Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 407 Mathematical Problems in Naval Battles
The process of human progress lies in the clever use of all things in nature.

First came stone, then bronze, and then iron.

The metal is melted, quenched, and forged repeatedly to finally obtain suitable tools, which are either used for farming or for fighting each other.

As early as the Transjordan period, Gairis began to study various metal processing techniques.

Starting with the pouring method, there is a record of the use of cast iron pouring in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", which states: For all tools used to cultivate the land and produce living things, such as hoes and chisels, wrought iron is forged, and the cast iron pouring mouth is melted and poured into water for quenching, which will make it strong. For every shovel or hoe weighing one pound, pour three cents of cast iron. Less will make it weak, and more will make it too hard and break.

Then, Garys led his men to use the crucible method to make steel. They intercepted the raw materials of Damascus steel and made Damascus steel. In addition to selling various weapons to make money, they also used it to forge artillery.

The next step was to seize the copper mines in Cyprus and truly establish a unique artillery foundry system in this era.

But this is not the limit of Gérice’s guidance on metal craftsmanship.

Taking into account the cost of copper itself and the requirements of the artillery for chamber pressure, after three generations of products, namely wrought iron cannon, cast iron cannon and bronze cannon, Garys launched a new generation of artillery technology - steel core copper cannon.

Although copper cannons have many advantages, it does not mean that steel cannons have no advantages.

In terms of tear resistance, copper is just less likely to explode, not that it is very strong.

Using stronger steel as the inner liner and copper which is more resilient and less prone to rust as the outer layer, the composite metal cannon's chamber pressure bearing capacity is naturally greater, it is relatively more durable, and the overall weight is even lighter.

In this case, the amount of artillery powder can continue to increase, ensuring a higher initial velocity of the shells and a smoother trajectory, thereby ensuring accuracy at longer distances.

But this is only one side of the story.

Not only the quality of the artillery itself, but also the artillery operation skills are improving.

Because of his personal experience, Garys was more proficient in army artillery and had no exposure to naval artillery, so it took him longer to summarize.

This was not just the result of Garys's efforts; many sailors on board also provided valuable experience.

There is a major difference between army and naval gunnery, which lies in the stability of the gun mounting and firing platform.

Army gunnery usually involves operating artillery on relatively stable ground.

Land provides a relatively fixed platform, so gun positions can be calibrated more accurately, firing angles can be controlled, and trajectory can be corrected.

Naval gunnery needs to take into account the pitch, roll and roll of a ship at sea, which can significantly affect the accuracy of artillery fire.

Therefore, before a systematic naval gunnery technique was formed, it was almost impossible to accurately hit the target at a long distance.

This is also why the commander of the Egyptian fleet was amazed and puzzled.

In fact, the Egyptian fleet’s artillery has not yet mastered the issue of loading gunpowder.

The issue of artillery charging is a very profound subject.

For Egypt, which did not have a systematic way to produce artillery, the shapes of the artillery were quite chaotic. The caliber, multiple of caliber, and production process of a gun basically depended on the skills of the production masters.

Coupled with the differences in material density of artillery projectiles themselves, this means that the propellant used by each gun is different when firing different projectiles.

If too much gunpowder is used, it will not only be a waste but also cause the risk of explosion. If too little gunpowder is used, the thrust of the gunpowder gas will be exhausted before the shell leaves the barrel, and the kinetic energy will be greatly reduced due to the resistance of the barrel itself. Of course, there are ways to deal with this situation.

Back to the most basic physics and chemistry issues, if you want to ensure that the speed of the shell out of the gun is consistent if the mass of the gunpowder is uniform, then the gunpowder must be roughly proportional to the weight of the shell.

That is, the cube of the barrel caliber is proportional to the density of the shell material.

Based on this principle, by making several scales and marking the amount of propellant required for different calibers on them, the propellant charging problem caused by the inconsistent caliber of artillery can be solved relatively easily.

For now, the Jerusalem Navy has skipped this stage. With all guns marked with the model, the appropriate amount of gunpowder for a gun is directly attached to the corresponding purity mark.

When gunners receive long-term training, they mostly focus on a certain standard artillery, rather than forcing them to operate unfamiliar weapons. This effectively avoids the probability of misoperation.

Another point is that the artillery of different ships did not fire randomly, but each ship fired at the same time under the command of the artillery commander of each ship.

The first is the most basic issue of ship balance. Using a basic plumb bob, you can determine whether the entire front and rear of the ship is parallel to the sea level.

The swing of a ship usually has a certain regularity in a short period of time.

By firing a salvo when the missile is almost parallel to the sea level, an effect similar to that of land artillery bombardment can be achieved - using a simple elevation coefficient, the approximate point where the shells will land can be calculated.

Of course, this work can also be calculated by a single artillery crew themselves, but that would put a greater test on the artillery crew's own experience or mathematical ability.

Take Brian's command process at the bow as an example. He constantly measures the relative distance between the enemy and our ships, as well as the relative distance at the next certain point in time when they are chasing each other at the current speed.

The math problems that were given in school became the tone of the artillery battle at this moment.

Questions such as the distance x between α and β, their respective speeds being y and z, their accelerations, and how long it would take for them to meet, truly determined the lives of everyone on the ship.

Fortunately, there are enough plans and mathematical tools to simplify such problems and get the answers directly by reading the ruler or table, thus ensuring a sufficiently fast response of the ship.

Math, math, and more math!

Those boring and complicated formulas, those headache-inducing Greek letters were once the things that students in the ivory tower were most reluctant to face - but now, they form an absurd yet real combination with the artillery battle scene filled with smoke, flying wood chips, and splattered blood.

This ability is the result of Garys's tireless hard work over the past decade.

He not only tempers steel, but also tempers people's hearts, minds and judgments.

The progress he pursued was never limited to simple technological innovation, but to embed rationality and calculation into every roar of battle.

The Egyptian fleet maintained its speed advantage, and finally when the moment came, it was their turn to fire their artillery without reservation.

It was also from this moment that the efforts of both sides to maintain their formation began to dissipate and they entered a state of fighting each other.

The sea was in chaos.

The sound of cannons, shouts of killing, and cracking of planks on the sea intertwined into a hellish symphony.

(End of this chapter)