it's in a really beautiful part of northern England.
"A double-barreled shotgun is all you need to defend yourself from the Austro-Hungarian Empire." - Joe Biden, 1866
Actually, the Hungarian part AKA bean counters of the Austro Hungarian empire were the main reason they didn't have enough cartridges, good cannons, etc etc.
They actually sucked pretty bad in WW1.
Joseph James because all the men spoke different languages
I don't think this gun was for the general public to use... it's like saying we all need nuclear bombs for home defense
@@clungemagnet3388 not necessarily a problem. The officers were required by army law to speak more than one language in order to qualify for a commission, and many of the Slavic languages were mutually intelligible to a greater or lesser degree. The main issue was that the pre-war officer corps was essentially wiped out in 1914.
the bob ross of artillery. nice video, ian.
Kemeta 44 firing a 100 ton canon for when making a shitty painting can't relief your stress
Too bad the other happy little cannon in this fort didn't survive...
*because everyone needs a friend*
happy little accident with this thing would be interesting
Oh,.. the other happy little cannon guy survived,... they had a fight and he's about 8 miles away, over on the horizon. LOL
This was really interesting. Can't imagine the process in a rush when this was in action. I'm impressed if this thing actually took down a ship from a long distance. Aiming must have been a nightmare.
As was explained, it was never fired 'in anger', only test-fired a few times.
Thanks dude.. you're really good at finding interesting weapons and explaining the history behind them. Really appreciate your effort!
74,511,940 foot pounds of muzzle energy. Suitable for dangerous game.
Made for hunting krakens.
You forgot a word. Suitable for vaporizing dangerous game.
foot pounds? Seriously? Those are units from, well, let's say even before this cannon was built
+Ronald de Rooij Also how does distance/weight become distance^2/time^2?
Foot pounds could at best be describing tourque, not energy.
And yet, ft/lb is also a unit of kinetic energy.
"OK" - Ian
lol
Wow. What an immense infrastructure. Such an awesome piece of history. Thanks for all the cool videos, everyone!
That accumulator is fascinating. I’d guess the reasoning over direct steam power was that this effectively stored the energy, like having a water tower
its like a mechanical battery charged with water. brilliant.
That was slick, and didn't he say 950 psi? That is some serious pressure. Nice system !!!!!
The HP of an accumalator over that of existing steam engines was enourmous, .
The accumulator was probably used as some sort of hydraulic capacitor because making a steam engine capable of directly powering the gun would have cost a lot more money and space, I doubt energy storage efficiency was a concern.
The main feature of capacitors (whether they're storing water, electricity or something else) is that they can burst out really large amounts of energy whenever you need without any problem (where a steam engine could stall). So the water accumulators really fits machinery where you have short but strong and sudden needs of power (like moving the gun).
The victorian engineers used accumulator hydraulic power on lots of massive machines. It is a technology that may find a use in modern times.
When you need a steam engine to load your cannon, no one is going to mess with you.
When your range is measured in miles, no one is going to get close to you.
When you need a bomb proof suite to fire the thing but don't have one, no one can accuse you of not having balls.
this is about the equivelant of the gustav rail gun but back then
Zenas Starchild no one can accuse u of not having balls until after you fire it when it blows your balls off
Yay, more details! Been waiting for this since I saw Lindy's video on it, and found out that Ian was in Malta!😁😁
Fantastic video. How they managed to build that in those days is totally beyond comprehension. Thanks to all involved for sharing.
"There is no such thing as overkill, only varying degrees of certainty and I aim to be ABSOLUTELY certain."
...is what I like to say. I think this is an example of "Use more gun" was taken a bit too far.
Theres no such a thing as enough killy
Even Orks would consider this damn thing too much dakka.
They built this cannon to directly counter the italian cannons that could out-range the defenses already in place, so... no. They built this out of complete nessesity and it suceeded at keeping the italians away, the best gun is the one you don't have to fire at all. Or in this case is the one you fire 4 times a year to prove to your enemy that you can blast his ships out of the water the second they came over the earths horizon. So I guess you could say "The best gun is the one you never have to fire in anger"
It would cost 22,500 dollars to fire this once, at the current black powder price of 50 dollars a pound.
A Toyota corollas curb weight is 2,315 lb, this gun almost launches a corolla each time.
Hmm, not sure where you're from, but powder here is only about $18 per pound
Worth it
Dangerous Amoeba..... there has got to be a cheaper way of getting rid of your wife's car! LOL
Bah, mere change compared to launching a modern Harpoon anti ship missile. Latest version costs 1.2 million Dollars per unit.
It fires Volkswagens!
What a great mini documentary, the accumulator is amazing!! Thank you man, good job!! Insane statistics on this one. A friction lanyard !!??
Small mathematical note for you guys. If my information is correct, the standard rifle used by the British at the time would be a 1853 Pattern Enfield or the Snider Enfield conversion which used about 50 grains of powder. This cannon used approximately 3.15 million grains or about 63,000x the powder charge of a standard rifle.