So, an 'explosion' triggered by multiple tons of flour failed to demolish or even seriously damage what's basically a garage. If any significant fraction of the flour there had actually been involved in the explosion, everything on the screen would be gone.
Getting the correct explosive mixture was just not consistent enough. That and the fact that the tunnel would have to be closed off close to the target wall in order for the explosion to concentrate at the wall and not just jet out of the open tunnel.
Breaching walls by digging under them was not a very practical tactic. It very often resulted in the rubble being harder to get through than just going over the wall in the first place. And if it collapsed early it would kill the sappers.
It often did kill the sappers, which is part of why they used children for that part.
Thermobaric explosions are more effective in confined spaces than out in the open. There'd be significantly more damage if it had happened inside one of those silos than what we saw here.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The key thing to understand about flour explosions is:
Flour is not a good explosive; it takes pretty specific concentrations and mixes to produce a useful explosion (you're more likely to get a much lower pressure fireball that can ignite stuff but won't be effective against structures), and even then the yield is generally going to be far lower than the theoretical potential yield. However, when you're dealing with the sheer quantities involved in the flour industry, those low probabilities add up. If a flour mill contains five tons of flour, and you have a 0.1% chance per day that 1% of it explodes, you're going to have to extensively repair or replace your mill every decade or so, which is certainly an expense that the mill owner would rather avoid.
None of that applies to military uses. You want it to explode reliably, and you want it to explode efficiently. There are also better options than flour that would be routinely available and known for exploding, such as coal dust.
Flour would not have been an effective explosive vs castle walls, that is almost certainly a chinese whispers story that is just plausible enough to get passed on from person to person. The problem is, as seen in the posted video that only the flour at the right concentration will ignite, and you simply could not create the right concentration reliably for a large enough quantity of flour in a medieval battlefield / siege.
The key thing to understand about flour explosions is:
Flour is not a good explosive; it takes pretty specific concentrations and mixes to produce a useful explosion (you're more likely to get a much lower pressure fireball that can ignite stuff but won't be effective against structures), and even then the yield is generally going to be far lower than the theoretical potential yield. However, when you're dealing with the sheer quantities involved in the flour industry, those low probabilities add up. If a flour mill contains five tons of flour, and you have a 0.1% chance per day that 1% of it explodes, you're going to have to extensively repair or replace your mill every decade or so, which is certainly an expense that the mill owner would rather avoid.
None of that applies to military uses. You want it to explode reliably, and you want it to explode efficiently. There are also better options than flour that would be routinely available and known for exploding, such as coal dust.
Actually coal dust, flour and sugar are all about the same in effect . The problem in mideveal times was availability. Of the 3 flour is, by far, the most common for most of the mideveal period. All three are flammable but not normally explosives. The only actual explosive available was gunpowder and it wasn’t very good until the 1600s. Even gunpowder isn’t a really good explosive - it’s what is known as a “low explosive” burning at between 500 and 2000 feet per second depending on how fine the grains are.
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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So, an 'explosion' triggered by multiple tons of flour failed to demolish or even seriously damage what's basically a garage. If any significant fraction of the flour there had actually been involved in the explosion, everything on the screen would be gone.
It often did kill the sappers, which is part of why they used children for that part.
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Thermobaric explosions are more effective in confined spaces than out in the open. There'd be significantly more damage if it had happened inside one of those silos than what we saw here.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The key thing to understand about flour explosions is:
Flour is not a good explosive; it takes pretty specific concentrations and mixes to produce a useful explosion (you're more likely to get a much lower pressure fireball that can ignite stuff but won't be effective against structures), and even then the yield is generally going to be far lower than the theoretical potential yield. However, when you're dealing with the sheer quantities involved in the flour industry, those low probabilities add up. If a flour mill contains five tons of flour, and you have a 0.1% chance per day that 1% of it explodes, you're going to have to extensively repair or replace your mill every decade or so, which is certainly an expense that the mill owner would rather avoid.
None of that applies to military uses. You want it to explode reliably, and you want it to explode efficiently. There are also better options than flour that would be routinely available and known for exploding, such as coal dust.
Flour would not have been an effective explosive vs castle walls, that is almost certainly a chinese whispers story that is just plausible enough to get passed on from person to person. The problem is, as seen in the posted video that only the flour at the right concentration will ignite, and you simply could not create the right concentration reliably for a large enough quantity of flour in a medieval battlefield / siege.
Actually coal dust, flour and sugar are all about the same in effect . The problem in mideveal times was availability. Of the 3 flour is, by far, the most common for most of the mideveal period. All three are flammable but not normally explosives. The only actual explosive available was gunpowder and it wasn’t very good until the 1600s. Even gunpowder isn’t a really good explosive - it’s what is known as a “low explosive” burning at between 500 and 2000 feet per second depending on how fine the grains are.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.