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Arms - fascinating

V

Vinny

pfm Member
I absolutely and totally abhor violence, but I find the history of arms (and much besides - it is all ingenuity and inspiration), equally as fascinating.
This is an excellent illustration of how lunatic man's inhumanity to man is, and how completely wacko logic works, along with some beautiful engineering and design.
The presenter is very, very far from the best out there, but the subject matter (mostly) trumps the presentation. If this intrigues, have a look at his other videos, all from the Royal Armouries.

 
If only we could get all the people that are designing ways to kill to work on something to save lives it would be a massive step forward.


Pete
 
Pete MB&D said:
If only we could get all the people that are designing ways to kill to work on something to save lives it would be a massive step forward.
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Absolutely fantastic in theory, but have that conversation with the avergae Ukrainian at the moment. It sounds great until the unthinkable......... Otherwise all you have to do is get 100% compliance amongst everyone on earth.
It is a bit like the space race in part - anything revolutionary developed for arms finds it's way into civilian use.
The original sat' nav' was for finding downed airmen, which found its way into both arms targeting and how to get from Leeds to Stockport.
 
^^^^^^^

Oh dear, how sad, what a pity, never mind.

Life sucks doesn't it, especially if you live it is fantasy-land? Life is what it is, no matter what people wish for.

I have less tha no idea whatsoever what any of this has to do with flintlock pistols. They were a LONG way before any thing electronic, and I also blame the Chinese for explosives - gunpowder.
 
I enjoyed this presentation because I used to do target pistol shooting about 50 years ago. I gave up when I became uncomfortable with having guns in the house when my children were toddlers. But I still lurk occasionally on gun related forums and I came across something which I think has a read across to hifi. This was an aphorism used by a member in his I.D. ‘My greatest fear is that I will predecease my wife and she will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them’
 
GavinA said:
I enjoyed this presentation because I used to do target pistol shooting about 50 years ago. I gave up when I became uncomfortable with having guns in the house when my children were toddlers. But I still lurk occasionally on gun related forums and I came across something which I think has a read across to hifi. This was an aphorism used by a member in his I.D. ‘My greatest fear is that I will predecease my wife and she will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them’
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Definitely applies to my hifi, better downgrade before ties point up
 
GavinA said:
This was an aphorism used by a member in his I.D. ‘My greatest fear is that I will predecease my wife and she will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them’
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With (presumably) multiple guns in the house, if that's their greatest fear then they have a limited imagination ;)
 
GavinA said:
I enjoyed this presentation because I used to do target pistol shooting about 50 years ago. I gave up when I became uncomfortable with having guns in the house when my children were toddlers.’
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I thought this was the point of the 2 gunsafes or strongboxes and 2 hidden keys, so that you can have a kindergarten in the place and they can't get hold of anything hazardous. This is law in the UK and has been forever, are you elsewhere?
 
stevec67 said:
I thought this was the point of the 2 gunsafes or strongboxes and 2 hidden keys, so that you can have a kindergarten in the place and they can't get hold of anything hazardous. This is law in the UK and has been forever, are you elsewhere?
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Back then it was less rigorous - but in Scotland I still needed a lockable steel safe inspected by police. I got a rather beautiful Victorian one with a brass coat of arms that I still have. But my son at the time was fascinated by locks and keys and while I was very careful it was a worry that at 3 years old he was into everything. Also work was getting more demanding as was fatherhood so I decided to call time on that hobby.
 
stevec67 said:
I thought this was the point of the 2 gunsafes or strongboxes and 2 hidden keys, so that you can have a kindergarten in the place and they can't get hold of anything hazardous. This is law in the UK and has been forever, are you elsewhere?
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The common target pistols were banned after Dunblane - a friend in N Ireland, of all places, was very keen and volunteered to transport ammunition NL to Ni for his club - I have never asked for details of what grief he had :)

Whenever I have been stopped by Customs coming back to the UK, I have never been able to resist a smile or chuckle when asked if I have firearms or explosives, as a result.
 
Vinny said:
The common target pistols were banned after Dunblane - a friend in N Ireland, of all places, was very keen and volunteered to transport ammunition NL to Ni for his club - I have never asked for details of what grief he had :)

Whenever I have been stopped by Customs coming back to the UK, I have never been able to resist a smile or chuckle when asked if I have firearms or explosives, as a result.
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Yes, I remember the Dunblane changes. A friend of mine has rifles at home for target shooting, hence how I'm familiar with the regs. Obviously the 2 safe method is going to be secure against anyone this side of the SAS turning up with shaped charges or someone breaking in and getting the keys with threats of violence, but if they get to that level all bets are off and they probably have weapons already.
I've read accounts of people crossing borders with legal guns, the Olympic shooting teams spring to mind, as do some Brit mountaineers who went to either Greenland or Baffin Island and needed rifles in the case of a polar bear attack. Lengthy checkin, to say the least. On arrival at the mountain they spent the first day winching all the gear and food to a ledge 20 feet up the cliff and secure from bears, and based themselves there until the return aircraft came.
It seemed like a strange choice, since once over there they could have hired enough guns to film a Steven Seagull movie and used them.
 
Vinny said:
I absolutely and totally abhor violence, but I find the history of arms (and much besides - it is all ingenuity and inspiration), equally as fascinating.
This is an excellent illustration of how lunatic man's inhumanity to man is, and how completely wacko logic works, along with some beautiful engineering and design.
The presenter is very, very far from the best out there, but the subject matter (mostly) trumps the presentation. If this intrigues, have a look at his other videos, all from the Royal Armouries.

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To work in that Industry must be strange, now do,you define job satisfaction
 
Seeker_UK said:
The first satellite system (Transit) was a Polaris guidance system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_(satellite)

Previous systems (LORAN, Decca) were for navigation of ships at sea and long-range patrol aircraft.

Rescuing downed pilots was a happy consequence and should people believe that, it hid the true purpose.
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Also best not forget the origins of this tech that we now take for granted ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
QUOTE:
Nonetheless, according to Stephen J. Lukasik, who as deputy director (1967–1970) and Director of DARPA (1970–1975)[48] was "the person who signed most of the checks for Arpanet's development":

The goal was to exploit new computer technologies to meet the needs of military command and control against nuclear threats, achieve survivable control of US nuclear forces, and improve military tactical and management decision making.[49]

.... no mention of online shopping or porn :D
 
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Wenger said:
To work in that Industry must be strange, now do,you define job satisfaction
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The pistols were near certainly target pistols. The same goes for an awful lot of privately-held firearms and air-weapons today - lots never get used against anything but targets/clays.
I doubt very much that the end result of most of the work is in mind. Accuracy, speed of fire etc. etc. are results in themselves. In today's world I strongly suspect that a larger than average dose of patriotism would be common amongst the workers too.
The way things are headed, people working in car and aircraft factories and combustion-based energy generation are destined to kill far more.
 
Wenger said:
To work in that Industry must be strange, how do you define job satisfaction
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Why “strange”?

Looking at it on a day-to-day basis, it’s just a job - mechanical engineering, electrical/electronics engineering or whatever.

Job satisfaction - you get something to work, complete a project, get your pay cheque, etc, etc
 
Having had to do military service for nearly a year had at least one good outcome. My interest in fire arms disappeared. They are very heavy to carry around, they need to be cleaned and I couldn't hit anything.
 
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