Jan
20th
2019
Can Ponies Do That? · 1:52am Jan 20th, 2019
I wrote this in response to the recent going ons in Uncommon Grounds: https://www.quora.com/You-have-a-primitive-society-They-have-steam-engines-and-electricity-but-no-computers-They-have-cannons-but-no-firearms-They-see-a-rifle-in-action-and-get-one-to-examine-how-hard-would-it-be-to-reproduce-Then-an
The answers are interesting, but seem to boil down to I wasn't completely off my rocker with how I handled it, which makes me happy, yay!
Report
David Silver · 432 views
·
Ha. Very nice.
The answers so far cover the main issues well.
These answers seem to be limited to whether or not the tools/machines/processes necessary to produce the items in question would exist - or could easily be invested - in the premise outlined. That's not surprising, given that the question asks "how hard" it would be to produce those items. But I can't help but feel that the greater question is "would ponies do that?" While we tend to take it as axiomatic that any new technology - where it accomplishes something better than extant efforts - will be adopted, that's far from being universally true.
Talented Afghan blacksmiths can make working copies of AK-47s over a charcoal forge with common smiting tools. No need to have the capability to machine steam engine parts.
There are a couple of WWII era automatic designs that can be fabricated from sheet metal using only shears, a drill and some files.
The tricky bit in both these scenarios is the ammo, but designing a system that will operate within a fairly large tolerance isn't that hard. The Italians had a hand cannon (a "gonne") in the mid 14th century that could fire 10 rounds a minute if the canisters were pre-loaded. It couldn't maintain that rate of fire for long without bursting the barrel, but you didn't need highly trained men to operate it, and peasants are cheap and plentiful.
EDIT:
Oh yeah, for several centuries air-guns were very popular for hunting. They scale up fairly well; think "BB-gun that could take down a moose." They had the advantage that they were much quieter than powder weapons, and you didn't need to store unstable gun powder for long periods of time... as long as you had some of those handy peasants to pump the thing up for you!
4999680
If you read the story, the ponies have a reasonable desire to.
I think the biggest SOD issue is timelines. How may ponies do you need to outfit? How long will it take? What kinds of logistical problems do they face keeping these things in good repair? The Crystal Empire is pretty far out in the boondoks from Equestria's industrial centers, and you know that single rail line is going down sooner than later.
And don't forget...
i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/06/06/7c0606ed440c935a06381da3e7a3c6c9.png
A lot of cannon designs used a cast iron barrel with wrought iron straps or drawn wire wrap or anything else added to the outside of the barrel to try and help hold it together, but I suspect they couldnt afford the effort needed to make an inside cast iron narrow barrel, inside a thermally fitted outser wrought iron barrel. Or a wrought iron gonne barrel with a cast iron lining inserted while the wrought iron is hot so that on cooling, the cast iron is heavily precompressed against the explosion inside?
At a certain point they're going to hit a point of diminishing returns due to their lack of materials science. As the brothers have discovered. Competent imitation can carry you a long way, but sooner or later you have to understand the science in order to progress. And the Flim-Flam brothers are no scientists.
Did you look at the wikipedia link for the USS Vesuvius that was in his answer? Pneumatic naval guns? I never knew there was such a thing. Funny how it wasn't a very effective idea, except that surprise night bombardments were apparently highly effective on enemy morale, because you didn't hear any cannon shots before there were explosions.