Just a hunch, but I'm guessing they didn't take into account that (a) round cannonballs can "skip", and (b) when fired from an unrifled barrel, round shot gains an unpredictable direction of spin. The end result was the shot skipping off the hill (or the ground in front if they had it aimed too low) in an apparently random downrange direction.
It's a little surprising, given their general level of esoteric knowledge, but at the same time it's not too surprising, considering that very few - if any - people today have any experience or practical knowledge in live-firing those types of weapons.
From the sounds of things, they took every reasonable precaution (using a military artillery range, LEO supervision, multiple backstops, etc.), so I would hope they're safe from lawsuits. I would also, however, hope that they and the Discovery Channel man up and cover reasonable repair and replacement costs for the people whose property was damaged.
2 comments:
Just a hunch, but I'm guessing they didn't take into account that (a) round cannonballs can "skip", and (b) when fired from an unrifled barrel, round shot gains an unpredictable direction of spin. The end result was the shot skipping off the hill (or the ground in front if they had it aimed too low) in an apparently random downrange direction.
It's a little surprising, given their general level of esoteric knowledge, but at the same time it's not too surprising, considering that very few - if any - people today have any experience or practical knowledge in live-firing those types of weapons.
From the sounds of things, they took every reasonable precaution (using a military artillery range, LEO supervision, multiple backstops, etc.), so I would hope they're safe from lawsuits. I would also, however, hope that they and the Discovery Channel man up and cover reasonable repair and replacement costs for the people whose property was damaged.
Or, from the 'misfire' comment(if accurate) it may have fired somehow before it was properly aimed.
I doubt there'll be any problem with damages being covered; at least I hope Discovery isn't stupid enough to argue about it.
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