- Messages
- 713
- Reactions
- 411
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQ4dE_RGnQ
I like it ;-)
I was looking at that and thought...you know, that's not much powder for what he's moving.
Looks to me like he poured in half a can of blackpowder - maybe a half pound. 1 pound = 7000 grains, so about 3500 grains.
To take a load I'm familiar with, a 168gr .308 bullet is often moved with about 42 grains of powder (granted, it's not the same formula but we're talking rough numbers here). That's a 21:1 weight
owder ratio.
In this case, he has a 200# anvil (200*7000=) or 1.4 million grains on top of 3500 grains. That's a 400:1 weightowder ratio. Even if he used a full pound of powder, that's still 200:1.
I'm guessing that the heavy weight of the anvil keeps the reaction contained for a longer time, allowing pressure to build very high. The pressure letoff has to be very immediate - the moment the top anvil lifts, the entire reaction is exposed and containment is lost in all directions (unlike a gun's barrel, where the reaction can only vent in one direction). So it must all just be that initial pressure containment, largely due to the top anvil's weight.
Well, that's my amateur speculation.
http://everything2.com/title/anvil+shooting
I like it ;-)
I was looking at that and thought...you know, that's not much powder for what he's moving.
Looks to me like he poured in half a can of blackpowder - maybe a half pound. 1 pound = 7000 grains, so about 3500 grains.
To take a load I'm familiar with, a 168gr .308 bullet is often moved with about 42 grains of powder (granted, it's not the same formula but we're talking rough numbers here). That's a 21:1 weight
owder ratio.In this case, he has a 200# anvil (200*7000=) or 1.4 million grains on top of 3500 grains. That's a 400:1 weight
owder ratio. Even if he used a full pound of powder, that's still 200:1.I'm guessing that the heavy weight of the anvil keeps the reaction contained for a longer time, allowing pressure to build very high. The pressure letoff has to be very immediate - the moment the top anvil lifts, the entire reaction is exposed and containment is lost in all directions (unlike a gun's barrel, where the reaction can only vent in one direction). So it must all just be that initial pressure containment, largely due to the top anvil's weight.
Well, that's my amateur speculation.
http://everything2.com/title/anvil+shooting
