Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Confederacy Almost Developed a Helicopter in 1862
War is Boring ^ | April 21, 2014. | Michael Peck

Posted on 12/17/2019 12:40:01 AM PST by Swordmaker

But the technology wasn’t quite ready for Robert E. Lee’s air cavalry


It’s the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 and Union forces on Cemetery Ridge await the final Confederate assault. But instead of witnessing serried ranks of rebels marching across a mile of open ground into the maws of Yankee cannons, the bluecoat regiments are shocked to hear the thud of rotor blades.

It is the the sound of Confederate general George Pickett’s 13,000-strong division landing behind Union lines.

Is this a neo-Confederate dream? The Red Badge of Courage meets Apocalypse Now?

No, it turns out that a Confederate engineer actually did design a helicopter back in 1862.

William C. Powers was an architectural engineer in Mobile, Alabama. Frustrated by the Union blockade of Mobile and other Southern ports, which prevented the Confederacy from exporting cotton and importing weapons, Powers resolved to devise a way to destroy Union ships.

(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: civilwar; couldnt; didnt; godsgravesglyphs; helicopters; patenttroll; technology
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-104 next last
To: DiogenesLamp
What no one knew at the time was that the force traveling down the iron pole would kill them merely from the shock

I agree. This is pretty much what the researchers at Duke University are proposing.

41 posted on 12/17/2019 9:23:00 AM PST by Jed Eckert
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: exDemMom
It looks like early flying machine inventors thought that the same processes that move vehicles through water would work to move vehicles through air. That highlights just how inventive the Wright brothers were when they came up with a fixed wing craft. Yes, they had contemporaries with similar ideas, but they were first to make it work.
The irony is that the Wright Brothers (understandably, for their time) thought that a flying machine merited a “super patent” - a concept which had arisen in US law, a patent which was so super that it would never expire. Ironic, because nothing of what the Wrights thought to patent is now still used in aviation.

If you’ve ever played with a model airplane powered by a wound-up rubber band, you have probably noticed what is, interestingly, the Wright Brothers’ invention: the twisted shape of the propeller. That twist isn’t used in powered aircraft, because its virtue is only applicable in low powered, low speed flight. By twisting the propeller blades, the Wrights arranged that the angle of attack of the blade was constant from root to tip even tho the tip moved so much faster than the root did.

But it didn’t take long for that Wright advantage to be mooted by advances in engine design.


42 posted on 12/17/2019 10:07:36 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Bull Snipe
The Confederates were unable to build a single locomotive during the Civil War.
How would they have been able to build that contraption.

The Confederacy had extreme difficulty in making any industrial metal products, such as firearms and heavy equipment. I picked up what I believe is one of their more successful attempts to manufacture handguns during the Civil War a few months ago, a Dance Brothers .44 revolver from an auction selling Chinese ceramic antiques for a song because no one bidding on their items knew what it was. They had it listed as “an old gun”. . . But I looked at it and said “Oh, my God, that’s a Dance Brothers Dragoon!”

That’s neither here nor there, but in it’s entire existence, Dance Brothers, were able to turn out less than 500 guns, despite having some of the most sophisticated Confederate machine tools and forging equipment. (Mine is Serial #460, the highest Dance Brothers surviving number known, which causes me some concerns as to authenticity).

Of the other companies in the Confederacy which tried to produce firearms, only one was able to produce more than Dance Brothers. . . And it sold the majority of its product out the backdoor to private buyers rather than sending them to fulfill it’s contract with the Confederacy, before declaring bankruptcy on its $10,000 contract.

Never the less, the Confederacy did do some amazing innovation, including the building the CS Hunley, a submarine, re-building USN Merrimack as the CS Virginia, the first ironclad ship, and innovating Torpedos, using balloons as firing platforms, etc. The Confederacy was very creative in finding ways to leverage what it did have.

43 posted on 12/17/2019 10:40:31 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Bull Snipe
They manufactured many steam locomotives at the Tredegar Iron Works during the war.

Its wartime production included the iron plating for the first Confederate ironclad warship, the CSS Virginia which fought in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862; credit for approximately 1,100 artillery pieces during the war, about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery between the war years of 1861–1865, including the development of the Brooke rifle;[4] a giant rail-mounted siege cannon. The company also manufactured railroad steam locomotives in the same period.

44 posted on 12/17/2019 10:45:18 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

See my post 44, the south did manufacture steam locomotives during the war.


45 posted on 12/17/2019 10:46:17 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: central_va
See my post 44, the south did manufacture steam locomotives during the war.

That’s true. . . And between those locomotives and other train equipment and heavy ordnance, those priorities absorbed most supplies of iron available for other lighter firearms.

46 posted on 12/17/2019 10:54:42 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker
You'd never learn about this at the University of North Carolina (UNC). They're too busy trying to rewrite civil war history.
47 posted on 12/17/2019 11:02:54 AM PST by CodeJockey (Dum Spiro, Pugno)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker
“What ‘cha’ got thar Jeb? Looks like one ‘o’ them thar new fangled hell-e-copters!’’ "Yes indeede Luke, ain't she purrty? Gonna whip the Yankees with it! Just gotta figure how I'ma gonna get off the ground''.
48 posted on 12/17/2019 11:04:54 AM PST by jmacusa ("If wisdom is not the Lord, what is wisdom?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp

“Manpower wins infantry engagements. The North had manpower, the South did not”
If this were true, General Lee would not have won a battle.

“Equal manpower resources, and the South would have won quickly and decisively”

“If Lee and Johnson had remained in the United States Army the North would have won quickly and decisively

Both are preposterous statements, neither situation existed.


49 posted on 12/17/2019 11:14:09 AM PST by Bull Snipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

The Confederate Ordnance department did a stellar job in providing the tools of war for the Confederate Army.
But it was maxed out, Southern access to the raw materials and manufacturing capacity would have an impact on the Confederate war effort. The longer the war dragged out, the worse the situation became.


50 posted on 12/17/2019 11:21:37 AM PST by Bull Snipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: lowbridge

Also note the advanced stoneworking methods evident in Fred’s wall.


51 posted on 12/17/2019 11:24:42 AM PST by Yardstick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: jmacusa

ROTFLMAO!


52 posted on 12/17/2019 11:25:06 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: eartick
Hell of a post hole digger. Four different augers to choose from.

Especially if it falls from a high altitude at a high rate of speed. . .

53 posted on 12/17/2019 11:26:28 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp
When the engine arrived, it was grossly overweight, and could not produce enough power to compensate. Had they built the engine to his specs, he would have been the first to fly a self powered heavier than air machine.

There was someone in Grass Valley, California, who flew a heavier than air, gasoline powered aircraft, three weeks before the Wright brothers flew their plane at Kitty Hawk. . . but it did not get publicized as much as the Wright brother’s flight except locally in the weekly newspaper in Grass Valley. The Grass Valley flight was for a longer distance as well.

It is a truism when a technology’s time is ripe, it will be invented, usually by several people within a short time of each other. It becomes inevitable.

54 posted on 12/17/2019 11:42:19 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: LS

“had a much more advanced submersible than the “Hunley” in the “Intelligent Whale”

That might count if the Intelligent Whale had been launched during the war, but wasn’t finished before the war had ended. It was laid down in 1863 but not completed until 1866.

By contrast the Hunley not only was finished, it sank the USS Housatonic.


55 posted on 12/17/2019 11:43:47 AM PST by Pelham (Obama. Seditious conspiracy. Misprision of treason.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Tallguy

Good post. Engineering and its analytical formulas and tools are essential to practical applications of science and technology.


56 posted on 12/17/2019 11:44:24 AM PST by Rockingham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Bull Snipe
If this were true, General Lee would not have won a battle.

It is generally true. Lee gave the Confederates leverage they would not otherwise had, and he and a few others made their smaller forces more effective than the larger forces which opposed them.

Even so, had the North simply pressed it's manpower advantage, they would have likely lost fewer men on both sides and attained victory much faster.

57 posted on 12/17/2019 11:46:15 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker
There was someone in Grass Valley, California, who flew a heavier than air, gasoline powered aircraft, three weeks before the Wright brothers flew their plane at Kitty Hawk. . . but it did not get publicized as much as the Wright brother’s flight except locally in the weekly newspaper in Grass Valley. The Grass Valley flight was for a longer distance as well.

I had never heard of this. Seems like they should be given credit over the Wright brothers.

It is a truism when a technology’s time is ripe, it will be invented, usually by several people within a short time of each other. It becomes inevitable.

Stuff like this makes me wonder if there is far more order to the Universe than is readily apparent.

58 posted on 12/17/2019 11:49:20 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp
I had never heard of this. Seems like they should be given credit over the Wright brothers.

There’s a copy of the Grass Valley paper in the museum up in the town with the date and information on the flight, but it was not publicized further than that. Big hoopla in the local area in the gold country of the Sierra Foothills when it occurred but no one did anything about it. By the time anyone thought much more about publicizing it, the Wright brothers had headlines in big papers on the east coast and were being lionized. Not much attention was going to be given to someone claiming priority with little proof other than a weekly newspaper from a small town in the boonies. The Grass Valley builders and pilot may someday get the kudos in a footnote but likely little more. . . I won’t hold my breath until it happens.

As for the inevitability of technology, it’s merely the advance of science being applied by engineers and tinkerers wondering “What can I do with this development and that discovery?” Some things become obvious at the same time to smart people when the basic research is spread freely and widely.

59 posted on 12/17/2019 12:00:28 PM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp

a manpower advantage is little use unless in the hands of a capable leader. The battle of Antietam is a very good example. The Army of the Potomac had almost a 50,000 man advantage in strength. McClellan managed to eke out a drawn battle, even with that advantage. Had someone like Grant or Thomas commanded the Army of the Potomac at the time, I could see the outcome to be very different.
Sheer numbers of soldiers do not win battles. The must be properly lead and equipped to be effective.


60 posted on 12/17/2019 12:39:38 PM PST by Bull Snipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-104 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson