Any good books?

[Critch]

I've always been interested in how things come about. For instance, we know rifling works, but how did they find out that it works.....well,,,

I'm curious about ballistics, how did the science itself get started, who were the pioneers, and how did they figure out things like how fast a bullet travels before the days of modern technology.

So, are there any good histories out there?

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I spend a lot of time on www.howstuffworks.com ..it might not explain who started some of the things you mentioned but at times during the explanation it gets to that.....but another set of books I spend a ton of time with are 'foxfire'..now those do go back to how they made or did things before modern tec....not sure if any of these are of interest to you but just some food for thought...

"The origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest practical experiments seem to have occurred in Europe during the fifteenth century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the tail feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. Early muskets produced large quantities of smoke and soot, which had to be cleaned from the action and bore of the musket frequently; either the action of repeated bore scrubbing, or a deliberate attempt to create "soot grooves" might also have led to a perceived increase in accuracy, although no-one knows for sure. True rifling dates from the mid-15th century, although the precision required for its effective manufacture kept it out of the hands of infantrymen for another three and a half centuries, when it largely replaced the unrifled musket as the primary infantry weapon. In the transitional nineteenth century, the term "rifled musket" was used to indicate the novel weapon. During the Napoleonic Wars the British army created several experimental units known as "Rifles." These Rifle Regiments were deployed as skirmishers during the Peninsular war in Spain and Portugal, and were more effective than skirmishers armed with muskets due to their accuracy and long range. There is also an historic account of Rifleman Thomas Plunkett of the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles shooting General Colbert at a range of between 400 m 600 m (400 to 600 yards) during this campaign"-Wikipedia
6 months ago