Kind: captions
Language: en
Today, the musket is seen as crude and
inaccurate, especially when compared to
modern guns. But is that
true? At Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New
York, historic firearms researcher Joel
Boy is finding out how effective the
musket was on the battlefield.
So, what we've got here is a British
pattern 1756 Longland musket, more
commonly known as the Brown Bess. The
Brown Bess begins use in about 1730. And
this type of gun would have been the
workhorse of the British army through
the 18th century into the 19th century.
Was an extremely important gun to
building the British Empire and used
through the American Revolution. But for
Joel, the best way to assess the musket
is not by comparing it to modern
weapons, but by testing its
effectiveness in battle 250 years
ago. To gain a better understanding,
Joel's team will fire at a ballistic
gelatin block designed to replicate
human
tissue, providing valuable insight into
how different projectiles can affect a
person's body.
With the aid of a slow motion camera,
he'll also try to answer a question. How
damaging could a musket shot
be? Finally, he will measure the speed
each round exits the barrel, known as
the muzzle velocity, using a
chronograph. Marksman Jay Waller will be
firing the guns.
First up, the musket with the 69 caliber
ball. Pulling the trigger instantly sets
off a chain reaction in the flint lock
mechanism. A stone flint strikes a steel
hammer. The impact creates sparks which
ignites the priming powder in the pan.
This ignition passes through a small
hole and sets off the gunpowder inside
the
barrel. The gas pressure produced here
propels the round out of the gun.
On inspection, it's a direct hit. You
can see where it traveled right through
the block and came out the other side.
Reviewing the footage, they can see the
horrific damage caused.
Wow. You see that ball zip right
through. Look at the cavitation in the
gel from that 69 caliber ball. When the
ball moves through the block, it
displaces the gel around it, creating a
cavity. This is known as cavitation,
similar to what would happen to living
human tissue.
devastating to bones and internal
organs.
The men on Lexington Green knew how
deadly these weapons were, but they
never had the opportunity to see the
damage in the way that we're seeing it
now.
Wow. Wow.
Yeah. certainly gives a whole different
appreciation and horror for what
happened.
The musket is clearly deadly. So why do
we see it as a primitive
weapon? Likely because of what later
guns can
do. Joel demonstrates this with the
modern rifle.
Oh. Whoa.
Look at
that. You can see the smoke from the
bullet.
The modern rifle's power is far more
terrifying. But what does the data
reveal? Using the chronograph, Joel and
Jay compare muzzle
velocities on the Nfield that is
2314 ft per second, whereas the musket
is 845 ft per second. So there's a big
difference between the two guns. But you
can really see the velocity when you
look at the ballistics gelatin
blocks. The higher velocity of the
modern rifle's bullet means it carries
substantially more
energy. When it penetrates the block,
much of this is transferred to the gel,
causing it to lift into the air.