William Hamblen writes:

On 2011-12-21, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:

I managed this one of a civil war cannon firing just by finger timing,
though. http://dd-b.net/cgi-bin/picpage.pl/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/2004/05010-Freedom-Day?pic=ddb%2020040501%20010-011.

I'm actually in front of that last gun -- but well to the side. I was
reasonably sure they weren't going to turn it quickly enough to catch
me. I'm not sure why *they* were happy with the setup, though. Then
again, doing that kind of demo in a public space (that's actually on the
state capitol lawn) it's hard to keep a clean firing line.

Here's my version of a cannon flash (my apologies if this doesn't work):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65942246@N03/6551282185/.

Very nice! I particularly love the jet from the touch-hole. I believe
gunners in the Royal Navy were trained to stop their touch-holes to
limit erosion by the gas gets (which must get exciting, given that
they're using carriages that move a couple of feet in recoil).

My brother was on the Federal battery on the other side of the field,
but they wouldn't let spectators up there and I couldn't get a shot
of him.

Simulating firearms combat gets really complicated; I'm glad I'm not the
one having to invent (and test) how to do it reasonably safely.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, ; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info