Comments on: Episode 55: Steam Cannon

By: Colin Gardner

Colin Gardner — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:56:22 +0000

If they ever get to re-visit it I would like to see the hot end of the barrel stuffed full of cast iron or something to give a lot more thermal mass.

By: Colin Gardner

Colin Gardner — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:54:47 +0000

Re; the steam cannon. Watched a repeat on UK television and I have to say I agree with Richard:
There was nowhere near enough thermal mass in the flash boiler. The latent heat (energy) needed to create the steam is huge compared to the specific heat capacity of the iron and steel used in the barrel.
Measuring the temperature of the fire and getting exited is a schoolboy error. It’s the heat not temperature you need to calculate.
.

By: Nityananda Chandra Das

Nityananda Chandra Das — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:36:37 +0000

this cereal story is a story where in cereal was fed to rats and the rats were more interested in the box then the cereal.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:23:11 +0000

A steam cannon can be made to work by simply adding a diaphragm between the steam chamber and the projectile. When the pressure builds up enough, the diaphragm ruptures and the projectile is shot out the muzzle. The diaphragm just needs to rupture before the barrel does. Why did it take so long to rediscover this application? We didn’t need gun powder!

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:38:17 +0000

I agree with Larry’s comment about a gas tight seal.
I also believe that the (relatively) thin walled SCH80 steel pipe would not have as much mass as a bronze cast cannon for example. The lower mass and hence lower thermal heat capacity of the cannon wall would mean that less thermal energy is available to instantaneously flash the water to steam. The temperature was hot enough but the total energy instantly availbale was not enough. Hence the injection of water would end up cooling the steel pipe rather than being flashed to steam.

By: Shadow

Shadow — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:36:32 +0000

Archimedes steam cannon..you guys didn’t actually find the cannon ball did you it was a plant right. When Jamie picked it up you could see the imprint int he dirt meaning someone had to drop it there. The crater left behind could not be from the ball rolling there…take a look back guys, cannon ball found BUSTED.

By: tiqq

tiqq — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:24:25 +0000

I´m thinking of a missing part:
What, if they added oil in the heat chamber and wait till it boils before adding the water?
Imho this should me more explosive.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:57:35 +0000

Re: the ‘busted’ steam cannon – seems the pair don’t remember from one cannon to the next that they have to maintain a gas-tight seal between the barrel and the ball. If the ball could roll out – there wasn’t a sufficient seal (hardly gas-tight).
Archimedes and DeVinci would’ve used cork or some other flexible material to seal behind the ball.
Mythbusters IS entertaining but hardly accurate.

By: Bruce Fast

Bruce Fast — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:33:27 +0000

Well, wikipedia struck out.

By: jamoecw

jamoecw — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:26:27 +0000

i beleive i saw a working replica of the steam cannon on the history channel. don’t know the details unfortunately, i’d bet there is more info on wikipedia about it.