1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
Please, don't try anything that you're about to see us do at home. Ever!

2
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,000
And then the myth busters put their money where their mouths are.

3
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000
Kind of reminds me of high school for some reason.

4
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:42,000
As they sniff out what's got more nutrients, breakfast cereal or the box it comes in.

5
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:43,000
Smells like poo.

6
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000
Who are the myth busters? Adam Savage

7
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:52,000
And Jamie Heineman

8
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000
This is gonna kill you.

9
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:59,000
Between them over 30 years special effects experience.

10
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000
That's what I'm talking about.

11
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000
Joining them, Tori Belichi

12
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,000
Very excited about this.

13
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:06,000
Carrie Byron

14
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:07,000
Look, he cracked into a skull.

15
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000
And Grant Imahara

16
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000
Don't say anything.

17
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,000
They don't just tell the myths.

18
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000
They put them to the test.

19
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,000
First up, a blast from the past.

20
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000
Archimedes steam cannon.

21
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:31,000
Yep.

22
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:39,000
The myth is that Archimedes created a steam cannon around 214 BC to protect the city of Syracuse from a siege.

23
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,000
But didn't it take us like two seasons to bust the last Archimedes myth?

24
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,000
Hey, that's the truth.

25
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:50,000
The last Archimedes super weapon turned out to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

26
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:55,000
Our death ray doesn't seem to be working. I'm standing right in it.

27
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000
And I'm not dead yet.

28
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:05,000
Despite the combined brain power of the mythbusters and MIT, the solar death ray was just hot air.

29
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,000
But now, Archimedes is back with a steam cannon.

30
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000
So what do we have on this?

31
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,000
Not much.

32
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:21,000
We've got a one-page drawing and some backwards Italian scribbles from Leonardo da Vinci.

33
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000
No attribution there about where he got it.

34
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000
He just mentions Archimedes as the originator.

35
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:30,000
Then we've got some plans from Greek inventor Sackus.

36
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000
Well, the Sackus design is just basically a barrel that you heat the back end of.

37
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,000
It looks like it's got some valving on top and a gravity feed for water.

38
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000
Well, I have to say, looking at these two plans, let's start with the Sackus first,

39
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,000
especially since he built it in a pretty reasonable scale.

40
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,000
Okay.

41
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,000
It all sounds so easy.

42
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:56,000
Yet somehow, Adam and Jamie have got to copy this code and build some extraordinary ordinance,

43
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,000
a steam cannon that would make Archimedes proud.

44
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:06,000
But they're going to start by building a proof-of-concept pint-sized pocket rocket.

45
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:12,000
We're here picking up a variety of copper pipe fittings and sections of pipe

46
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,000
because we're going to assemble all this into a small-scale version of the Archimedes steam cannon.

47
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:23,000
Back at the shop, Jamie's converting the copper into the propulsion part of the cannon.

48
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,000
It's this piping that will become the steam tank of the tank.

49
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:34,000
Meanwhile, Adam's concentrating on the business end, and for that, he's got wood.

50
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:39,000
I'm making the barrel to an Archimedean steam cannon, at least a small-scale one.

51
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,000
But it's not long before Adam's cannon barrel starts taking a turn for the worse.

52
00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:02,000
With a little extra effort and a lot of expletives, Adam finally scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

53
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,000
It fits perfectly.

54
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000
Look at that.

55
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,000
But when Jamie sees the mess, he's steaming.

56
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:17,000
Adam, for whatever his other good points, is a pain in the butt to work with.

57
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:23,000
Not only was he not content to practically destroy about a $30,000 lay,

58
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:30,000
it apparently was so little affected by that experience that he didn't even bother to clean it up afterwards.

59
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,000
Just, you know, knock me down and then kick me, why don't you?

60
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,000
Adam's antics have made Jamie very hot under the collar, which is rather apt,

61
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,000
because this whole steamy story is about temperature.

62
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,000
When you heat a kettle, the water inside slowly turns into steam.

63
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:53,000
But if you massively crank up the heat, water can flash to steam in an instant.

64
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,000
This causes a huge increase in pressure, and hey presto, there's a projectile.

65
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:06,000
That's the theory, but how does this copper contraption put it into practice?

66
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000
What we have here is a miniature replica of Archimedes steam cannon.

67
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,000
We'll put some water in through this funnel here, retain it in this chamber,

68
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:20,000
heat this whole thing up to where it's as hot as we can get it, open this valve,

69
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,000
let the water go down in here, a bunch of steam is created instantly.

70
00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:29,000
It pressurizes this whole thing and fires this tennis ball out the end.

71
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:35,000
Again, it all sounds so easy, but at the Alameda firing station, Adam's not so convinced.

72
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:40,000
Well, the steam cannon's built and there's nothing left to do on it, but try it out.

73
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:45,000
You know, we're out here in the open, we're gonna set up a fire, set up the cannon,

74
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000
see if it does anything besides just blow up.

75
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:54,000
And blow up it might, so as ever on Mythbusters, safety is paramount.

76
00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:00,000
With the blast shields in place, Jamie ties up a quick release that'll flood the steam tank with water.

77
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,000
That's easiest pie.

78
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,000
Well, there we go. We're ready to heat it up.

79
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,000
Remember they need to get the copper tank so hot that when the water is released into it,

80
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:18,000
it flashes to steam immediately and propels the tennis ball so it settles out of court.

81
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000
This is one of those things I have no idea what the outcome could be.

82
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:26,000
It could fire four feet, we could lose it in the water 500 feet away.

83
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:31,000
Well, let's find out because it's full steam ahead.

84
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:37,000
The worst case scenario on this is that the whole thing blows up and is so aggressive

85
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:42,000
that we're all thrown back a couple hundred feet from the explosion and we die.

86
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:46,000
Adam might be laughing, but according to his temperature gauge,

87
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,000
this baby bazooka is almost fit to burst.

88
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,000
This is actually kind of dangerous and kind of exciting.

89
00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:00,000
With the tank reading 250 degrees, it's time to release the water into it and hopefully serve up an ace.

90
00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:06,000
And three, two, one.

91
00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,000
But that's more of a double fault.

92
00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:12,000
Hey, we're making a hot ball.

93
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,000
So what went wrong?

94
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,000
We don't really know why it failed.

95
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,000
It could be a couple of things.

96
00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,000
It could be that there wasn't enough water.

97
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000
It could be that there wasn't a good enough seal.

98
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,000
It could be that we didn't have enough heat.

99
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:29,000
So for test two, they're looking at three alterations.

100
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:34,000
First, they cover the tennis ball in cloth and grease to ensure a tight fit in the barrel.

101
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,000
That's a tight seal.

102
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,000
Then they add more water.

103
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:46,000
And most importantly, they then bring her to boil with twice as many propane heaters to ramp up the temperature.

104
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000
I'm getting around 400 degrees.

105
00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:54,000
Surely 400 degrees will be hot enough to flash the water to steam.

106
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,000
Cover your ears. Here comes test two.

107
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:02,000
Three, two, one.

108
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,000
Oh.

109
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,000
Now what do we do?

110
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:13,000
We didn't get the luscious poof that we wanted.

111
00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,000
400 degrees just ain't enough to get a luscious poof.

112
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:23,000
For that, in the third and final test, they need the tank to be even hotter.

113
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,000
Oh, it's climbing pretty rapidly this time.

114
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,000
This time, the burners peak at a whopping 500 degrees.

115
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,000
That's definitely the hottest we've seen it so far.

116
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,000
Will the tennis ball finally go ballistic?

117
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:40,000
And three, two, one.

118
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:48,000
And no, after three failures, it's looking like game and set to the myth, but the match ain't over yet.

119
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:53,000
Later, the colossal cannon kicks off.

120
00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:55,000
Booze!

121
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,000
But after the break, breakfast with a difference.

122
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,000
Yummy.

123
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:16,000
Canons propelled by gunpowder with a mainstay of any armada's arsenal from as early as the 15th century.

124
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:23,000
But did the great Archimedes invent a cannon powered by steam almost 2,000 years earlier?

125
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000
Well, not if the myth musters are anything to go by.

126
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,000
They just couldn't get their copper cannon hot enough to result in a boom.

127
00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,000
One.

128
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:42,000
With this steamy story boiling towards busted, the team calls in the cavalry.

129
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,000
Welcome to M5.

130
00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:50,000
Roger McCarthy investigates engineering disasters, so he should be ideal for this myth.

131
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,000
And he brings good news about steam.

132
00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:01,000
All high explosive is, is a material that changes from solid to gas very rapidly.

133
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:08,000
You're taking solid water, and you're using heat to instantly flash it to gas.

134
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:12,000
I mean, it sounds like you're actually pretty optimistic that we could get this to work and work very effectively.

135
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:19,000
There is no question that if we engineered this properly, it would shoot a projectile, and so the question is, how many yards?

136
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:23,000
Personally, I think we'd be totally delighted with just a few hundred feet.

137
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,000
Proof of concept here.

138
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,000
Speak for yourself.

139
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:35,000
Largely thanks to Roger, the boys come up with four design changes that may just make this cannon hit paydirt.

140
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:39,000
First, they'll add more water through a thicker pipe.

141
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:46,000
Second, they'll put in a specially drilled tube that will drip the water onto all parts of the hot tank.

142
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:52,000
Third, they'll throw in a bunch of copper nails to try to increase the hot surface area.

143
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,000
And lastly, they'll crank the temperature up to the max.

144
00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:03,000
That's Roger's remedy, but it's down to Jamie to build it, starting with the new water inlet.

145
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,000
You go.

146
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000
Can't beat that.

147
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,000
You can't beat that.

148
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,000
Then it's the new distribution pipe.

149
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:17,000
With that nailed, that just leaves the nails, and she's almost ready.

150
00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:25,000
I'm going to put the ball in first, then I'm going to clear out, you're going to put the water in, and you'll clear out and we'll launch it.

151
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:34,000
As well as the new additions to the cannon, they're maximizing their chance of a steam flash by heating the copper with a blow torch.

152
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,000
We're at about 500 degrees there.

153
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000
Syracuse beware, this cannon's ready to blow.

154
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,000
Oh dude, let's go.

155
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,000
Three, two, one, fire.

156
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:57,000
Well, it fired.

157
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000
It did, it did, it fired.

158
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,000
It wasn't very deadly, but it definitely fired.

159
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,000
Jamie, that was the cutest little cannon I have ever seen.

160
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:10,000
Cute, yes, deadly, not unless the opposing army died laughing.

161
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:15,000
But Jamie has found proof that this was actually a success.

162
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,000
Oh my god.

163
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:22,000
I think there is a reason that this thing wasn't firing as energetically.

164
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,000
No, I think we have as a reason why the Greeks didn't use tennis balls.

165
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:34,000
The heat melted the tennis ball out of shape, so much of the steam pressure escaped around it.

166
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:40,000
Remarkably, it's mission accomplished, so it's time to unleash the big guns.

167
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,000
Look, we've got a proof of concept. I want to move on.

168
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,000
Yeah, I'm tired of these little things.

169
00:12:54,000 --> 00:13:00,000
So picture me, little child, sitting in my mom's grocery cart being pushed through the aisles, looking for cereal.

170
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:07,000
I'd like point at the box of super sugar hyperpop or something like that, and she says, like all mothers say,

171
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,000
no, you can't have that cereal because the box has more nutritional value than the food.

172
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:17,000
Well, like beavers eat wood, that's sort of a wood product.

173
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:19,000
Do I look like a beaver to you?

174
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,000
Sometimes.

175
00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,000
Well, actually more like a ginger gopher.

176
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:35,000
But beavers and other rodents aside, Adam's mom is not alone in believing this myth of calorific chaos.

177
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:42,000
Big puffs of wheat tumble through hot sugar and honey until they're deliciously, delightfully crisp.

178
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,000
But is it the cereal or the box that keeps you sweet?

179
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:50,000
Have the cereal just sweet enough for the whole family.

180
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,000
How do we test it?

181
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:58,000
Well, you know, eventually one of us is going to have to eat a lot of cardboard, like you had to do in the South Pacific that time.

182
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,000
And the other is going to have to eat a lot of sugary cereal.

183
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,000
But for starters, we should just figure out what the caloric content of each is.

184
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,000
Run this through a test with a calorimeter and run this stuff and find out how many calories you'll get out of them.

185
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:19,000
Yummy.

186
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:25,000
To make the cereal box more palatable, Jamie's whisking it up into a cardboard smoothie.

187
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000
Kind of reminds me of high school for some reason.

188
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:35,000
Ah, Jamie's school days. Practicing football, growing facial hair and drinking cardboard.

189
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:40,000
But his recipe gets stranger still as he turns it into pellets.

190
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:41,000
Jamie.

191
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:42,000
Yeah.

192
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:47,000
Wow. Are you replicating the intestines of some small furry animal?

193
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:48,000
I have some.

194
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,000
Have you tried it?

195
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:50,000
Yeah.

196
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:57,000
You know, it tastes uncannily like cardboard.

197
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:06,000
As Jamie prepares more of next week's dinner, Grant's helping Adam with something much more energetic.

198
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:10,000
As it turns out, there is a way to tell how much energy is contained in a food.

199
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,000
And that's by using a calorimeter.

200
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:19,000
These can get pretty complicated, but I think we should be able to find or make something that's pretty simple that will help us.

201
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:22,000
Simple. That will get us in the ballpark.

202
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:27,000
One internet order later, and Adam's all set to get right in that ballpark.

203
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:28,000
That'll help.

204
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,000
But exactly how does this calorimeter work?

205
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,000
I burn it underneath a pot full of water.

206
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:40,000
If I know exactly how much water I have and what temperature it was when I began burning the food,

207
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:47,000
by the time it's all done burning, I measure the temperature and that tells me with an equation what the caloric content of that food was.

208
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:54,000
To check it's all working, Adam's going to run a test with some candy whose calorific content he already knows.

209
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,000
I've got 100 milliliters of water.

210
00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:05,000
I've got my candy, which I know to be 80 calories of candy right here, and I'm hoping when I burn it,

211
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:10,000
that my figures show roughly 80 calories of energy expended.

212
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:14,000
That's the theory, but there's a technical hitch.

213
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:19,000
Wow, this is no good. I can't get the candy lit.

214
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:24,000
The candy just won't catch fire, which means Adam can't calibrate his calorimeter.

215
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000
I'm going to move on to something else.

216
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:30,000
Putting together a calorimeter is the work of a couple of minutes.

217
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:35,000
Making it work? A lifetime.

218
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:41,000
So far, it's hardly a ripped snort in success, but Adam's going to plow on regardless,

219
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,000
starting with his mom's nemesis, a commonly available cereal.

220
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:46,000
Look at that.

221
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,000
And remarkably, it works.

222
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:56,000
Adam's lit exactly one gram of the breakfast booty, and it's slowly heating 100 mils of water.

223
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,000
And we're out.

224
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:07,000
I'm going to start reading the temperature now, even though it's going to take a couple minutes to reach the full temperature.

225
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:14,000
The water temperature went up by 10 degrees, which after some complex calculations,

226
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:18,000
means that one gram of cereal equals nine calories.

227
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:23,000
Can the regular run-of-the-mill cereal box do any better?

228
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,000
Smells like poo.

229
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:33,000
Well, no. After it's burnt completely, Adam does more sums to find that the box has 20% less energy than the cereal.

230
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,000
So what does that mean for Adam's mom?

231
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,000
At this point, mom is wrong, but mom got a lot closer than I would have pegged.

232
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:47,000
I wouldn't have thought that the cardboard box would show only 20% less calories than the cereal.

233
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:54,000
With the scales tipped in favor of the cereal, it's time to start banqueting on box.

234
00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,000
Coming up on MythBusters, the steam cannon spirals out of control.

235
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,000
But I gotta say, it's pretty exciting. It's almost too exciting.

236
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:12,000
Steam power is not to be sniffed at.

237
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:17,000
After all, it's what fueled the great locomotives of the Industrial Revolution.

238
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:23,000
But over 2,000 years earlier, did our comedies use steam to power a cannon?

239
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:30,000
Well, the MythBusters small-scale steam cannon may have looked more comic than killer,

240
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:39,000
but as proof of concept, this was a success. So here comes the big guns.

241
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000
Well, Adam, I think it's time we go full-scale with this one.

242
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,000
Look, I think if we build this, we should do something a little different with this myth

243
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,000
and not limit ourselves to period materials here.

244
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:55,000
We should go with modern materials and go with the best technology we can apply to illustrating the principle of Leonardo's design.

245
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:59,000
If we can't do it with everything that we have, there's no way Leonardo could have done it

246
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,000
and there's no way in hell our comedies could have used this.

247
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:03,000
I agree.

248
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:09,000
Da Vinci's colossal cannon consists of a barrel which is heated in a brazier until it's so hot

249
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:15,000
that a sudden injection of water explodes to steam and fires out a projector.

250
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:21,000
It's a simple design, but the tricky part is going to be finding a big enough barrel.

251
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,000
But, uh, this should do.

252
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:31,000
The barrel of the steam cannon is going to be a 20-foot-long, 6-inch, schedule-80 pipe.

253
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:37,000
The barrel's the size of a Second World War howitzer, but is it big enough?

254
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:46,000
After all, the Mythbusters want to fire this, a 24-pound cast-iron Civil War cannonball.

255
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,000
A wager doesn't fit.

256
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,000
I'd say that's a perfect fit.

257
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000
Hold on. Oh, oh, oh, wait, wait, wait.

258
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,000
Ah! That was scary.

259
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:04,000
With a fit this perfect, the Mythbusters can't help but celebrate with a game of howitzer handball.

260
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,000
I'm not a bad old warfare sucked.

261
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,000
The race is on to get this build firing.

262
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:17,000
And first, Adam sets to work on the coal-fired brazier.

263
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:22,000
Then I've got a thermocouple, which is actually a kiln thermometer.

264
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:28,000
I want to know exactly when this barrel reaches about 900 degrees.

265
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:34,000
900 degrees should be enough to get the water to flash to steam, but how to get the water in?

266
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:39,000
This is intended to simply be an air actuator, a piston.

267
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:46,000
We're going to put water in one side, and then put air in there and push the water out the other side.

268
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:54,000
Jamie's precious pressure system should inject the water in less than 30 milliseconds.

269
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:03,000
With the water injector up and running, the final step is pure retro.

270
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:08,000
Ooh, ooh, look at these.

271
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,000
Oh, that's beautiful.

272
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,000
There's no need to reinvent the wheel because these are straight from the Civil War.

273
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000
They're the real deal.

274
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,000
At last, everything's set to introduce the brazier to the barrel.

275
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:30,000
And the mythbusters are packing the world's first working Leonardo da Vinci steam cannon.

276
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,000
That is so satisfying.

277
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:42,000
And like all boys with their toys, they're pretty damn excited about it.

278
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,000
Bows!

279
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:44,000
Psst!

280
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:45,000
Boom!

281
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:51,000
I'm having some pride issues here.

282
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:54,520
I can't wait to see how much power this thing has.

283
00:21:54,520 --> 00:22:04,640
But before any power propulsions, the Mythbusters first hit the history books.

284
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,320
What kind of historical evidence do we have to support this myth?

285
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,320
A precious little, but we came across these two.

286
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:14,160
One in Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune, Fair and Foul.

287
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:19,560
We have what used to be thrust forth by the clouds of heaven is now being thrust forth

288
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:22,640
by a machine conceived in hell.

289
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:29,520
And then we had Valterio's Dere military translated at great expense and came up with this.

290
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:34,800
The Canon, or Bombarda as it's commonly called, is a contrivance made of metal which, through

291
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:40,960
the agency of flame and esulfurus, or perhaps one should say hellish, powder, pearls, bronze,

292
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:41,960
missiles.

293
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:46,720
You'll notice in neither of these references the mention of the word steam.

294
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,600
The history books may not be steamy novels, but the Mythbusters are ready to see if their

295
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:55,440
Canon colossus can make Archimedes proud.

296
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,360
I gotta say it's pretty exciting.

297
00:22:57,360 --> 00:23:00,720
It's almost too exciting.

298
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:05,440
You know, we've made this big thing that nobody's ever seen before.

299
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:09,600
Apparently there's a lot of potential in this thing and it's big.

300
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,920
So if it works, it's gonna be really dramatic.

301
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:20,360
With the Canon locked and loaded.

302
00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:22,280
Was that the coolest sound ever?

303
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,320
They aim her down the runway.

304
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,440
That looks pretty good.

305
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:31,120
Then make sure there's fire in the hole.

306
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:35,560
Last up, they put a sock on the end of the barrel to help them locate the fired ball

307
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:41,320
because Da Vinci reckoned this thing could fire over 3,000 feet.

308
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,400
The vibe right now is that this thing is gonna work.

309
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:45,640
We're all a little giddy.

310
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:51,000
I give a 20% chance that absolutely nothing will happen when we push the launch button.

311
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,880
I give a 70% chance of success.

312
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,160
That is, the ball leaving the end of this barrel.

313
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,880
And I'm only gonna give a 10% chance that we actually find that ball.

314
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:09,720
But launch will only take place when the Canon is so hot that all the water injected in through

315
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,920
the actuators will flash to steam in an instant.

316
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:17,200
And 1,000 degrees should be hot enough.

317
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,680
Okay, let's get out of here.

318
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:20,800
Clear the decks.

319
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,800
This mother is about to get fired.

320
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:24,800
I think it's time.

321
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:26,800
Give it a countdown.

322
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,800
Three, two, one.

323
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:38,560
Well, that hardly knocked their socks off.

324
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,720
The water definitely got injected.

325
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:42,360
So what went wrong?

326
00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:45,760
Well, on closer inspection, there's your problem.

327
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,240
Adam, what do you see?

328
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:49,240
It's steamed.

329
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,120
Look at the water dripping off.

330
00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:56,280
The inside of the barrel simply wasn't hot enough to get that instantaneous flash.

331
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,480
So they're going to up the end.

332
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:02,120
Well, we've got it now at like 1500 degrees.

333
00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:03,640
That's what the thermocouple is reading.

334
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,040
Well, I think we just want to stoke this fire.

335
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:07,560
Stoke it, stoke it, stoke it, stoke it, stoke it.

336
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:11,800
Get it super, super hot, and then we go and then we'll get a result.

337
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:12,800
I'm wired.

338
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:13,800
I'm totally wired.

339
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,040
Trying to figure out what's going on inside of very hot, very dangerous things.

340
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,160
It's nerve-racking.

341
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:24,320
It sure is bad for the nerves because at these temperatures, the very structural integrity

342
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,520
of the barrel is in jeopardy.

343
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,280
That's a glowing barrel.

344
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,000
We're good for test number two.

345
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,000
Give it a countdown, Jamie.

346
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:34,000
Okay.

347
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Three, two, one.

348
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,000
Oh.

349
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,000
That looked a little terrible.

350
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:45,560
I want this thing to work.

351
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,680
I don't know what could have happened there.

352
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:53,480
I don't want to talk about it.

353
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:58,040
Playback shows the piping leaking significantly because of the heat.

354
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:03,760
If these modern materials can't cope, then how could the ancient Greeks?

355
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:08,360
With the light fading, Adam welds over the leaks and adds more coals.

356
00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:12,960
Then as a last-ditch effort, they decrease the angle of the barrel to make it easier

357
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,960
for the cannonball to fire.

358
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:21,520
Three, two, one.

359
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:22,520
Wait for it.

360
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:28,080
There went the ball.

361
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:34,120
It's yet another Mythbusters ball zone, which leaves this myth dribbling towards Boston.

362
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:40,360
I was hoping that it would actually work, but all we have to show for it is a nice warm

363
00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:41,360
ball.

364
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:46,560
Later, the pressure of the steam cannon gets to Jamie.

365
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:51,000
But on the other side of the break, the serial conundrum gets solved.

366
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,000
Oh, that's lovely.

367
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,960
It's like a sugary mash.

368
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:01,600
Remember, don't try this at home.

369
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,800
We've got years of experience that keeps us safe.

370
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:18,560
Adam and Jamie are investigating some morning mayhem from Adam's mom.

371
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:28,240
She reckons that the box the serial comes in is more nutritious than the serial itself.

372
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:33,160
But so far, Adam's mom is not doing well.

373
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:39,480
In the calorimeter energy test, Adam's just found that the box contains 20% fewer calories

374
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:40,480
than the serial.

375
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:46,880
Next, let's look at what the serial box and the serial are actually comprised of, what

376
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:51,720
kind of proteins, fats, amino acids, whatever might be in them.

377
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:58,400
We need to actually break them down and see what in there might be available to the body.

378
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:04,200
To do this nutrition test, an eating competition had beckoned for the mythbusters.

379
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:10,560
But with low calorie serial box on the menu for one of them, it seems they've turned chicken.

380
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:14,360
My original plan was that you'd eat cardboard for a week and I'd eat some sugary cereal

381
00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:15,360
for a week.

382
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:17,920
It seems kind of ideal for both of us.

383
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,960
But I think we'd both cheat.

384
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,560
I think, I know you'd cheat, and I'm pretty sure that I would end up cheating too.

385
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:29,840
Well, not only that, but I'm actually not just concerned about the nutritional value

386
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:34,960
of the cardboard, but the other things that are in there as well, like things that I wouldn't

387
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:40,040
want, maybe from the ink or something like that, that might be bad for you.

388
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,920
So the human lab rat experiment is canned.

389
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,520
Jamie was scared by potential toxins in the cardboard.

390
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,160
Adam, by the chance Jamie, would cheat.

391
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,600
So instead, they're going to do something more scientific.

392
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,880
No longer are they going to be guinea pigs, but chemists.

393
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:02,040
It may not look like much, but it's science.

394
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:08,160
They're going to test the cereal and the box for fat, protein, starch and sugars.

395
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,480
Oh, that's lovely.

396
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,120
It's like a sugary mash.

397
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:20,600
And for each test, they've got a control to see what a positive result looks like.

398
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,520
First up, they're probing the fat content.

399
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:28,720
And this one, all we do is dip a test strip into each of the liquids for five seconds.

400
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:32,720
Starting with the control, some fat-rich olive oil.

401
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,920
A positive test will turn the pad deep red.

402
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:37,760
So that's a positive test for lipids.

403
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,120
Okay, so our control is good.

404
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:41,800
Next up, the cardboard box.

405
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,840
It doesn't seem that there's any fat in the cardboard.

406
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:50,040
So remember this, kids, cardboard is low in fat.

407
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,600
With the cereal, there is a hint of red to the dipstick.

408
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:54,880
So there's a bit of fat in the cereal.

409
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:55,720
A little bit.

410
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:56,880
Cereal?

411
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,120
It's one zero to the cereal.

412
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,760
Okay, starches.

413
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:06,760
In the iodine starch test, the control gives a positive dark blue hue,

414
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,840
a color slightly replicated by the cardboard,

415
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,480
but much more so by the starchy breakfast bites.

416
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:18,000
Oh yeah, cereal, positive, lots.

417
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:18,600
Yeah.

418
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,560
Meaning it's two zero to the cereal.

419
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:23,240
Next up, the sugar test.

420
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:27,080
And this one requires a bit of microwave action.

421
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,080
What the hell is going on in here?

422
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,360
Here's the original stuff with cardboard in it,

423
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:34,120
and it looks exactly the same color as it did.

424
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:39,040
This is the cereal, and if it has a greenish tinge or a yellowish tinge,

425
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,000
it indicates the presence of sugars.

426
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:47,080
Finally, the protein test makes it a myth-busting four zero to the cereal.

427
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,400
So there's no protein in the cardboard.

428
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:54,080
And to check all their results, Adam looks at the box information.

429
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:57,200
Why didn't we just look at the darn box in the first place?

430
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:00,160
The reason we have to do this is because while it does give you

431
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,840
some of the values of the nutrients in the cereal,

432
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,840
they have neglected to put any of the values of the nutrients in the cardboard box.

433
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:12,320
You mean they actually don't intend that we eat the box?

434
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:14,800
Da da da!

435
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,600
After some sugar-induced silliness, it's time to wrap this one up.

436
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:26,280
Well, breakfast cereal versus the cardboard box it comes in, what are our results?

437
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,760
Well, on the calorimeter test, the breakfast cereal won.

438
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,200
It had 22% more calories than the cardboard box.

439
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,280
What about testing for specific nutrients?

440
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,400
A cereal won hands down in that test as well.

441
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,480
Mom, I'm sorry, but you were totally wrong.

442
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:46,000
That's completely busted.

443
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,600
Stay with us.

444
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,040
As the steam cannon takes two, strikes gold.

445
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:02,800
Dude! That is so cool!

446
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:14,240
In the myth of the Archimedes steam cannon, Adam and Jamie rolled out a barrel bigger

447
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,200
than a Vietnam howitzer.

448
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:22,920
But size is where the comparison ends, because their cannon was about as dangerous as a frisbee.

449
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,400
I don't know about you, but I'd call this myth busted.

450
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,880
Without a doubt, we threw everything we could at this, from high-speed injectors

451
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:36,320
to modern materials to the best advice we could get, and we met all of the conditions

452
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,760
that we were told to get, including getting the back of that barrel red hot,

453
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,040
getting the exact amount of water we should have gotten in, and we didn't get a launch.

454
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,040
It's totally busted.

455
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:50,560
Well, you know, seeing that ball kind of come rolling lazily out the end of the barrel

456
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:51,680
didn't quite do it for me.

457
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:55,560
I think we have to actually launch the ball somehow, and that would mean that we have

458
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,000
to build a proper boiler with a valve on it.

459
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:05,040
I'm going to build a small-scale one that I guarantee will actually fire a cannon ball

460
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,400
just so we have some kind of explosion out of this.

461
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,080
The mythbusters can't leave this myth without a bang.

462
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:16,280
And with Leonardo's design busted, Adam's got a plan B.

463
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:22,480
Their last cannon relied on water being added and flashing the steam instantly.

464
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:27,880
This time, thanks to a heavy-duty valve, they'll heat the water inside the chamber

465
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:34,760
until the steam pressure is such that when the valve is open, the results are explosive.

466
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:45,040
And to open the pressure valve fast enough, Adam's using those pneumatic actuators again.

467
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:49,920
The only thing strong enough to do it fast, it would take me about a full, like, two seconds

468
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:50,920
to pull it.

469
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:53,280
This does it in about a quarter of that time.

470
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,880
That should be fast enough to give it the oomph that their earlier, more authentic effort

471
00:33:57,880 --> 00:33:58,880
clearly lacked.

472
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:06,400
With the gas on, the pressure in the tank is building.

473
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:10,880
Right now we're at about 80, 75, 80 psi.

474
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:15,880
That's about twice the pressure of a car tire and more than good enough for a test.

475
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:16,880
I'm going to go.

476
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:17,880
Okay.

477
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:18,880
Ready?

478
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:19,880
Firing!

479
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:20,880
Firing!

480
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:21,880
Three, two, one.

481
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:22,880
Yeah!

482
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,040
I didn't see where that went.

483
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:27,240
I didn't see where it went either.

484
00:34:27,240 --> 00:34:29,080
I just heard it go pop.

485
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,600
Not so much pop as boom.

486
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:37,520
The projectile came out so fast that no one can locate it except for Jamie, who's always

487
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:39,240
got his eye on the ball.

488
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:40,240
Oh!

489
00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:41,240
Where is it?

490
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:42,240
It's stuck.

491
00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:43,240
Dude!

492
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:44,240
That is so cool!

493
00:34:44,240 --> 00:34:45,240
That's perfect!

494
00:34:45,240 --> 00:34:56,240
At last, Adam's shown that steam can fire a projectile with serious power.

495
00:34:56,240 --> 00:34:58,960
It's wedged in there like, I don't know if I could build something that could wedge

496
00:34:58,960 --> 00:34:59,960
it in there that hard.

497
00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:03,600
Oh, apparently I did.

498
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:06,200
It's the perfect proof of concept test.

499
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,160
So now it's Big Brother Beckins.

500
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,040
Well full scale, that shouldn't take that long.

501
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,040
It's pretty simple.

502
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,400
We could knock that out in a couple of days.

503
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:14,400
And it'll be dramatic.

504
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:18,160
I mean, we should be able to launch a cannonball pretty far using steam.

505
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:23,120
The new cannon is going to be 20 times the size of Adam's prototype.

506
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:30,640
And its success all boils down to this boiler, which some viewers might recognize.

507
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:36,040
This giant tube was once part of the hair cream myth fighter.

508
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:40,240
But before that, it started life as the boat slamming ceramic.

509
00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:44,640
And as a boiler, it could be just as dangerous.

510
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:49,400
This iteration of the steam cannon, and hopefully the last iteration of the steam cannon, is

511
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,360
basically just a big pressure vessel.

512
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:52,360
A boiler.

513
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,880
And we're going to put a couple of inches of water in a sealed metal container with

514
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:56,880
a valve on it.

515
00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:01,200
We're going to put a barrel on front of the valve, cannonball, down that barrel.

516
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,320
We're going to start heating up that water.

517
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,280
It's going to create steam, which is going to build pressure inside here.

518
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:11,640
And when we get the pressure we want, we release our valve, the cannonball shoots off into

519
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,240
the distance.

520
00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:17,120
And our insurance company is freaking out about this thing.

521
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:18,600
And with good reason.

522
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:22,440
When you do the math, the pressures in this thing are enormous.

523
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:27,760
We've got enough pressure in this boiler to actually bow out the bottom about a half

524
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:28,760
an inch.

525
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,920
Well, a few safety reinforcements take care of that.

526
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,880
Meaning she's ready for launch.

527
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:42,840
We have to finish this episode with some kind of explosion or launch that goes pooh.

528
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,160
That's in my contract.

529
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:46,600
Coming right up.

530
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,880
Heavy duty cannon calamity.

531
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:49,880
Firing.

532
00:36:49,880 --> 00:37:01,160
And three, two, one.

533
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,440
The myth of the Archimedes steam cannon is busted.

534
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:09,120
Adam and Jamie's efforts were about as effective as a mop and a monsoon.

535
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,080
But all is not lost.

536
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:15,600
They've built a brand new cannon that is way beyond the realm of what our comedies

537
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:16,600
could do.

538
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,600
But here at Alameda, it might just work.

539
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,280
Okay, everybody stand back.

540
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,000
The gun's now loaded.

541
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,000
Funny man.

542
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,720
He's a funny, funny man.

543
00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:35,520
With the boiler fully primed, the rest of the calamitous cannon is assembled.

544
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,520
But how does it work again?

545
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:40,480
We've got a boiler here.

546
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,880
This will be sealed with this valve right here.

547
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,960
It's got hot charcoal underneath it, heating up some water inside.

548
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:51,840
Once it's sealed, that water turning to steam will start to build pressure in this boiler.

549
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,040
When that pressure, which we'll view on this gauge remotely from a camera, gets to around

550
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,200
175 to 200 psi, that's pounds per square inch.

551
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,920
We're going to remotely release this valve from back behind the glass shields.

552
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,520
And that valve is going to let all of that steam pressure inside this boiler into the

553
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:09,240
barrel all at once behind the wadding, behind the cannonball, and shoot that cannonball

554
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,480
at the city of San Francisco.

555
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,080
It all sounds so easy.

556
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:19,040
With the hot coals shoveled into place, it's from now on that the boiler should be building

557
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:20,040
pressure.

558
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,920
But after five minutes, it's not going well.

559
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,360
It's going to take an hour to build that kind of pressure.

560
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,320
I'm reading exactly bupkis on the pressure meter.

561
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:35,520
But as soon as we see it start to climb, we're going to retreat over to our safety zone and

562
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:37,760
get ready to launch.

563
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:38,760
It's going to work.

564
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:39,800
It's going to work.

565
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:41,040
I'm willing it to work.

566
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:45,360
All of my will is working on this thing.

567
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,560
But when it comes to steam cannons, where there's a will, there's a won't.

568
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,560
I don't have any pressure here.

569
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:53,240
Jamie's answer?

570
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:57,720
Blast those coals with compressed air, which heats them enough to threaten the rubber in

571
00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:01,400
their all-important butterfly valve.

572
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:06,680
Wedding a child to cool the valve threatens to put out the coals.

573
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:08,400
And there's still no pressure.

574
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:12,640
No, I'm not seeing any effect yet.

575
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:17,280
When everything goes wrong, you might as well wrap the boiler in insulating fiberglass.

576
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:19,680
And, why do you know?

577
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:21,680
Hey, it's moving!

578
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,840
We're making some steam.

579
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:24,840
It's climbing.

580
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:26,840
It's now like 11 psi.

581
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,840
It's moving slowly.

582
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,720
But it's moving!

583
00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:34,720
But is it moving fast enough?

584
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:40,520
Gotta get from there to there.

585
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:46,880
Something tells me that the angle of the sun is going to have a lot more to do with when

586
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,800
we launch this thing than the angle of this needle.

587
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:56,680
With the sun dropping, the race is on to get the cannon fired before Jamie loses his sanity.

588
00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:03,120
By my watch, it's climbing about a psi every two, two and a half minutes.

589
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,560
And the sun is going to set at about 5.30.

590
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:13,000
So we've got about 70 minutes and we want to get...

591
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,560
We're just going to have to be fine with about 60 to 70 psi maybe.

592
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,120
That's only a third of the pressure they wanted.

593
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:24,640
But beggars can't be choosers and the mythmusters are currently begging.

594
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:29,680
Please, I want to put this one to bed.

595
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,680
Jamie adds a bunch more coals.

596
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,120
Then a blast of air.

597
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,120
We're at 45 psi.

598
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,120
And at last they've reached the danger zone.

599
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:46,120
We're above 50 psi.

600
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,120
Alright, it's time for us to go. Let's go. Come on.

601
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:55,120
With the team hunkering down for safety, the pressure in the boiler continues to climb.

602
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:59,120
We're at just over 60 psi here.

603
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,120
I swear, look at how hot that valve was getting.

604
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:02,120
I don't want it to fail.

605
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:03,120
You're right.

606
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,120
My vote would be for firing it within the next five minutes.

607
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,120
This just has to work.

608
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,120
If it doesn't work, we're idiots.

609
00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:14,120
Now we may be idiots anyway and that's fine with me.

610
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:17,120
But I'd rather be idiots with an explosion.

611
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:18,120
Wouldn't we all?

612
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,120
Ten seconds.

613
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:24,120
The mythmusters have toiled for an age on a steam powered cannon.

614
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,120
And this is their last chance.

615
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,120
It's now or never.

616
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,120
68 psi, your go for launch.

617
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:41,120
Okay, 68 psi, firing in three, two, one.

618
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:42,120
Yeah!

619
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:44,120
Hey!

620
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,120
Yeah! Boom!

621
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,120
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

622
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:50,120
Put your eyes off of it.

623
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,120
At last, a cannon catapulted by steam.

624
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:56,120
It's mission accomplished.

625
00:41:56,120 --> 00:42:01,120
But how far did the 24 pound ball actually fly?

626
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,120
Yeah!

627
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:07,120
Let's measure at this launch.

628
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,120
Dude, I'm so psyched.

629
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,120
I feel like really good.

630
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,120
Ha ha ha.

631
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:20,120
They sure scored with a cannon, but where's the ball?

632
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:24,120
After scouring the entire grounds, they're about to give up.

633
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:30,120
Until a mile down the runway, J.B. hits paydirt.

634
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,120
Oh, I'll be darned.

635
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:36,120
Ha ha ha ha ha.

636
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:37,120
You didn't find it.

637
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:38,120
I did.

638
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:39,120
You did?

639
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,120
Dude!

640
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,120
Ha ha ha ha ha.

641
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,120
That was a solid mile.

642
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,120
The ball made it a solid mile.

643
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:47,120
But that's not where it landed.

644
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,120
No, no, but still, it might have gone a thousand feet or so, it would be my guess.

645
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:55,120
We were only at about 65 PSI, maybe 68.

646
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,120
And we were shooting for 200.

647
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:58,120
We were ready to do that.

648
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:03,120
It just took too long, and so we fired it a little prematurely.

649
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:06,120
Yeah, we might have ended up hitting San Francisco at 200 PSI.

650
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,120
So we were able to make a steam cannon, finally.

651
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:13,120
But I think we're agreed, our comedies in Leonardo could not have.

652
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:14,120
I agree.

653
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:15,120
Alright.

654
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:16,120
Let's bust it.

655
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,120
The sun's gone down, let's go home.

656
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:19,120
Okay.

657
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:22,120
We'll be right back.

658
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:23,120
Bye.