Weekend reading roundup

[nanila]

How did your weekend reading go? If you planned on anything specifically, did you read it?

Comments

[davidgillon]

I stumbled on, and have been sucked into, a transcription of "ADM 186/259 C.B. 1640 PROGRESS IN GUNNERY MATERIAL 1922 and 1923" http://www.admirals.org.uk/records/adm/adm186/adm186-259.pdf, which was an (bi?-)annual publication of the Royal Navy for its gunnery specialists. It's fascinating because of the depth of research that's going on and the casual mention of things like using a 25' solenoid (yes, 25 feet) as part of a test rig for calculating shell velocity. Another experiment measured the varying rotational speed of a shell during its flight, from inside the shell... (obviously this does mean some poor sod had to trudge all across the sands at low tide trying to find the thing afterwards, but that's what enlisted men are for ;) ). More soberingly, extensively detailed full scale tests of shell impacts on a captured German battleship.

I might have hesitated if I'd looked at the page count first, 386 pages, and that's without the original illustrations, but I'm glad I didn't as this is so fascinating. It does semi-intersect with the stuff I used to do professionally when I wasn't doing flight controls, though I actually came across it while searching for hobby stuff.

[nanila]

That does sound very interesting. I'm curious to know if it's going to be helpful with the hobby stuff you were originally searching for?

[davidgillon]

As the hobby stuff is naval history, particularly in that era, it all kind of adds into the general core of knowledge. And the intersection with the weapons control stuff I used to do is particularly interesting.