WEBVTT - The Tech of 1510 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Cammeray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:18.080 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Greetings, programs, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.759 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette, and 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:22.680 I am an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.320 Sitting across from me as always a senior writer Jonathan 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.360 Strickland Hale and well met Vedge and tools. Oh well, 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.480 now that's a completely different era. Yeah, well that's where 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.360 we're kind of going. We're gonna start this off with 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:43.879 a little listener mail. This listener mail comes from Annette, 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:48.800 and a net says dear John and Chris, but especially John. Hello, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:50.720 my name is Annette, and I'm a listener of Josh 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.480 and Chuck's podcast. She left that bit out. I suggested 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.240 that they do a podcast about the Renaissance fair phenomenon 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.840 and creative anachronism. They referred me to you because you're 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.520 going to star in a Renaissance Fair. I understand that 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.240 this is not a typical tech stuff topic, but Josh 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.959 seems certain that you can work it in somehow. What 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.680 do you think by the way they say you guys 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.800 smell their words not mine best, Annett. Of course, I 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.000 think we've we've already fired back with the you smell 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.760 uh volley that that went up a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Frankly, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.959 I'm not sure how we evolved into you smell, No, 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.120 you smell, but I don't want to get into that. 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.200 They started it, they started it well, Annette, thank you 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.120 very much for the email, and yes it is true. Uh, 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:43.000 I am in a local Renaissance festival. Um, just so 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.440 you know, my character's name is Lord Admiral Edmund Vane 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.240 Glory the third as not a joke. And we're gonna 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:58.600 talk today about the tech of fifteen ten years ago. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.480 Does that mean we need to get in the machine. 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.520 Let's not do that because it would be an entire 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.640 episode in the past and I think Liz would kill us. 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.280 But we are talking about the the technology of fifteen tens, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.760 so let's set the stage a bit. Fifteen ten. King 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.360 Henry the Eighth has been on the throne for a 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:24.880 full year. Really he should never mind, No, not King 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:30.080 Henry the Eighth has ruled England for a full year. Uh. Yeah, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.640 he he was coordinated in fifteen o nine, got married 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:37.040 to uh to Cat his first wife, Cat. We're really close. 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.079 Actually no we're not, because he was divorced by the time. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.200 Well anyway, so fifteen o nine, fifteen ten, sorry, fifteen ten. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.520 We're what kind of technology was around at this time? 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:54.239 And can we really call it technology? One of the uh, 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.320 of course we could call it technology. I mean lots 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.360 of things are technology, they just don't seem like it 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.160 now that we live in an age where there are 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.920 lots of circuits and things that beep. I thought that 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:05.680 was an important point to make, and I'm glad you 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.480 made it. Um Yeah, because I mean, thinking back to 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.800 our what's better paper or digital podcasts? I was thinking, well, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.000 you know, paper is a technology. Before they had that, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:22.080 we really didn't have some kind of portable, lightweight method 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.960 by which information could be preserved like that. I mean, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:30.680 tables were not lightweight, nor were they particularly uh strong. 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.520 They didn't last forever, you know pretty yeah, yes, stone 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.280 is pretty sturdy. Well, not the easiest thing to write on. 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:40.920 Just just in making my point, I'll make this short. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.520 Thinking about things like data rot in where you have 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.600 a DVD or a CD that lasts fifty years or 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:49.640 something like that. A piece of paper with ink on 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:51.760 that if you protect it can last longer than that. 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.119 So these are I'm just saying, okay, so very good. 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.080 The tricky part I found in researching this is all 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.960 the stuff that was invented in fifteen ten. I really 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.200 it's kind of hard to find anything that was specifically 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.880 invented in fifteen ten, but that lost lots of technology 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.360 actually had been going on before that, because they in 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.640 Europe we were going through the Renaissance right right now 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.520 in England. Parts in England you would probably call this 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.680 the High Middle Ages because really you get into the 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.440 Elizabethan era, that's when you start talking about the Renaissance 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.800 in England. But yes, other parts of the world were 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.120 far more advanced than England at this point. In fact, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.960 if you look at places like China or or the 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.600 Middle East, they had made advances in technology that put 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.000 medieval Europe to shame. Um So, but we'll get into 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.160 some of that. Let's talk a little bit about some 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.520 of the things that you might have seen had you 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.720 been walking around medieval Europe in fifteen ten, the kind 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.520 of technologies you might encounter. All Right, So if you 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:55.120 were a sailor and you were in England in fifteen ten, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.400 and you were one of the King's favorites, you might 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.479 get a chance to serve aboard the fla bag ship 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.800 of what was the brand new Royal Navy of England, 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.159 the flagship being called the Mary Rose. Yes Mary m 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.440 A r y not m E r r y uh 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.039 named as far as we know, after Henry the eighth 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:20.480 sister then, and the Mary Rose was a fairly new 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.599 kind of vessel um in England at the time it was. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.480 It was had a carvel hull. Carvel hall, by the way, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.279 does not mean it was Fudgi the whale or cookie pus. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.760 It's not that kind of carvel Yeah, now I'm all 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.760 hungry a lot. Sorry. Um No, The carvel hall was 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.919 a specific way of building a ship previous to carvel 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:48.760 hall or the the the clinker ships. A clinker ship 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:54.320 was a made by making overland overlapping planks and then 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.240 you had a little frame that you could attach to that. 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.400 So the planks were the most important part. But the 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.159 carvel hull was used a strong framework and then used 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:10.400 planks that fit against each other, um in a more 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.440 or less a seamless fashion. Um. They weren't really possible 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.960 until you invented the saw. So it turns out the 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.560 saw was very important as far as the development of 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:26.200 naval warfare is concerned. High technology. Yeah, So you would 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.400 put these planks next to each other, you would calk them. 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.000 So that's water tight. Also very important as it turns out, 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:36.760 for boats, and it provided the opportunity to introduce watertight 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.039 gun poarts also very important. So the gun ports. That 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.520 allows you to put the guns closer to the the waterline, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.120 you know, and you could close the gun ports and 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.400 you uh they were since they were watertight, you didn't 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.640 have to worry about water coming into the ship and 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.440 having a capsize. And uh that was that was actually 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.599 really important in that if you wanted to carry a 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.280 lot of guns on your ship, you couldn't just them 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.119 all on the deck. If you did, then that would 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.360 make the deck, it would make the ship top heavy, 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.599 so whenever you would turn, you would have the the 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.200 the danger of capsizing. This actually happened. There was a 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.000 a ship that was built about fifty or sixty years 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:21.200 before the time we're talking about, where it was the 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.280 most magnificent ship you had ever seen, tons and tons 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:25.960 of guns on it. They put a whole bunch of 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.280 men on it launched it immediately at capsized sank everyone 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.480 died because it was too top heavy. Now, the mary 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.360 Rose had a different design where you could have guns 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.000 on the deck and guns on a gun deck beneath 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:45.360 the the deck deck de yeah, okay deck and this 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.320 this was that sounds like it's kind of you know, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.480 basic stuff, but this is the sort of technology that 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.760 that Europeans began to depend upon in naval warfare, which 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:59.520 started to play a larger role from about fifteen onward. Um. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.680 And when I say that the mary Rose was the 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:03.960 flagship of the British Navy, you should keep in mind 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.360 that the British Navy at that time consisted of about 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.720 thirty ships total. Yeah, and a lot of those were 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.800 merchant ships that had been conscripted into the navy. You know, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.840 cannon at that time were not made of cast iron. 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.400 They were made of wrought iron and bronze um. But 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.080 they did have exploding shot yes um, which would I 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:27.800 imagine be pretty nasty if you happen to be on 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:29.800 one of the other ships. Yeah, it's not something you 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:33.240 want to get hit with. Uh. And and bronze cannon 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.400 they were lighter than uh, than your iron cannon, but 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.680 they were much more expensive than iron cannons. Uh. So 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.959 you again, it would depend upon the wealth of the 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.400 nation or ship owner as to what kind of cannon 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.200 would be on that ship, as well as the the 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.760 seaworthiness of the ship itself. I mean, if a ship 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.360 couldn't carry that many iron cannon, they might choose to 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.480 spend the money need to get the bronze cannon instead. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.320 And of course those those cannon were more likely to 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:11.680 be a matchlock. Yeah, let's let's talk about matchlocks for 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:16.199 a second. It's an interesting technology. So before the matchlock 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.600 was invented, the way that guns worked in the Middle Ages, well, 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.800 the earliest guns were essentially just a barrel with a 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.600 hole in them on on well, you know, a little 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.120 hole drilled at the top of the barrel on the 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.160 the the end that the gun that the shot does 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.800 not come out of handle basically yeah, where the stock is, yeah, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.320 or where the stock would be if we're talking, Yeah, 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.960 that's true, because we're not talking about about personal weapons. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.480 We're talking like a cannon cannon. There were some handheld 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.040 weapons as well, but they were very difficult to use 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.120 and required more than one person generally, Yeah, because you 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.360 couldn't just yeah, exactly one hand. We haven't gotten to 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.719 that part. We're gonna get to that part. So you've 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.199 gotta you've gotta hold drilled that end and uh, this 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.240 is where you would put a burning wick through the 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.680 whole hole to ignite the gunpowder that's inside the barrel. Yes, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.360 because the shot is uh you know, closer to the end, 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.959 the other end of the barrel, um and you have 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.480 the gunpowder behind that pelt. Yeah, So the gunpowder ignites 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.040 and as it ignites, it gives off quite a bit 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.960 of gas, and that gas is what expels the shot 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.679 from the barrel. Uh. So that meant that you had 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.959 to have at least one hand to hold a a 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.040 lit match or a wick of some sort to insert 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.520 it in the hole. Which does mean that if you 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.760 are just one single person and you have one of 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.000 these rifles, you only have one hand to aim it 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.320 with while you're using the other hand to light it. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:49.240 It's not the most accurate weapon. The matchlock kind of 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.839 made this, uh, took that out of your hands and 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.920 put it into a mechanical hand, so to speak. I mean, 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.640 there was a there was something called a serpentine, which 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.199 is an S shaped trigger and basely uh. At one 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.760 end of the S you have your match and at 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:05.679 the other end is where your finger goes, and when 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.520 you move it, it basically pivoted in the center, so 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:10.960 that when you pull the trigger, it would bring the 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.600 match down and that would you know, and the flash 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.400 pan and it would set off the charge essentially. So 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.720 the way the flash pan works is that, you know, 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.560 we talked about that that earlier example, you had a 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.240 hole that you had to put the match through. The 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.760 flash pan takes that part out of it. The flash 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.760 pan holds a small amount of gunpowder that then leads 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.680 from right, that leads in through a hole in the 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.920 barrel to a larger charge of gunpowder. That's the part 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.920 that actually propels the shot. And by lighting the flash pan, 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.640 the you know, it's like those old movies where you know, 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:45.520 you light the one end of the gunpowder and it 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.160 goes down the line and the lights the big barrel 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.640 at the end, singing sort of concept, except into much 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.600 smaller space. You're you light the flash flash pan, the 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.520 gunpowder lights through the hole in the barrel. Lighting the 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.360 main charge in the barrel of the gun fires off 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.080 the shot. So, yeah, the matchlock meant that you just 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.640 pulled the little trigger and it would bring the the 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.560 lit fuse in contact with the flashpan. Eventually, you would 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.360 get a flashpan cover over that that would also be 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.320 hooked up to the trigger, so that when you pulled 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.000 the trigger, the flashpan cover would slide out of the 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.920 way as the fuse comes down. And that was important 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.760 to protect the powder because, of course, if the powder 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.480 were to get wet, yes, that's a problem, your gun 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:35.600 was useless exactly. Yeah, so even foggy conditions could mess 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.559 up the effectiveness of a gun. And when we talk 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.920 about guns, we're talking mainly we're talking about cannon. We're 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:46.280 talking about the arquebus um, which was a a personal 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.480 weapon you could it was essentially the the precursor to 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.640 the musket and uh, which of course is precursor to 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:59.120 the rifle, and it ended up revolutionizing warfare. Yeah. Well, 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.000 the arquebus all so had a some people called it 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.319 a heck butt because it had a basically a little 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.400 hook on it. And uh, what would happen is, you know, 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.720 castles were sort of going through a technological change too, 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.760 because now that uh, people were beginning to use firearms, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.920 personal firearms, not just cannon. Um. You know, they needed 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.560 a way too. They had all these arrow slits in 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.440 the walls of the castle which needed to be you know, 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.520 which people needed to use for their firearms. So the 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.520 thing is is, as you mentioned before, Jonathan, they the 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.320 powder and these weapons gave off a lot of gas 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.080 and had you know, packed a bit of a wallop. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.959 We're talking about a you know, recoil, and so that's 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.000 what the hook was for. Basically, you'd use the hook 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.000 to hook over the uh the stone wall of the 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.760 castle to keep it from you know, knocking you back 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.520 as you fired the weapon wall of the castle. Uh. Yeah, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.880 castles actually ended up becoming both castles and armor became 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.520 less and less important as gunpowder became more important because 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.520 they didn't provide much of a of a protection and 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:15.240 so uh, countries had to readjust the way they conducted warfare. Um. 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.400 And it wasn't like the old days where you just 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.600 got a bunch of people all in various kinds of 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.440 armor and then had them clashed together, or you hold 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.800 up in a castle and tried to wait out a siege. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.840 You couldn't really do that in an arrow where the 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.480 basic weapons could punch holes through your walls like there 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.440 were nothing. Yeah, yeah, that's true. You know. It kind 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.200 of bummed out that we didn't get to talk in 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:41.760 great detail about flint lock and the wheel lock mechanisms yet. No. No, 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.160 although the wheelock apparently was developed around fifteen fifteen, so 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.880 it's not much in the future. And depending on who 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.880 you asked, they might say that flintlocks were around. But 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.160 really flintlocks, I mean, people didn't document stuff is accurately. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.480 It turns out it turns out the guy didn't wake 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:03.200 up and July fourteen invented the flintlock. Today that doesn't 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.040 turns out that didn't happen. But interesting bit of trivia. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.800 I found out the reason that these are called fill 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.000 in the blank here lock was because locksmiths used to 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.000 work with a lot of them mechanisms similar to what 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.960 you know the kinds of technology used here. So if 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.960 you wanted these things built for your weaponry, you would 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.440 consult with a locksmith who would work on the little, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.040 tiny little pieces that you would need to add to 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.080 your firearms. That makes it interesting. Yeah, it makes sense, 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.280 you know, because you think you know that there were 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:40.480 no our definitions hadn't really taken effect there. We don't. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.640 We don't have the same things like engineers the way 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.120 we have engineers. Now, you had philosophers, you had scientists, 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:51.520 a various uh rudimentary sciences at the time, although again 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.080 if you go to the Middle East they were much 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.240 further along and in China as well. Uh. Well, I 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.440 was gonna talk also a couple of other things that 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.920 are related to guns. Oh yeah, because because we're gotting crazy. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.680 Um well, it was. It was awfully prominent too. Yeah. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.920 A lot of the technology in the Middle Ages dealt 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.040 with warfare. Yeah, I mean it just that was you 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.320 think about invention and uh you know the whole necessity 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.920 driving invention. Well, in the Middle Ages, it was pretty 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.560 much necessary for you to be able to attack and 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:23.040 defend um, because that's pretty much what the entire history 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.760 was about in large part. So one of the interesting 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.680 things that made cannon very possible actually a couple of 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:37.400 different inventions. One of them was the trunyon. Trunion is 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.280 a fancy word for the posts that stick out the 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.320 side of a cannon that allow you to change the 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.800 elevation of the cannon. Oh. I figured it was a 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.520 combination of a truffle and an onion. No, but that 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.320 does sound tasty. Now this, uh, this was just what 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.400 allowed you to pivot a cannon upward or downward so 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.040 that you can name it instead of it just pointing 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.480 in a direction hoping that that's good enough, right, um. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.280 And then you had limbers. Limbers are these two wheeled 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.119 devices that you could hook up to a carriage. You 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.000 would mount a gun on them, and it just made 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.600 it easier for you to um to transport artillery. That 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.879 was another big change by this time in the Middle Ages. 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:20.800 Earlier in the Middle Ages, if you wanted to lay 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.680 siege to a castle, you either had to have large 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.359 artillery pieces that you could assemble once you got there, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.960 or you were using things like um trebisches or even 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:37.040 if you're using even older technology ballista and catapults. And 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.119 just so you guys know, uh, those are technologies that 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.840 use basic physics to propel a projectile a very far 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.480 away with a lot of force. These days pumpkins, yes, 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.960 so like a catapult would use uh rope, yes that 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.240 had been wound very tightly a skein. Actually it's wound 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.119 very very tightly, and that would be enough to you. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.480 You know, you stick one end of the catapult through 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.960 that that rope and then you wind it really tight, 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.199 and that provides the tension that when you release it, 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.359 it makes the arm go up until it hits arrest, 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.080 and then that propels a projectile. Ballista used two of those. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.120 It looked like a giant crossbow, but in fact used 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:23.439 two um uh skeins to propel a projectile. And then 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.800 the trebuche was a little different. It was a sling 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.080 on the end of a long arm. Um it was 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:29.720 actually a lever, So he had a long end of 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.000 the lever which had the the sling attached to it, 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.000 and then on the short end you had a counterweight, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.760 a very very heavy counterweight, and when you released the 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.240 the mechanism on it, the counterweight would fall down, propelling 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:46.159 the long arm up and flinging whatever the projectile was 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.880 in the direction of your target. And those were all 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.880 the older forms of projectile weaponry that essentially got phased 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.280 out once cannon became a real player in the Middle Ages, 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.080 but you probably still saw a few of them in 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.720 depending on where you were. Um, so are we done 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.359 with military type stuff? I was going to talk about 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.040 plate armor. You want to talk about plate armor just 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:20.160 a little bit. Go ahead in the iron is still king. Yes, 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.359 you're gonna see a lot of iron armor. You're not 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.920 going to see very much steel. Steel was being made, 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:29.000 but it was incredibly difficult to make. UM. To make steel, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.200 you had to heat iron up quite quite hot, introduce 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.560 carbon into it, but not too much carbon, because if 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.600 you put too much carbon in it, you got pig iron, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.800 which is not great for armor. As it turns out, 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.160 kind of shatters um details one enough carbon in there 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.240 to make the iron hard, but not so much that 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.080 it becomes brittle. Has to still be malleable. So steel 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.840 is actually pretty complicated. It's really expensive. UM. Most armor 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.159 is made out of iron. But at this point you 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.880 do see full plate suits of armor, and full plate 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.480 that means that there's there these various hinged plates that 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:09.720 cover the entire body UM that provide as much freedom 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.840 of movement as possible while still providing as much protection 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.919 as possible, and full plate armor depending on you know 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.439 what kind of the quality of the iron or steel 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:24.399 that was used to make it. Could even ward off 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:30.160 a shot from an arquebus at the right range if 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.359 you're right up close to someone, chances are that SHOT's 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.520 gonna go right through the armor and into you, which 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.720 is bad news. But um, but that's still in. It 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.400 was still fairly common to see soldiers wearing this kind 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.200 of armor because the guns had not reached a point 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:52.680 of sophistication where they had rendered it completely obsolete, and 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:54.560 Henry the Eighth himself was known to wear it quite 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.800 a few times. He actually entered a lot of attorneys 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.000 um secretly in fact, uh, in fact, I think a 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.879 year after he was coronated, he entered a tournament in 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:10.040 secret and gained quite a bit of respect because he 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:16.160 was a very gifted combatant. Wow, yeah, I had no idea. Yeah, 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.960 not a great wrestler. But King of France beat him 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.480 in a wrestling match that was at the the Fields 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:30.760 of Cloth and Gold. Alright, now I'm done with the 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.760 military stuff, okay, Because one one technology that I found 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.879 that was apparently created fairly close to fifteen ten was 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:44.520 the watch. Yes by Germany's Peter henlen Um. He was 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.040 in a Nurnberg, Germany and um, which at that point 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:53.920 wasn't technically Germany because Germany didn't technically exist as a country. Um. 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.800 But some people say that I actually I had seen 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.399 reports that it was in fact invented like the pocket 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:05.160 watch invented in but there appeared to have been prototypes 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.720 existing as early as maybe fifteen o five or so. 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.760 That's pretty close. And again, this is something that I 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.919 think of is having been around since, you know, forever 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.520 and ever, so to speak in the case of this. 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.639 But uh no, the the watches starting to make its 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.640 appearance around the early sixteenth century, I imagine they would 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.440 be very expensive and probably not very reliable. And the 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:32.080 secret to the watch was the fuse, which is uh 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:34.560 this is a little complicated. It's kind of hard to explain. 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.160 But a watch is the thing that powers these classic 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:42.840 watches as a spring inside the watch, and uh around 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.320 the spring is a barrel. When the spring is wound tight, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.040 it then turns the barrel. So attached to this barrel 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.920 is a little chain. The chain goes to a cone 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.760 that has um grooves in it. Yeah, all right, So 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.199 the attaches to at the top of the cone and 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.359 the chain winds around all the way to the base 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:07.119 of the cone. All right. As the spring unfurls and 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.879 the barrel turns, it pulls the chain from this Uh, 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.159 this fuse, this cone and the chain goes from the 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:16.960 top down to the bottom. And once it gets to 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:20.080