In 1862, Georgia dentist, builder, and mechanic John Gilleland raised money from a coterie of Confederate citizens in Athens, Georgia to build the chain-shot gun for a cost of $350. Cast in one piece, the gun featured side-by-side bores, each a little over 3 inches in diameter and splayed slightly outward so the shots would diverge and stretch the chain taut. The two barrels have a divergence of 3 degrees, and the cannon was designed to shoot simultaneously two cannonballs connected with a chain to “mow down the enemy somewhat as a scythe cuts wheat”. During tests, the Gilleland cannon effectively mowed down trees, tore up a cornfield, knocked down a chimney, and killed a cow. These experiments took place along Newton Bridge Road northwest of downtown Athens. None of the previously mentioned items were anywhere near the gun’s intended target.
r*ddit

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56 points

None of the previously mentioned items were anywhere near the gun’s intended target.

Reading is hard.

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25 points

Kindness is also hard (and takes practice). I believe in both of our abilities to keep improving!

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16 points

Which isn’t necessarily an issue if your goal is to hit somewhere in a line of charging infantry. Why you wouldn’t just use canister shot is beyond me, but accuracy isn’t much of an issue if your target is an entire enemy formation.

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7 points

It’s an issue if you need the chain to be stretched across parallel to the side by side group of soldiers charging at you.

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5 points

I don’t think you realize how much they missed by:

“On its second firing, the chain shot across the horizon and into a thicket of pine.”

So, you’d miss the entire army you were shooting at, and hit a nearby forest.

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11 points

Hey, it hit what was in front of it. The solution to the being “randomly inaccurate” problem is more of them!

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14 points

Solution: aim the Gilleland cannon at what you don’t want to hit, then fire!

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5 points

Unless one barrel misfires, then it hits whatever is standing next to it.

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3 points

The key to victory is surprise. So. Surprise.

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10 points

Poor cow

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1 point

That’s, like, the joke.

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