Well, they aren't muzzle loading cannons, but....

[Double D]

[maddmaxx]

...but at least they are black powder. Interesting picture. Must have been a good camera to catch the projectiles in flight and so close to the muzzles. I've got a picture of a German rail gun being fired.(4' bore), but don't have the wherewithall for posting. Any idea on powder charges for those pictures?

[Cat Whisperer]

I'll take an unscientific WAG on the naval gun being 5" and the other being 155mm or so.  A standard 155mm  round would have  up to 7 silk bags of powder behind the bullet taking up a volume of 155mm in diameter and perhaps 18" long (with a little black powder under the bottom charge to catch the sparks of the primer).

That's a loooong barrel and the round looks like it's rocket assisted for more range too.

With the building right next to the howitzer (and the radar locating targets, antennae, collameters and so forth so near) it was likely an evaluation situation (as opposed to training or demonstration).  The high speed cameras also say testing.

[michbob]

Yup.  Unless I'm mistaken, the howitzer is the new Crusader field piece at 155mm.  Only has a three man crew and each one has an ammo vehicle following along.

Interesting.  Reminds me of a story, not black powder, but if our kind moderator will indulge me...

Back in the 1950's, the above ground testing of nukes was going out of fashion, due to treaty.  Sandia Nat'l Lab was given the task to develop underground testing to replace them.  In an early shot in 1955, a hole was drilled 1000 ft deep, and a device (10 Kilotons yield, I think) was lowered into it.  The hole was capped with a 4 ft wide, 4 inch thick steel cap, weighing about 1000 pounds.

BOOM!

High speed cameras running at the rate of 126,000 frames per second recorded the above-ground scene.  One frame, the cover was there, the next, it was gone.  It was never found.

Thirty years later, one of the scientists was ordered to find out what had happened to the missing cover.  He kind of suspected he knew, so he carried out some calculation.

The half-ton cover had been launched at a velocity of about 40 MILES PER SECOND.  Not only had it been launched into space, but it's escape velocity was sufficient to leave the solar system.

Somewhere out there, assuming it hasn't hit something, is a distorted piece of steel, heading for the stars...

Now that's a gun.

From the book:  "Backyard Ballistics"  as recalled from my feeble mind.

Michbob

PS:  This predated Sputnik by two years.

[Cat Whisperer]

... Michbob  PS:  This predated Sputnik by two years.

Ahhhh, memories of Jules Vern

[SLEEPY BEEPER]

I read somewhere the a solid steel projectile being fired at sea level. With enough speed to reach orbit. Would get so hot from friction, it would burn up withing the first 100 feet. NASA has looked into this. They wanted to shoot oxygen tanks up to the space station.

[michbob]

Apparently, there are some high-end physics involved that are wayyy beyond me.  A I understand it, a projectile going that fast, self-forges itself into a spike surrounded by a sheath of plasma, which acts as a boundary between the projectile and the surrounding atmosphere.

Recall now, that within about two second, the slug was out of most of the atmosphere, as it was 'fired' pretty much staight up.

Also, remember the WW1 German Paris gun.  It got its extreme range by firing its projectile at high velocity out of the atmosphere and 'bouncing' it a few time off the denser lower atmosphere.

Anyhow, the book I mentioned is out there, so check it out;  it's nifty.

Michbob