An Interesting Day

For reasons many and varied, I have decided my next book is going to feature flintlocks.
Having come up with the idea, I realised that while I know the basics...ramrods, ball ammunition, black powder, flashes in the pan etc, I am not as technically knowledgable as I will need to be if I'm not going to sound like a complete idiot.
So today has been a research day and may I commend to all of you a splendid book, "The Story of the Gun" by Ian V Hogg.
I would dearly love to try handling a real flintlock musket, but if they weigh anything like the 1853 Pattern Enfield I tried to lift the other day, I'm guessing trying would be the best I could do.
I managed to get the Enfield up to my shoulder, but it was just as well no fool was going to allow me to do anything more as it was so heavy I couldn't hold it still.
Tomorrow I shall embark on what an army on the march requires and probably find out more about latrines than I want to know.
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Published on July 09, 2012 15:43
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message 1: by Bev (new)

Bev Dean wrote: "Lets put it this way, when Lee tried to lift the PA Long Rifle she almost went on her face. There is a very good reason why women were excluded. It requires a lot of upper body strength and the k..."

SOME women didn't have the strength, but there were others, Hannah Snell for example, who not only could, but did. "Ladies" might not have had the muscles, but farm girls who worked as the men did and who could carry a pig or a eight gallon double yoke would have.
I can't, for the same reason as Lee:-)


message 2: by D.M. (new)

D.M. One of my favorite parts of writing is the research involved.


message 3: by Bev (new)

Bev Dean wrote: "The problem is women simply can't do the same massive upper body strength as men unless they are genetically abnormal. IF a woman decides to have a sex change and takes male hormones then she can..."

Both:-))


message 4: by Bev (new)

Bev DM wrote: "One of my favorite parts of writing is the research involved."

This is proving great fun, but I have to say, I like the writing part best. Even when I'm quilting, I like the sewing part better than the fabric choosing and the cutting.
Having said that, its hard to slip a razor blade between, ALL of it is FUN.


message 5: by Tina (new)

Tina Rath Lose enough women young enough to fight and you depopulate your country in very short order. Young men are infinitely precious, but nature's cold equations also make them dispensable


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