In 1862, Georgia dentist, builder, and mechanic John Gilleland raised money from a coterie of Confederate citizens in Athens, Georgia to build the chain-shot gun for a cost of $350. Cast in one piece, the gun featured side-by-side bores, each a little over 3 inches in diameter and splayed slightly outward so the shots would diverge and stretch the chain taut. The two barrels have a divergence of 3 degrees, and the cannon was designed to shoot simultaneously two cannonballs connected with a chain to “mow down the enemy somewhat as a scythe cuts wheat”. During tests, the Gilleland cannon effectively mowed down trees, tore up a cornfield, knocked down a chimney, and killed a cow. These experiments took place along Newton Bridge Road northwest of downtown Athens. None of the previously mentioned items were anywhere near the gun’s intended target.
r*ddit

  • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    None of the previously mentioned items were anywhere near the gun’s intended target.

    Reading is hard.

    • colonelp4nic@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Kindness is also hard (and takes practice). I believe in both of our abilities to keep improving!

    • ahornsirup@feddit.org
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      3 months ago

      Which isn’t necessarily an issue if your goal is to hit somewhere in a line of charging infantry. Why you wouldn’t just use canister shot is beyond me, but accuracy isn’t much of an issue if your target is an entire enemy formation.

      • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s an issue if you need the chain to be stretched across parallel to the side by side group of soldiers charging at you.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        I don’t think you realize how much they missed by:

        “On its second firing, the chain shot across the horizon and into a thicket of pine.”

        So, you’d miss the entire army you were shooting at, and hit a nearby forest.