Detonation of mine, etc.

While watching Mythbusters blow something else up it occurred to me to wonder again what detonation was used to blow up the mine under the Churches defenses. My understanding is that electricity is strictly prohibited. Don't the old push down handle detonators generate a spark, which presumably is electric. And they backfilled the shaft to direct the explosion upward, so fuses would seem a bit doubtful. Puzzled.

EricSteeseOlyWA wrote:While watching Mythbusters blow something else up it occurred to me to wonder again what detonation was used to blow up the mine under the Churches defenses. My understanding is that electricity is strictly prohibited. Don't the old push down handle detonators generate a spark, which presumably is electric. And they backfilled the shaft to direct the explosion upward, so fuses would seem a bit doubtful. Puzzled.

Probably fuses enclosed is some sort of protective wrapper. As for the spark, it could have been one of the percussion caps or even something striking flint to ignite powder to get the fuse burning. It's electric, yes. But it is also being used on both sides of the conflict by now and is not being considered electricity.

Don

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I thought it was highly based on the real life Civil War Battle of the Crater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater

Except in real life, the follow up to the mine exploding was bungled in spectacular fashion. Which was not the case in Safehold.

n7axw wrote:

EricSteeseOlyWA wrote:While watching Mythbusters blow something else up it occurred to me to wonder again what detonation was used to blow up the mine under the Churches defenses. My understanding is that electricity is strictly prohibited. Don't the old push down handle detonators generate a spark, which presumably is electric. And they backfilled the shaft to direct the explosion upward, so fuses would seem a bit doubtful. Puzzled.

Probably fuses enclosed is some sort of protective wrapper. As for the spark, it could have been one of the percussion caps or even something striking flint to ignite powder to get the fuse burning. It's electric, yes. But it is also being used on both sides of the conflict by now and is not being considered electricity.

Don

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I'd assumed it was the sort of quick match mentioned in the breaching of the last defences at Fort Tairys.

n7axw wrote:Probably fuses enclosed is some sort of protective wrapper.

Possibly something like "Detcord" which doesn't have the delay that a "fuse" has. The delayed action fuses used to clear sunken barges is also a possibility that exists in textev.

EricSteeseOlyWA wrote:While watching Mythbusters blow something else up it occurred to me to wonder again what detonation was used to blow up the mine under the Churches defenses. My understanding is that electricity is strictly prohibited. Don't the old push down handle detonators generate a spark, which presumably is electric. And they backfilled the shaft to direct the explosion upward, so fuses would seem a bit doubtful. Puzzled.

And why can't you have a fuse through a backfilled tunnel? Just do the backfilling carefully so you don't break the fuse in the process.

Weird Harold wrote:

n7axw wrote:Probably fuses enclosed is some sort of protective wrapper.

Possibly something like "Detcord" which doesn't have the delay that a "fuse" has. The delayed action fuses used to clear sunken barges is also a possibility that exists in textev.

To make detcord you need high explosives. They don't have them. The best you can do is quickmatch--hundreds of feet per second. Fast enough for what they were doing but nothing like detcord.

Loren Pechtel wrote:
To make detcord you need high explosives. They don't have them. The best you can do is quickmatch--hundreds of feet per second. Fast enough for what they were doing but nothing like detcord.

Don't forget chemical detonators - there are several types of acid based detonators which were used in WWI and WWII. Usually you crimp a brass tube which breaks a glass capsule which holds the acid - it eats through a substrate in a timed manner then sets off the detonating explosion by releasing a spring loaded mechanical striker into a percussion cap.

Guys,

The pull type igniter described in the series [LaMA, HFQ] uses friction, which is still used today because it's so reliable.

Which ignited quick-match burning at 100 yards per second, as RFC wrote.

Please pay attention.

L

Loren Pechtel wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:*quote="n7axw"*Probably fuses enclosed is some sort of protective wrapper. *quote*

Possibly something like "Detcord" which doesn't have the delay that a "fuse" has. The delayed action fuses used to clear sunken barges is also a possibility that exists in textev.

To make detcord you need high explosives. They don't have them. The best you can do is quickmatch--hundreds of feet per second. Fast enough for what they were doing but nothing like detcord.

The fuse line itself is described in one of the books. Basically, it's a thin, waterproof hose filled with some fast burning agent. Black powder I think, at least early on.

Lighting it just requires some kind of spark or flame to start it burning. And there's plenty of non-electric ways to do that.