TL3+1 Mechanical Artillery

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

A siege engine that needs relativity or quantum mechanics to be understood?

Shrodinger's catapult.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Certainly. Once I've found some engine which has enough range to make it worthwhile.

Depending what you consider enough range, that's going to be a challenge. Using materials available at TL 4, and limiting ourselves to TL 4 rope and bearings, you're going to be capped at around 250 fps for a range of around 2,000 feet. If you've got Essential Wood you can probably hit 400 fps for a range of a mile.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by teviet

To a physicists, "modern physics" is relativity and quantum mechanics, while "classical physics" is Newtonian mechanics, electrodynamics, and thermodynamics up to 1905.

TeV

Ah, I see. I'd throw in that tag about two disciplines divided by a common language, but too few historians know calculus.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Ah, I see. I'd throw in that tag about two disciplines divided by a common language, but too few historians know calculus.

I know there's a joke about differentiating between hard and soft sciences.
Anyone want to take the lead?

[teviet]

Originally Posted by Icelander

So, what I guess I mean with 'substitute' for cannon is something that can be used from a range to at least have a chance of damaging enemy vessels or kill some of their crew. Smaller pieces that can be used to suppress enemy wizards and larger ones that can be aimed at the mast in the hope of crippling the opposing vessel.

A research project on the Byzantine navy many years ago impressed on me how effective napalm is as a ship-killing weapon. Age-of-sail ships could blast broadsides at each other for hours and still sail away, but one good hit with a 5th century flamethrower and the ship would burn to the waterline. I never understood why incendiaries were not more widespread in early modern naval warfare, though lack of access to petroleum may have been a factor. (Though I haven't exactly kept up with the latest historical research on this.)

TeV

[Kraydak]

Originally Posted by teviet

A research project on the Byzantine navy many years ago impressed on me how effective napalm is as a ship-killing weapon. Age-of-sail ships could blast broadsides at each other for hours and still sail away, but one good hit with a 5th century flamethrower and the ship would burn to the waterline. I never understood why incendiaries were not more widespread in early modern naval warfare, though lack of access to petroleum may have been a factor. (Though I haven't exactly kept up with the latest historical research on this.)

TeV

I expect the two big reasons are that it is hard to project incendiaries very far (but see LT's Heated Shot) and that, more, the massively timbered Age-of-Sail ships that can resist cannon fire also don't catch fire that easily. Once they get going, they will be hard to put out, yes, but there are a lot of crew available to smother initial small burns caused by stray incendiaries.

War galleys, on the other hand, are glorified racing shells, and a lot of effort went into keeping the wood as dry (and light!) as possible.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by teviet

To a physicists, "modern physics" is relativity and quantum mechanics, while "classical physics" is Newtonian mechanics, electrodynamics, and thermodynamics up to 1905.

To an art historian, "modern" refers to a specific historical period in the evolution of art styles, one that has largely ended . . . roughly in the same period when the concerns of the Left shifted from science and industry to environmentalism, multiculturalism, and identity politics.

Bill Stoddard

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Kraydak

I expect the two big reasons are that it is hard to project incendiaries very far (but see LT's Heated Shot) and that, more, the massively timbered Age-of-Sail ships that can resist cannon fire also don't catch fire that easily. Once they get going, they will be hard to put out, yes, but there are a lot of crew available to smother initial small burns caused by stray incendiaries.

War galleys, on the other hand, are glorified racing shells, and a lot of effort went into keeping the wood as dry (and light!) as possible.

A deck-mounted flamethrower would make an incredibly bad place to catch a cannonball, also.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kraydak

I expect the two big reasons are that it is hard to project incendiaries very far

At least until you can make incendiary shells, which historically didn't occur until TL 6, though TL 4-5 shells could set things on fire. Also, you can't make incendiary shells without fuses, which pretty much would have to be made with gunpowder or a similar material.

Of course, plenty of lower tech combat was done at pretty short ranges, but the other flaw with a liquid projector is setting your own ship on fire.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by whswhs

To an art historian, "modern" refers to a specific historical period in the evolution of art styles, one that has largely ended . . . roughly in the same period when the concerns of the Left shifted from science and industry to environmentalism, multiculturalism, and identity politics.

Bill Stoddard

In literary criticism, Modern refers roughly to the period between 1900 and the end of WWII when the "modernism style" was most prevalent.