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On this episode of Mythbusters,

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What are your plans, my master?

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Dial E for electrocution.

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We're going to take over the world.

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Oh, yes.

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Could using a phone in a thunderstorm

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result in a call from the Almighty?

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I'm feeling really Miami Vice right now.

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Is it a boating blunder or a time-saving triumph?

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On the water with a new set of wheels

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and it's a Civil War baby boom.

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Can getting shot get you pregnant?

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Who are the Mythbusters?

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Adam Savage.

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I reject your reality and substitute my own.

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And Jamie Heinemann.

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I feel like it in here, it's private.

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Between them, more than 30 years special effects experience.

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That was intense.

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They don't just tell the myths.

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They put them to the test.

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Jamie, I know the phone wasn't invented when you were born,

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but about the time you were growing up,

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were you ever told to stay off the phone in a lightning storm?

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Yes, actually.

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We were told to stay off the phone out of the shower,

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don't go under a tree,

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don't go out in the middle of a field with a large metal pole.

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Yeah, that would be bad.

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Well, all the ones that occur inside a house that we've heard

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from staying off the phone to staying out of the shower,

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we're going to test on this myth.

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Should you be on the phone in a lightning storm?

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Here's the theory.

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Lightning strikes your house,

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or the phone or power cables leading to it.

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And it looks for the quickest way to the earth.

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Usually that's through a ground wire.

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But failing that, conductive wiring,

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or metal plumbing is the fastest route.

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And if you happen to be hooked up to that,

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but can it actually happen?

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To find out the mythbusters need a house and lightning.

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The second part sounds tricky.

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But it turns out they're in luck.

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Pacific Gas and Electric has a facility

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specifically built to test the impact of lightning strike

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on electrical equipment.

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Jamie, I think you should live here, man.

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It's great to visit a place that looks exactly like you think it should.

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Yeah, it's a great place to recharge after a hard day's work.

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Lots of space and lots of electricity.

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They need so much electricity here,

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they use generators to make their own.

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So they don't black out all the houses for miles around.

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This would be called man's feeble attempt to generate lightning.

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We can't even become close to generate what mother nature can generate.

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Well, good for mother nature. How much can you generate?

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What we can generate here is up to 700,000 volts

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at about half a million watts.

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A real lightning bolt has more than 100 million volts.

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700,000 should do the trick.

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Now, before they get to fool about with lethal electricity,

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they need to build their stunt house.

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We need a dialed telephone, two-inch conduit.

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Yeah, I might have that.

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Roofing shingles.

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What about telephone jack and telephone wires?

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The Building Resource Center is where old houses come to rest in pieces.

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If you wanted, chances are they've got it.

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And also stuff you didn't know you wanted till you found it.

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There we go.

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Jamie, I think we might have finally found a way to control me.

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There you go.

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Come here.

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Woo!

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Come on.

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Woo!

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They aren't horsing around here.

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The stunt house has to be as close as possible to the real thing.

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Plumbing, wiring, and of course, the phone.

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Okay, I found it.

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Do you have...

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I have to keep it in storage because this is the red phone.

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When this rings, you know what's going to happen.

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Hello, Batman.

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Batman, it's Commissioner Gordon.

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This is great.

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And sooner than you can say, holy, Heidemann's handymen,

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our dynamic duo is ready to start swinging hammers.

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The sample house I'm going to build is actually going to be fairly mobile.

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It's going to be on wheels.

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It's going to have full plumbing, full code electricity,

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exactly imitating what a house has.

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With a roof, with a pitched roof and shingles and exterior siding and everything like that,

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it's actually going to be pretty cool.

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It's an old-fashioned Mythbusters barn raisin'.

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Ah!

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I should have put it on while I was down.

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There's even a shower, complete with its own tank and pump.

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Oh, yeah.

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That works.

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Yeah.

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But now, the all-important issue of wiring.

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The total goal of this experiment is to make this house entirely accurate to the exterior of a house.

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And we're not actually trying to imitate what happens when lightning hits a house.

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We want to see what happens when lightning hits the wiring to a house

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and where those electricity jolts might actually travel.

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I mean, mostly, wiring is just about following a path correctly.

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Understanding the closed circuit and then everything's pretty simple.

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It's just when you start distributing it, it gets pretty complex pretty fast.

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That's a really kind of scary junction, isn't it?

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In fact, it's often pretty scary when Adam has anything to do with electricity.

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Come on!

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It's hard to get a light bulb to light.

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This is hot because I want to make sure it worked.

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Question. How many Mythbusters does it take to change a light bulb?

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I'm getting 120 volts. I'm just not getting any current.

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Answer? Just one.

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But you'll need to call in a certified electrician to make it work.

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Well, that was easy. Thank you.

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You're welcome.

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Hopefully, we're not going to have any more problems before the test.

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Stephen runs an eye over the entire setup and finds the wiring does meet California's building codes.

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Are you sure this is plugged in?

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I'm sure this is plugged in.

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Stephen, have you heard the myth or the tale that you should stay off the phone

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or stay out of the shower, not watch television or work on a computer during a lightning storm?

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I can see the telephone or electric devices because if there's a strike in the house and you get a big surge,

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that would not be good for anything that's connected with wire in the house, be that a computer.

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I've certainly heard about people's computers pretty much melting and frying down.

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I've heard about problems with telephones, but I've never actually seen the melted pieces and held them in my hand.

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Our little shotgun shack is all ready to go.

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We've got the computer set up. We've got two kinds of phones.

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We've got a television. We've got wall switches, plugs, junction boxes, everything to code,

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plus a shower that will be fully grounded.

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And we're ready to shoot lightning bolts with this thing.

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I mean, I've been ready to shoot lightning bolts at it from the beginning, but now we're officially ready.

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And so Adam and Jamie will take their new home on the road.

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Its destiny is electrifying.

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But first, the Mythbusters have a date with history.

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It's a Civil War story to shrivel the confidence of any man.

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Struck by a bullet in the family jewels.

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And stun any woman.

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And cause her to become in a family way.

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Was there ever a pregnancy from making war, not love?

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Guys, it's been a long time coming, but it's finally time to do.

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Son of a gun.

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Exactly.

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All right.

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One of the oldest and most bizarre medical myths.

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The story is about a young Civil War cavalryman who was shot by a musket ball.

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The bullet hits his tibia, ricochets off his tibia, goes right through his family jewels,

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and then pierces the womb of a woman standing on her porch, watching the battle from 150 yards away.

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This bullet apparently still carried some viable genetic material, because as the story goes,

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she found herself very embarrassingly pregnant.

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No.

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Yes.

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Either they fell in love and got married, or he felt some sense of cosmic obligation,

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and they had several children together, and as the doctor stated,

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none of them looked as much like the soldier as the first one.

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This story was first written up in the fancy American Medical Weekly in 1874,

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which leaves the Mythbusters two questions to answer.

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Could a bullet ricochet like that, and could the genetic material survive the trip?

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Let's face it, it was Civil War.

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They were strange, momentous times.

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Soldiers marched their way into history, armed with muskets and bayonets,

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and a changed nation was born.

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So why not a son of a gun?

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Turns out this is the perfect time to test this myth conception.

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There's a massive Civil War recreation going on, not far from home base.

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We have a Civil War event here in Carney Park in Fresno.

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It's the largest Civil War event in the western United States.

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We're hoping to give people a taste of their history and their heritage.

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You're going to hold it just like this, and you're going to turn that cartridge upside down over the barrel.

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Stand still here, and someone will regale you with Civil War facts you never knew,

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and probably didn't need to.

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You'll then pull your hammer back one click to half cock.

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You then remove that.

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It's ideal for the build team.

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They want to recreate this story exactly, starting with the gun.

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Fire!

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This rifle is a replica of an Enfield rifle musket,

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and this is a very typical weapon used during the Civil War by both armies.

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The story goes that, as I understand it, that it was a mini-ball bullet that actually hit this cavalryman,

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and that's the bullet this weapon uses.

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This bullet was propelled by about 70 grains of black powder.

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This weapon has a muzzle velocity of 1,000 feet per second,

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and a good marksman could hit a target 900 yards away.

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I feel like charging right about now.

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Look at this, Tori! Look, excellent!

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So they have their gun, but they say clothes make of the man.

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Oh, yeah!

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What was the well-dressed gunshot victim wearing during the Civil War?

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This is a pair of trousers that a Union soldier would be wearing.

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It is made of wool, as you can feel.

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Wow!

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What about the underwear?

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Soldiers, and of course, anybody during that period, wore what was called long johns,

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and it was an overall piece, you know, a top and the bottom part connected.

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And they even warmed during the summer?

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No, warmed during the summer.

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Wow!

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Now, something for the lady of the house, something retro maybe,

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with just a hint of immaculate conception.

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She would have pantalettes and a chemise.

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She'd wear her corset over the top of that,

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and then she would have four to five petticoats,

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and then she'd put her dress on.

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Tight.

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Apparently, people weren't in such a hurry back then.

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And as the troops ready themselves for battle,

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the build team has learned enough to start work on its own Civil War recreation

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of the reproductive kind.

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Woo!

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When they say they're measuring out 70 grains of black powder,

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they're not actually talking about individual grains.

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70 grains is going to be measured in this powder measure here.

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Carrie's scaring the neighbors as she perfects the black powder cartridges.

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Wow, looks like it works!

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No human error can be involved here.

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We have to get this right.

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So I'm going to make a gun mount, a gun holder,

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that we can aim really precisely.

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More than a mount,

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Scotty aims to fit that old musket with a genuine Civil War laser sight.

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We're going to make one with a human bone that's dried,

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and then one with the veal bone, the little baby cow bone.

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For his part in all this, Buster's getting a new leg.

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A real bone suspended in ballistics gel.

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Yes, Buster's going to take another one for the team.

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But there's already a problem with his uniform.

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No, you just ripped that, Tori.

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Oh man, Buster, you've got a big old hole in your backside.

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To be honest, with the experiments the Mythbusters are planning,

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a hole in his backside is the least of Buster's worries.

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Well, we all knew it would happen one day.

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What are your plans, my master?

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We're going to take over the world.

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Oh yes, yes.

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The evil scientist in Jamie and Adam has finally busted loose.

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They're about to wreak massive global havoc.

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They'll start conservatively with this little playhouse.

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They've brought it to Pacific Gas and Electrics' testing facility

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to tackle the myth that lightning can travel down your home's wiring or pipes

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and kill you while you're on the phone or in the shower.

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So this is what the arc will actually come off of?

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Sure, why not?

249
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:19,000
Wow.

250
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:23,000
This facility can generate up to 700,000 volts,

251
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000
but by using half that, they'll get more amps.

252
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000
It's that flowing current that does the damage.

253
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,000
And since everyone's feeling pretty good about being alive,

254
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,000
Chip, the Ballistics gel dummy, will be taking hits for the team.

255
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:46,000
The gel has similar electrical resistance to human flesh,

256
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000
and Chip is grounded to the earth like a person standing up.

257
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,000
This electrode will give us about 200,000 volts.

258
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000
Now that's enough to make it jump across the two feet here,

259
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,000
through these wires, down either into the electrical box here

260
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:03,000
or through the phone lines.

261
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:08,000
Our test subject here, Chip, is set up with a phone strapped to his ear.

262
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:12,000
We've also taped in some gunpowder in a little paper baggie here.

263
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:17,000
And finally, we have our MythBusters patented heart paddle current meter setup,

264
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,000
where we've got two copper paddles set up right where the heart would be.

265
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,000
And if we read more than 6 milliamps of current across these lines,

266
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,000
we know we've got a dead guy.

267
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,000
The MythBusters have added a couple of common appliances for realism,

268
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000
but connecting to mains power during a test would be dangerous,

269
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,000
so they're left off.

270
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,000
I mean, we'll be able to see what the effect on a television or your computer

271
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:47,000
is if you've got it plugged in during a thunderstorm.

272
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:52,000
But unfortunately, we won't be able to have them running during our test.

273
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,000
I think what's going to happen when we zap the house

274
00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:00,000
is that we're going to see this nice long arc jumping from the electrode into the house.

275
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,000
We may see a few little things sizzling and burning,

276
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:08,000
and if we're lucky, we'll find a pathway that could realistically happen

277
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:13,000
that will show up on the meters as potential death.

278
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:18,000
We've done our best to duplicate in several different iterations

279
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,000
what kind of wiring a lightning bolt is likely to encounter,

280
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,000
but it's very unpredictable stuff,

281
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,000
and even the guys here aren't exactly sure what will happen.

282
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,000
The only thing the experts can be sure about in this test

283
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,000
is they don't want to be standing anywhere near it when it happens.

284
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,000
Barricaded off from a safe distance from the structure,

285
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000
the barricade position that people down here will have to stay behind during the test.

286
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,000
Here's how this will work.

287
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,000
Electricity can jump through air.

288
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:55,000
Every 10,000 volts adds about 1 centimeter to the distance.

289
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,000
Closing 200 over 5.

290
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,000
With the electrode in this position,

291
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,000
when the charge reaches between 2 and 300,000 volts,

292
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000
it will zap across to the house.

293
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,000
It's a waiting game as the charge builds.

294
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:17,000
Their mad scientist fantasy is coming to life.

295
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:37,000
That was 300,000 volts straight into the house's wiring.

296
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:44,000
It generates an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to throw our remote camera out of focus.

297
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000
No smoke and no sparks.

298
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,000
No smoke, no sparks, no sparks from the phone.

299
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000
Incredibly, Chip's phone call is uninterrupted.

300
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,000
Well, everything seems just like we left it.

301
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000
No problem, no reaction whatsoever.

302
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,000
I don't think he got any current.

303
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,000
The jolt exited straight out the ground wire,

304
00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000
standard to most homes.

305
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,000
But remember, this shock is much smaller than real lightning.

306
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:16,000
So Adam will help it by creating the worst possible scenario.

307
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,000
What I'm going to do is there's no facility in the world

308
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,000
can generate both the voltage and the amperage of an actual lightning bolt.

309
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,000
Both together make this massive amount of electricity that will crawl across all sorts of wires.

310
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:32,000
So I'm going to start cutting some grounds to the electrical wiring system

311
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:37,000
and try and guide the electricity over to our person to see what would happen to the phone.

312
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,000
There we go.

313
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,000
So, now minus the ground wire.

314
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,000
Can that thin telephone cord carry a fatal charge?

315
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:50,000
100 kV, as I saw it, is going up in voltage.

316
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000
150,000.

317
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000
200,000.

318
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000
200,000.

319
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000
220, 230.

320
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,000
That actually worked.

321
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,000
That was beautiful.

322
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:13,000
The lightning arc from the mouthpiece into Chip's head setting off Jamie's charge.

323
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:17,000
The jolt finding its way with disturbing accuracy.

324
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,000
That was awesome. I can't believe that worked so well.

325
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,000
Are we clear?

326
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,000
Do you want us to put up for it?

327
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,000
I'll just blow it out.

328
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000
Well, that worked like a charm.

329
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,000
Did it fry the ear too?

330
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,000
No, it doesn't look like it did anything with the ear.

331
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,000
No, it didn't do anything with the ear.

332
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,000
So, a new phone, it arcs through the mouthpiece and into the body.

333
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,000
That's pretty serious.

334
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,000
Yeah.

335
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000
Wow.

336
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,000
So, that's it right there as far as I'm concerned.

337
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,000
This is a standard phone.

338
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,000
It arcs through the mouthpiece of the phone.

339
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,000
That's a lot of current to go through gel.

340
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:08,000
Well, we can check and see what kind of current it is.

341
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:09,000
Yeah.

342
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:15,000
Remember, 6 milliamps across Chip's heart paddles would indicate a fatal shock.

343
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
But there's a problem. The meter's blown.

344
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,000
We had it set on the 40 milliamp setting, which is more than enough to kill you.

345
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:27,000
If it fried the fuse of this meter, that was a lot more than 40 milliamps going through it.

346
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,000
And that's a dead guy.

347
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,000
Works for me.

348
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,000
So, it seems it's myth confirmed.

349
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:39,000
Even with a modern phone and modern wiring, you can be struck by lightning.

350
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:45,000
As a second test, they'll try an older phone and an older style fuse box.

351
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,000
Closing 200 over 2, going up.

352
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,000
That sound is kind of ominous.

353
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,000
That frying egg sound in the ozone.

354
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000
200,000.

355
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,000
Wow.

356
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000
This time, Jamie's gunpowder didn't ignite.

357
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000
But Chip's was definitely hit.

358
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,000
And the meter blew again.

359
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000
We definitely still got continuity through the body and into the ground.

360
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Well, I'm satisfied.

361
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
Phones will do it. Phones and lightning.

362
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,000
Phones and lightning? Bad, bad, bad.

363
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,000
Lightning fatality statistics bear that out.

364
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:35,000
On average, about 75 Americans are killed by lightning each year,

365
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,000
with 2% of those people talking on the phone at the time.

366
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:47,000
The only good news for Chip's next of kin, powered up, the TV and computer still work fine.

367
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:53,000
I think it's time to move on to see if showers and lightning are a similarly deadly combination.

368
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Let's do it.

369
00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:03,000
So Chip's electrifying adventures continue, thrown out of the frying pan and into the shower.

370
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,000
There we go.

371
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,000
That is too funny.

372
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,000
People have written into the site and specifically told us that they were always warned as children

373
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,000
never to take a shower during a thunderstorm.

374
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:23,000
We have grounded plumbing, which is running near electrical wire.

375
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,000
We're hoping for a short between the electrical wire and the plumbing.

376
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,000
And then our guy here, I've put a ground bar directly into him.

377
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:38,000
This is basically equivalent to if you're standing in the shower and you're standing on the drain, which is also grounded.

378
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,000
That's beautiful.

379
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:45,000
Now the guys learned to the third rail myth that fluid streams aren't great conductors.

380
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000
The liquid breaks up, so there's no direct path.

381
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,000
But at these voltages, who knows?

382
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,000
Ready to go.

383
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,000
Ramp it up.

384
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000
140 kV.

385
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,000
It's a lot.

386
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,000
Okay, proceed and close.

387
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:02,000
200 over 2.

388
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:06,000
Okay, we're up to 243, almost 250 kV.

389
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,000
I hear it.

390
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,000
Did you see that?

391
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,000
Yes, I did.

392
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,000
I'm not sure what I saw, but I saw it.

393
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000
Only the mythbusters could manage to start a fire in the shower.

394
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,000
There you go.

395
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:33,000
Here.

396
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000
So, chips is saved from the fire, but was he already toast?

397
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,000
The meter is inconclusive again.

398
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:53,000
The electromagnetic pulse that messed with our camera could be frying it too.

399
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:58,000
Even so, there seems little doubt you don't want to be in the shower during a storm.

400
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,000
I don't care what the meter says.

401
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:10,000
We're not even remotely approaching the actual strength of real lightning, and nobody can.

402
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,000
And yet we're getting these massive arcs dancing across this guy's body.

403
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,000
Arcs the size of boa constrictors that are kind of like wiggling right next to you.

404
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,000
You kind of get the hint that there's going to be a problem there somewhere.

405
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:24,000
Yeah, exactly.

406
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,000
I'm looking at phone confirmed shower plausible.

407
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,000
I'd say that's a safe bet.

408
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:40,000
That amount of voltage and power can go anywhere, and so if you have a lightning storm,

409
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,000
you want to minimize the possibility of exposure to the bolts.

410
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Stay away from things that can conduct lightning to you.

411
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Appliances can do it, water can do it, your plumbing can do it.

412
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,000
Stay away from those things.

413
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,000
I think we're done.

414
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,000
The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict on American soil.

415
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,000
Four years, 600,000 dead.

416
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000
But amid all that misery, could a life have been created?

417
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,000
Was there a son of a gun?

418
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:26,000
There was a gentleman out on the battlefield, and he was struck by a bullet in the family jewels.

419
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:32,000
Continues on, hits a young lady in the abdomen and impregnates her.

420
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:40,000
Just for now, forget making a baby. Could a bullet even make the journey from leg to well of private's privates?

421
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:48,000
Cavalrymen often times fought dismounted. It's very hard to hit anything sitting on a horse. Horses move.

422
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:56,000
When they dismount, they tend to kneel. It gives them better accuracy. A position like so.

423
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:09,000
So, if someone is firing at me, the bullet hits me in the lower leg, continues on, and who knows what's behind me?

424
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:19,000
So it looks plausible, and now Buster gets to play the unhappiest cavalryman in the world, in what will be the first of two tests.

425
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:30,000
The mythbusters need to see if a mini-ball fired from their end field musket could pass through a leg and still have enough energy to fly on for hundreds of yards.

426
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,000
Three, two, one.

427
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:39,000
Oh, no.

428
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,000
Low on to the left.

429
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,000
Got a little more left.

430
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:53,000
Civil War expert and marksman Jim Mitchell is helping adjust the sights, but darned if they just don't keep missing.

431
00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:00,000
In five, four, three, two, one.

432
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,000
Do you think the laser is jiggling when we fire it?

433
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,000
Could be the recoil, yeah.

434
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,000
Come to your left, half inch there.

435
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,000
Perfect.

436
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,000
Three, two, one.

437
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:18,000
It's low on to the right this time.

438
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,000
It was a lot lower.

439
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000
All right, well clearly modern technology is not helping us out here.

440
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,000
We're going to have to do this old fashioned way.

441
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:28,000
All right.

442
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:29,000
Think you can pull off this shot?

443
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,000
Sure.

444
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000
There you go, sir.

445
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:33,000
Very good.

446
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:42,000
We've got busters set up with a artificial calf, which is ballistics jail with a real tibia and fibula in it.

447
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:50,000
Jim's going to aim for that and we're going to catch on this grid back here a high speed shot of what that bullet's exit velocity is.

448
00:28:50,000 --> 00:29:02,000
If Jim hits the leg in exactly the right point and the bullet leaves, we will be able to measure the speed that it leaves at and be able to tell whether it would be possible for the bullet to travel the other hundreds of yards.

449
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000
So we're going to go in 50 yards and hit the woman.

450
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000
So in the interests of ballistic investigation, Buster gets a brand new leg.

451
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:16,000
But long and bitter experience has taught him not to get too attached to his limbs.

452
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,000
And that is especially the case today.

453
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,000
All right.

454
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:27,000
In three, two, one.

455
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,000
We have pieces of bone.

456
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:48,000
Traveling 1,000 feet per second, the mini ball passed straight through Buster's leg, blowing out a piece of bone on the way.

457
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,000
It looks like it went through the ballistics jail and it just collapsed.

458
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,000
All right, let's get another leg over here.

459
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000
They've prepared several legs with different types of bone for comparison.

460
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000
And despite the vintage weapon, Jim is deadly accurate every time.

461
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,000
That feels like a bone hit to me.

462
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:19,000
I don't know.

463
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:21,000
Do you think that was it?

464
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:22,000
Completely shattered at the bottom, yes.

465
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,000
That was the most recent hit?

466
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,000
Yes.

467
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:26,000
All right.

468
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,000
I'm right on center.

469
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:36,000
Even passing through leg and bone, the bullet's still too fast for the high speed, around 1,000 feet per second.

470
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000
Well, whatever the speed it actually is going, the bottom line is this.

471
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,000
We know that the bullet is capable of actually going through all the clothing, penetrating the bone and the flesh,

472
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000
and still keeping going at a deadly velocity.

473
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,000
Absolutely.

474
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,000
The myth is not busted right here, where we thought it might be.

475
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:01,000
It's passing right through all that stuff, so it's time to move on to the womb and see if we can bust it there.

476
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,000
All right.

477
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:09,000
So the next test will have a womb with a view to busting this 150-year-old myth

478
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:16,000
and laying to rest this story of an impossible baby and the most unlikely of marriages.

479
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:17,000
We heard it was honor.

480
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:22,000
I already limped back and married the girl because it was a virgin birth and he wanted to keep her honor.

481
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,000
Well, the Yankees would say that about themselves, but if it really happened on the Yankee side,

482
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:28,000
her daddy had to go get a shotgun.

483
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,000
We know what they're like.

484
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,000
It's a big day out for the myth busters.

485
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,000
I'm feeling really Miami-Bice right now.

486
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:44,000
They're going boating.

487
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,000
But this is no ordinary cruise.

488
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,000
So what kind of speed are you getting now, Jamie?

489
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,000
They're going to recreate that dumbest mistake on the high seas.

490
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:07,000
Carrie, I'm trying to figure out what this is from the title and it's not making any sense.

491
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000
What is trailer troubles?

492
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,000
This is actually about inexperienced boaters.

493
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000
They were taking their boat out.

494
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:14,000
The boat just wouldn't get any horsepower.

495
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000
It wouldn't go.

496
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,000
It couldn't get about five miles an hour.

497
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:18,000
So they took it back to dock.

498
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,000
They called their repairman to come find out why the boat's just not working.

499
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:22,000
The repairman shows up.

500
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,000
He tries the motor.

501
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:24,000
He tries everything.

502
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:25,000
It seems to be okay.

503
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,000
Dunks his head under the water, realizes the trailer's still attached.

504
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:35,000
This is bound to catch on boating with the trailer attached.

505
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,000
The myth busters are going to need some nautical know-how to live this dream.

506
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000
Jay Meiswinkel is their man.

507
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000
He's helped out before on the scuba diver myth.

508
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Hey, Jay.

509
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Hey, Jay.

510
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,000
In his capacity as outboard motor guru, Jay has heard it all.

511
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,000
Even this myth.

512
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,000
The last time I heard it was about a year and a half ago and it was e-mailed to one of the parts guys up front.

513
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,000
He printed it out, sent it back to me and it basically said the same thing.

514
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:11,000
Some things are considered amphibious and they just figured it was supposed to be there.

515
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,000
Fortunately, Jay shares the myth busters passion for the preposterous.

516
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000
This is like what I had when I was a kid.

517
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:26,000
And better yet, he has a 13-foot Boston whaler he's willing to lend to the cause.

518
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,000
The boat dog.

519
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:28,000
This is Ruger.

520
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000
He goes boating more than most boats.

521
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,000
Ah.

522
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:32,000
Alright, Jay.

523
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,000
So what do we need to do to prepare this boat for this test?

524
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:41,000
Well, the boat is already strapped to the trailer, but we will be adding a couple of more straps on there

525
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,000
just to help you with the myth.

526
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:48,000
Not to recreate the entire incident, but to make it more plausible and safe for you.

527
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:53,000
Now Boston whalers have a reputation as being extremely hard to sink.

528
00:33:53,000 --> 00:34:00,000
This one has a 25-horsepower motor, but funnily enough has never been tested trailer on.

529
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Sometimes the only way to get to the bottom of a myth is jump right in.

530
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000
Of course, that's also the way to get to the bottom of the bay.

531
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:15,000
I guess the worst-case scenario is that we could sink, but we're not short at Coast Guard.

532
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,000
So maybe the worst-case scenario is a cranky Coast Guard when yells at me a lot.

533
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000
You know what the worst-case scenario is going to be?

534
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,000
What?

535
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:27,000
A bunch of people around here are going to see us launch the boat with a trailer attached

536
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,000
and then take off and they're going to say, look at what that blonde is doing.

537
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Now, you won't even find this in the lesson plan for a boat launching 101,

538
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000
because it's just too obvious.

539
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,000
When you launch your boat, you back it in, float it off the trailer,

540
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,000
and the trailer stays with the car.

541
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000
Happy days.

542
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,000
I got a GPS system so we can track a fast-forward going in the water.

543
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:57,000
Cool.

544
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,000
So while you're driving, I know exactly how wily you're getting.

545
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,000
The plan is to test the boat without the trailer first

546
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:09,000
to see just how fast it can go under normal conditions.

547
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:15,000
Or as normal as they can be with Rev Head Scotty at the wheel.

548
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Let's see what this baby's got.

549
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:19,000
Woo!

550
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,000
Yeah!

551
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:22,000
We're living miles an hour.

552
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,000
Four keys.

553
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:25,000
16, 18, 19.

554
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,000
20, 21.

555
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,000
Hey, if we throw the cameraman overboard, it will be a little lighter, we'll go faster.

556
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,000
Hey, look at all those poor fools going to work today.

557
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,000
23, they're talking so far.

558
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:52,000
So, Carrie and Scotty have proved you can have a whale of a time in a whaler doing 23 miles an hour.

559
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000
So now, throttling back a little, the real test.

560
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,000
How will it perform?

561
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:58,000
Trailer on.

562
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:05,000
The way we're actually going to do this is disconnect it before it goes in the water

563
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,000
and put a line or a tow strap on it.

564
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:14,000
And then just kick up the front wheel and it will support itself to roll in there with the trailer.

565
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,000
You don't want to try to submerse the boat and trailer with the truck

566
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,000
because then you're going to have to put a snorkel on the truck.

567
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,000
Is this how you would strap it on if you wanted to get the boat and the water with the trailer?

568
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:28,000
This is how the myth would be, they would have normal transmission straps holding the trailer on.

569
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,000
But since we're testing, we're going to add some more.

570
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:38,000
These straps shouldn't affect the boat's performance or lack of it, just make it more secure.

571
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:44,000
And now, perhaps the biggest question of the test all strapped up with the boat even float.

572
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,000
Is she full yet?

573
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,000
No, it'll take a little bit.

574
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,000
Yeah, that's floating.

575
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:55,000
That thing's really buoyant.

576
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,000
Yeah, look at that.

577
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,000
It's still a float and so is the myth.

578
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:06,000
Now the hard work is done, Jamie and Adam have arrived for the fun part.

579
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:11,000
My prediction is that it will significantly slow the boat down.

580
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:16,000
I know from experience with these kinds of boats that anything at all that's on the bottom,

581
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:22,000
like barnacles or anything like that, will dramatically reduce the speed that the boat's capable of.

582
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:27,000
And I can't think of much worse than a trailer to attach to the bottom of the boat.

583
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,000
But I think that's the best way to do it.

584
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:38,000
The boat's capable of and I can't think of much worse than a trailer to attach to the bottom of the boat as far as slowing it down.

585
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:45,000
My prediction on the speed with the trailer attached, if the top speed was 22 miles an hour,

586
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
I'll say 8 or 9 miles per hour.

587
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:55,000
If that boat and that engine, I'd say we're going to get between like 6 to 10 miles an hour at most out of it.

588
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:01,000
With barely a thought for their seafaring reputations,

589
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:07,000
Scotty and Jamie take the new trailer whaler for a spin, a very slow spin.

590
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,000
It's already been kind of sluggish for that speed, isn't it?

591
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,000
Come on!

592
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,000
So what kind of speed are you getting, Jamie?

593
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,000
We're going 4.7 miles per hour.

594
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,000
We're at slow throttle.

595
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,000
Whoa, we hit 4.8 for a moment there.

596
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,000
That's flat out, right?

597
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,000
Flat out, it's not going fast.

598
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:56,000
Sure, it's slow, but even so, it seems this myth is entirely plausible.

599
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,000
So maybe those people weren't as stupid as we originally thought.

600
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:02,000
What are you doing?

601
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,000
What's our speed?

602
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000
It's not healthy.

603
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:12,000
Do you think it's worth trying to ride just right out of the water onto the ramp?

604
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000
Well, that is certainly going to be a lot more interesting than doing what we're doing now.

605
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:24,000
So it works, and maybe the mythbusters are onto something the amphibious runabout.

606
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,000
What's going on?

607
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,000
Woohoo!

608
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,000
Yeah!

609
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,000
That makes floating munchies here!

610
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
I think we're going to start a new trend here.

611
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:59,000
Something tells me that you'll be in the shop this weekend, Jamie, working out a motor drive for these.

612
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,000
So what was our maximum speed?

613
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,000
4.8 miles per hour.

614
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,000
4.8 miles an hour under our lowest estimate.

615
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,000
Kind of a slow jog.

616
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:14,000
Well, this one of those myths worked out so well, almost too well.

617
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:21,000
So I think it's totally a reasonable myth that it could have happened.

618
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,000
In fact, it has happened at least once.

619
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:32,000
We had to deliver a new boat and trailer to a customer of ours who had a ramp in the back of his house.

620
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:38,000
But during his original design, he did not think of trying to put the trailer to the back of his house.

621
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:43,000
In doing so, the best thing we could come up with was to launch a 19-foot Boston whaler

622
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:48,000
with the trailer about a mile away, and we just kind of put it on over there with the trailer attached to it.

623
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:52,000
So this is a rare day for the Mythbusters.

624
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:58,000
Not only have they replicated a myth, they've verified that it's happened in real life.

625
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,000
That's a pretty small boat, too.

626
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:06,000
It had a small motor, small boat, with an 80% loss of power.

627
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,000
I think with a larger boat, it'd be much easier to drive around and not realize that you lost power

628
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
because you've been an idiot and left the trailer on.

629
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,000
Confirmed, but totally goofy.

630
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,000
Easily confirmed, easily goofy.

631
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:36,000
The Mythbusters have shown, ballistically at least, the son of a gun myth is possible.

632
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,000
But now, a setback.

633
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:44,000
While the term son of a gun does stem from those times, it seems it has nothing to do with this myth.

634
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:49,000
Sailors lived on the gun deck, and so that's where they fraternized.

635
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:55,000
So a son of a gun is a child that is conceived on the gun deck of a British man of war.

636
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:05,000
And on that naughty nautical note, it's back to the range, where no such shenanigans are tolerated.

637
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,000
I don't know.

638
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:17,000
The Mythbusters are setting up their second experiment, which will test if viable genetic material can be carried on a bullet.

639
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:26,000
This would represent the 15 layers of petticoats in various undergarments that the women of that era would have on.

640
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:32,000
Ballistics Gal is the eventual target in this experiment.

641
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:37,000
We'll kind of arrange it like so, like a skirt, and there you go.

642
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,000
What I'm wondering is how to aim through a bag towards a target you can't see.

643
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:48,000
200 feet away, Civil War expert Jim Mitchell is contemplating the most unusual shot of his life.

644
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,000
This I'm going to need to shoot off a bench.

645
00:42:53,000 --> 00:43:01,000
He not only has to hit Ballistics Gal, but on the way there, the bullet has to pass through this pouch of Civil War trouser material.

646
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:13,000
And in the pouch, well, let's just say a sample of genetic legacy has been obtained and dyed blue for easier visibility.

647
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:21,000
Genetic legacy? It's sperm. Any kid in grade school knows that. It helps make babies, you know?

648
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,000
It's still viable.

649
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,000
There's one.

650
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,000
Oh, oh, one swimming, there's one. Look.

651
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,000
He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

652
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:32,000
Yeah, we got a few here.

653
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:45,000
So I'm going to put the sample in this cloth bag that simulates the four layers of cloth, two layers of long johns and two layers of woolen pants, and we will fire through these.

654
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:55,000
If any blue swimmers wind up in Ballistics Gal, well, we're probably getting ahead of ourselves. They hardly know each other.

655
00:43:55,000 --> 00:44:07,000
By setting up these circumstances, the way that we believe the myth says, we'll be able to prove that it is so unlikely that it might as well be said that it's impossible.

656
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:13,000
Once it goes through that, there's no guarantee it's going to go straight. We'll do our best, but...

657
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:21,000
This myth has stood untested for nearly 150 years and now hangs on Jim's aim.

658
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,000
Everyone's ready?

659
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:27,000
In three, two, one.

660
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,000
Bloody hell, I think he did it.

661
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,000
Wow.

662
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:46,000
That's amazing. He did it on the first try. That's just incredible.

663
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:47,000
It went all the way through.

664
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:48,000
It did?

665
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:49,000
Yeah.

666
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,000
Fantastic. Do you have a scraper?

667
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:56,000
Yes, I do. I guess I should scrape the entry, huh?

668
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:57,000
Yeah.

669
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,000
Oh, that's a perfect shot.

670
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:01,000
I know. I can't believe you pulled that off.

671
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:06,000
Amazing. Jim, that was just a perfect shot. It was really stunning.

672
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:16,000
Jim's done his part. Now, entry wound samples will be examined under a microscope for traces of still viable genetic material.

673
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:25,000
But first, spare a thought for our hero and heroine. Could the unhappy cavalrymen have survived this wound?

674
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:31,000
Could ballistics gal have lived to tell her unfortunate tale?

675
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:39,000
Constance Smith Golda is at the cutting edge of Civil War medicine.

676
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,000
So, say, Tora, he's a Union soldier. You have to treat him anyway.

677
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:48,000
And he has had a mini-ball go through his tibia and proceed through his...

678
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,000
Will he survive?

679
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:55,000
It depends on how quickly he's gotten medical attention right on the battlefield.

680
00:45:55,000 --> 00:46:08,000
If you can get a tourniquet on you and stop the bleeding and they can get you back to a field hospital or field station like this one within, oh, say, an hour, yes, we can try very hard to save your life.

681
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,000
So the woman that actually gets hit with this bullet, is she going to be able to survive?

682
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:22,000
If I'm not going to be naked in front of my husband when I am burying his child or conceiving his child, I am not going to get naked in front of a strange doctor in the middle of a battlefield hospital and have him look at me.

683
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:27,000
She probably would have bled to death out of embarrassment more than anything else.

684
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:35,000
Well, that's a blow, but back to the experiment. Did the bullet deposit genetic material in ballistics gal?

685
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:39,000
We're scanning for any residue. Keep on moving.

686
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,000
Well, if anything was moving, you'd see it.

687
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:46,000
I don't see anything.

688
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:50,000
I know. I don't even see any things that look like our cells.

689
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:58,000
I mean, I can see all sorts of stuff like the thread residue, the burn residue, pieces of the petticoat.

690
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:02,000
I mean, there's tons of identifiable stuff in here, but none of it is genetic.

691
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,000
Keep going. Keep going.

692
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:11,000
So at a distance of 200 feet, nothing was transferred from the pouch to ballistics gal.

693
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:15,000
As a double check, they try again from 50 feet.

694
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,000
Three, two, one.

695
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,000
This time, ballistics gal is brought in for a more thorough exam.

696
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:29,000
You know what? We're just not finding anything.

697
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:33,000
I mean, we fired right through that bag of genetic material from 50 feet away.

698
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,000
I really think we've done the best effort to find anything.

699
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,000
A birds and bees reality check is in order here.

700
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:46,000
Yes, sperm does form in the testes, but the mature guys live higher up.

701
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,000
And while one mature sperm causes fertilization,

702
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:55,000
many are needed to first break down the walls of a woman's egg.

703
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:59,000
A lucky survivor on the end of a bullet just won't do it.

704
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,000
So how did the myth start?

705
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:05,000
Constance, why do you think people tell this story?

706
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,000
Because it's a wonderful, dirty story. Everyone's salacious.

707
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:10,000
We want to talk about what someone else did.

708
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:16,000
Plus, there are a number of young ladies that really desperately had to explain how that child got here.

709
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:26,000
It seems after all that, this great Civil War myth was really just a great, embarrassed cover-up.

710
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:32,000
But there was some truth to this myth that a mini-ball could go through fabric, through flesh and bone, and easily go 150 yards.

711
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:40,000
Yeah, but despite Jim's remarkable shot, there's just no way any biological material would survive on that hot bullet.

712
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:47,000
Even over 50 feet, we found burn marks on the petticoat and still weren't able to find anything in our scrapings.

713
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:51,000
So I think that myth is pretty much busted.

714
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:56,000
I never get tired of doing that. Never.

715
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,000
Busted.

716
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:11,000
Busted.