31–40 of 80 posts
I've lived in Dubuque, IA (there's a picture of our shot tower in the article) my entire life, and assumed that everyone knew what these were. It's a iconic symbol in our city's history. I guess I took them for granted.
Ok, I get it, not HN material. But, write a blog post about creativity and simple solutions in startups, using shot towers as an illustration, and boom goes the dynamite. This post requires us to use our imagination and extrapolate to get the point, I guess.
On top of that, I learned how to make metal spheres with physics,some history and saw a bunch of pretty pictures of old towers. All in all time well spent.
In my recollection, this is one in Austin, TX: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=119%20West%208th%20Stre... I may be wrong though. I wasn't able to find any references about it easily.
In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment... A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter. Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally inter…
While it may not be news, and it may not be immediately useful or directly applicable, I found this a fascinating process, and a good illustration how something very simple can be a very effective solution.
In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment... A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter. Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally inter…
I'll take it over another self important blogger's take on the NSA. I found the article to be interesting and enjoyed it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While it may not be news, and it may not be immediately useful or directly applicable, I found this a fascinating process, and a good illustration how something very simple can be a very effective solution.
Side (but on-topic) note: I don't necessarily agree that building a 49 m tower to make tiny shot balls is "a very effective solution".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While it may not be news, and it may not be immediately useful or directly applicable, I found this a fascinating process, and a good illustration how something very simple can be a very effective solution.
Side (but on-topic) note: I don't necessarily agree that building a 49 m tower to make tiny shot balls is "a very effective solution".
Interesting. And here I thought they were all made by hand. I guess shot producers aren't nearly the highly patient and dextrous craftsmen that I made them out to be.
Skill, but not a great deal if it, is definitely involved, and of course patience as you make then two by two.
Shot, on the other hand ... well, my family has been reloading shot shells since the '70s or earlier (my father has casks of Hercules smokeless powder from plus or minus WWII that he's still using), and the regular charge of shot for a 12 gauge shell is 1 oz plus or minus a little. So let's go for the reasonable worst case, dove, which are as about as small a game bird as is practical, and they require a lot more shooting at than the bigger birds because you generally conceal yourself in a location between sources of food and water, so you've leading them in a way which is particularly difficult.
A single 1 oz load would be 337 pellets of #8 shot. It's usual to go through more than one box of 25 per season ... so, oh boy, would that require "highly patient and dextrous craftsmen", and this activity of both sport and procuring tasty animals would be way beyond the reach of the working class.
(Math is fun.)