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Wow, that is a hell of a way to clear brush

by douche 10y ago

mirimir 10y ago
For sure 8-O Creating farmland in traditional ways is very destructive. But then, permaculture was also developed in Australia :)
- mirimir 10y ago
  Gruesome factoid: Balls and chains were a common cannon load for clearing infantry, ship sails and rigging, and other diffuse targets. So this was arguably a straightforward adaptation.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    Not really, I think. There's no good example of scale that I can find, but those balls and chains look far too large to fit in a naval gun or a field piece, and chain shot, as a specialist dismasting load, went out with the Age of Sail in any case. (And certainly you wouldn't want to use it in anything remotely like a modern naval gun! It'd be hell on the rifling, and you can't just rebore a five-inch gun the way you can Pappy's .308.) For dealing with infantry at close range, you'd be better off with chain than with nothing, but given your druthers you'd have no reason not to prefer grape or especially canister shot, both of which are designed for specifically that purpose and would be far more effective at it. That said, if a citation exists for the idea that this kind of drag was developed from or inspired by naval chain, I'd be most interested to see it.
    - mirimir 10y ago
      Right, cannons were never that large.
- gtvwill 10y ago
  Yeah my old man and his brothers cleared a few thousand hectares of mallee scrub using these methods. He laughs given that they did the clearing to grow wheat when now folks are making jet fuel from mallee trees. http://www.futurefarmonline.com.au/research/new-woody-crops/sustainable-jet-fuel.htm http://www.futurefarmonline.com.au/research/new-woody-crops/... Also with the posts above mentioning aussie ingenuity I recently found our old farm sale video, over 200 vehicles, many of which were hand built ranging from big tractors to 90+ft seekers. Crazy what they built back then on-site.

Wow, that is a hell of a way to clear brush

by douche 10y ago

Wow, that is a hell of a way to clear brush

For sure 8-O Creating farmland in traditional ways is very destructive. But then, permaculture was also developed in Australia :)

mirimir 10y ago
Gruesome factoid: Balls and chains were a common cannon load for clearing infantry, ship sails and rigging, and other diffuse targets. So this was arguably a straightforward adaptation.
- throwanem 10y ago
  Not really, I think. There's no good example of scale that I can find, but those balls and chains look far too large to fit in a naval gun or a field piece, and chain shot, as a specialist dismasting load, went out with the Age of Sail in any case. (And certainly you wouldn't want to use it in anything remotely like a modern naval gun! It'd be hell on the rifling, and you can't just rebore a five-inch gun the way you can Pappy's .308.) For dealing with infantry at close range, you'd be better off with chain than with nothing, but given your druthers you'd have no reason not to prefer grape or especially canister shot, both of which are designed for specifically that purpose and would be far more effective at it. That said, if a citation exists for the idea that this kind of drag was developed from or inspired by naval chain, I'd be most interested to see it.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Right, cannons were never that large.
gtvwill 10y ago
Yeah my old man and his brothers cleared a few thousand hectares of mallee scrub using these methods. He laughs given that they did the clearing to grow wheat when now folks are making jet fuel from mallee trees. http://www.futurefarmonline.com.au/research/new-woody-crops/sustainable-jet-fuel.htm http://www.futurefarmonline.com.au/research/new-woody-crops/... Also with the posts above mentioning aussie ingenuity I recently found our old farm sale video, over 200 vehicles, many of which were hand built ranging from big tractors to 90+ft seekers. Crazy what they built back then on-site.