history that’s just starting over again , when 2000 years before this The civilisation was more advanced.

It’s interesting how many of these weapons and devices, consciously or not, look like inspiration taken from insects. The whole exoskeleton thing is obvious as well as the insectile protrusions

John just uól

I hate netflix. Thanks for saving me the time.

I agree 100!!

The history channel: here is a castle. Aliens made it.

@multiHappyHackerchoot 'em elithabet!

aaah HC's pre-pawnshop era... good old times...

@Your Conscience Toboggan's are deadly without sharp objects but take no prisoners.

The only down side to that is the enemy ends up with your very expensive war weapon. I was thinking hooking (behind) a fast horse and rider and letting the opposing army initiate infantry battle and then sending it into their midst just before sending your own infantry..

@kev3d Since the internal portion was never depicted, it's possible there was a rudimentary impact fuse inside. An ignition source (ember, fuse, lump of charcoal, etc.) on a sliding cart that could move with a little effort to either side, and the grenade would have a corresponding touch hole. If it was suddenly stopped via contact with people or horses or siege engines, the fuse cart would keep going, sliding the ignition source to the touch hole, and there's your explosion right when you needed it. Perhaps instead of being carted back and forth in a hallway like a video game, they were held in positions behind the wall on a ramp until the enemy got close, and then let loose into an enemy formation. Seeing as how they were so short, they could potentially fit through holes in a defensive wall that couldn't be utilized by attackers. Maybe the blades on the front/rear were more for stopping the thing so the impact fuse could be triggered, rather than cutting legs off and whatnot. Though I guess they could serve more than one purpose in that regard. A few things that don't really fit with a roll it down a hill idea is the bi-directional design and the lowrider little wheels. Bi-directional is entirely redundant for a one and done/ram and explode type of weapon, which would suggest that it was meant to be used coming and going, possibly like the video suggested. The wheels don't appear to be useful rolling downhill, they're too small for that and the first little bump would send those blades plowing into the ground and rendering your metal murder explodey cockroach useless. They look to be more suited for street/cobblestone/bridge terrain. Maybe they sent them down a street or bridge tied to a rope, blew up the initial invading wave, allowed the next wave to make their way past, then were pulled back for another attack from behind. Send a bunch in series, act like you're retreating when you run out of them, but really you're pulling them back for another attack from behind. Use horses or counterweights for the retrieval or something. The mention that it could be sized to any dimension desired throws another wrench into the mix...I mean, a small variant might have use in castle defense, but they could only get so big before they'd be useless in a castle. Size them big enough to completely span a hall/road/bridge? Maybe it could be effective, but where would you store the silly thing before or after the attack? I dunno, it's all a guessing game really. Could've just as likely been an attention grabber for people to buy his book or services, we'll probably never know.

@pixelletickle But for what?

@Michael Hendricks ... Then that would make me the Oracle at Philadelphi.

@Cletus Spuckler Stable Jeanius How did Socrates define "wisdom," Jeanius? Do you know the story of him visiting the oracle? LOL You EPITOMIZE that story.

@Cletus Spuckler Stable Jeanius I have never laughed so hard or long at a youtube comment than I did reading what you decided to call yourself. "Jeanius" LOLLLLLLLLL!!!! You don't even understand basic reasoning! LOL! I can't stop... I can't breathe... omg... THANK YOU, I haven't laughed that hard in months.

@Cletus Spuckler Stable Jeanius Smart people make mistakes. Stupid people don't realize they've made mistakes. You didn't even understand what I said.

@Cletus Spuckler Stable Jeanius HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Thank you! HAHAHAHAHA!

And this channel, which literally contradicts themselves in their own videos, fixed that for you?

This is nothing new.

😂 "impossible"

In most of the scenes they're using rubber head arrows, but at 33:25 you can see one of the arrows managed to penetrate the bell with someone inside. That was either very well staged with a real arrow or the guy in the bell probably pissed himself trying to scream cease fire.

I noticed that they didnt use anykind of arming cap under the helm and that would definetly increase the amount of force transferred straight to the head.

Some scenes apparently had dummies in the suits.

@Nickolas Phillips Thats spring steel for you, the only steel real swords are made from.... Stainless is much harder but will break. Thats why SS swords are usually just replicas to put on a wall....

The blunted arrow tips were probably for liability reasons that the production company's insurance stipulated (these dudes seem like they would absolutely go for full 100% authenticity if given the chance 🤣)

I can't stand him

It's Mike Loades, he's always like that :) Believe it or not, he's about 70 at the time this video was recorded!

There really is something so joyous about listening to people talk about their passions

Cotton wool culture

@Ned K no. No he didn't

The poor schlub probably had to sue due to primitive methods on the set 😃

He looked upset to me. He sounded like he was describing a head injury and the host was just this is how we train 🌞

The guy they brought in, John Clements, is widely known in historical European martial arts circles to be... shall we say "less than concerned" with the safety of those around him and those he works with.

He was officially a master of the duels, but probably had some influence on weapon purchasing by his lord.

That guy had a concussion. No way he didn't while claiming to feel sick like that.

@Volatile well in certain parts of the USA people are already back at that level... *cough* Flint *cough*

@Whatsit 2ya then you never studied science. Biology, physics and chemistry went through incredible booms in the early 20th century. Not to mention we are innovating and an exponentially increasing rate as time goes on. You’re mistaking “not perfect” with “no better.”

@Whatsit 2ya Have you used a smartphone sir? All that tech that used to be seperate things some of them huge are now in your pocket. That's just one thing that has changed since 1980. Cellphones used to be bricks you could see from space.

@Gonken88 this is true to a great extent. Imagine being so religious that your every waking breath is governed at least in your mind, by God. Some laws that stand from these times still hold true to my morals. For example, in England in the 14th century two brothers had a sister who was beaten to death by her husband, their brother in law. The two brothers wreaked vengeance on the man and were pardoned before a court because they were upholding the honour of their family by killing their sister's murderer. In those days it was pretty easy to make a living from the heads of others, so long as you went around chopping the heads off of people that they didn't like, you were okay. A very brutal time, but still not as bad as we let on today

We are the same people really.....no soy boys then though

@Dylan McCallister Relatively recently a papyrus was found from a workgang foreman who transported the stones up the Nile. I forget specifics but should be easy enough to find online?

@33 RPM I have no idea wtf you’re on about here bro. I don’t care either.

@Anti - Ethnic Cleansing Tis a good video I agree... dunno bout the well written bit but - blood thirsty jewels?? Maybe duels? Or the medieval mob not have 2 separate spellings for the shiny rocks and battles?

@Golden Ratio Lmfao. No I don’t work for the department of antiquities. You can choose to not accept this fact if you so choose, but I find that to be sad that you have difficulties accepting reality. This is something that is easy to learn about if you only put in a little time to research it.

@A PK It being fiction could be a possibility, and yes there wasn't much objectivity, but it is quite astonishing that everything they tested in the video either outright worked or is plausible. And if it is fiction, then what might the story be, if it had one?

Did nobody stop snd think that maybe this "manuscript" is actually a fiction piece or written for entertainment at the time? Everyone acting like it's some sort of special book illustrating everything as factual. There doesn't seem to be much objectivity from the people who've looked at it.

That guy was given a concussion for this video

Look up the YT video of the guy running in acurate full plate armor. It's like an 11 year old video.

Pritty awsum above is correct be sht for women

Brutalistic!! Was tough living for sure. Must’ve been horrific for women!

wasn't this the beginning of the renaissance

The present forgets, that's why understanding history is so important. The chain allegory is obvious when it's realised, as are the devastating fighting techniques. Talhoffer was good at fighting because brain beats Brawn.

or...you are the weak link Talhoffer found. it's about manipulation. most people are highly suggestible. hence why history channels exist on YT.

I don’t like your comment now you must stand trail by combat and god will decide who was in the right. Sounds productive huh

I get your point, and I agree. However, there was no burden of proof back then, and a noble could hire a warrior in his stead for a duel. Meaning if you are a peasant and a noble wants to see you die, all they have to do is accuse you and let the warrior go to work during the duel...

I didn't even notice this was 50 minutes long

I agree thoroughly with your comment… This video is very captivating! I think you have a typo though… I’m sure you meant “tested,” and not “rested,” right?

Indeed. I lost 40kg in weight over the last 2 years and my physical agility is just the same as before. Yet a 40kg backpack would kill me. It's about distribution. Extra weight in your legs doesn't stress so many parts of your body. Same reason that aircraft carry as much fuel as possible in the wings. It doesn't contribute to stressing the airframe.

You'd be surprised how many average men could carry 40kg of armour extra. To be able to perform in it for hours on end is another whole box of frogs

@Andrew Osborne so let's compromise on context is king, shall we? ;)

@Andrew Osborne they did in the napoleonic wars, that is true. Attacking with all of your gear in a western trenchwar setting like verdun when charching through the nomansland would be moronic though. Especially because you had places to store that stuff, other than in the napoleonic wars. If you are literally walking in fire lines, your rucksack ist still a hinderance. If you are running at mg fortifications like they did in wwI trench warefare or engage in heavy hand to hand combat like roman legions it would be completely nuts.

Napoleonic wars, soldiers were fighting wearing their packs and some wore them assaulting fortifications. The pack may well have been 40-60lbs.

@Frank Denmark has never been part of the Holy Roman empire. The Danish kings have had holdings within it, and for those holdings been underlings of the Holy Roman emperor. This is were the disputes of where the German-Danish border should be situated originated.

Wasn't Schwabia also the home of Gotz "One Day They'll Name The Coolest Manga Character After Me" The Iron Hand? Pretty sure him telling his enemies to "Kiss His Ass(TM)" was called the "Schwabian Salute"

@Tethryss Suebi were an old germanic Tribe, the name Swabia is actually derived from the tribe of the Suebi.

@Anti - Ethnic Cleansing Actually the "Vikings" were the biggest Traders at the time period they're Working. Just look at the Old Northern Trade Ports and Cities like Haithabu/ Haddeby. The Image of the always Pillageing and Conquering Nordmann Warrior is actually only the Hollywood presentation of things. Because Vikingr means not only that he is raiding but actually a Sailor& Shipmen and making a Journey on the Seas.

intruiging

@James Joy That would be quite a scene!

I was thinking the same thing! Imagining a pitched battle, with arrows and flames and smoke . . . and a pair of those siege-bells relentlessly approaching the castle walls like dark age daleks!

It was originally on the History or Discovery Channel back in about 2010/11. I recorded it from Sky TV, and it was still on my old STB till a year ago, it had been there for over 10 years. I've watched it a few times over the years. I'm glad it's on TRshow now, I can link it to my younger re-enactor friends who never saw it. Some good presenters with some real credibility too - Dr Bethany Hughes, Mike Loades, Terry Jones are all respected historians/presenters, and John Clements is a renowned HEMA instructor and author. Some of it was filmed at Cosmeston Medieval Village, and Jamie, the armoured guy who carried the "bomb" against the archer, used to be an armourer and weaponsmith there, and the leather siege bell was at Cosmeston too. We used it as part of a medieval re-enactment skirmish back in about 2011. Me and my wife often talked about doing the judicial duel between the woman and the man in the pit. Or the "rock in the sock" fight as we called it 😁

The segment introducing the book sounded too much like an "ancient aliens" segment on those disgraced channels. But I battled through that obstacle to enjoy the rest.

@Chronic Awareness like in ww1 that would have greatly limited its effectiveness in offensives being relegated to specific locations my guess is it’s like the early ww1 tanks meant to be a breakthrough weapon but were slow. But when they became mobile gun emplacements when they were deployed.

They could have used rails like a train maybe

It was the Roman Empire that introduced Paved Roads across much of Europe. Some cultures may have had paved roads beforehand, but none did what Romans did before the Romans did, which was build a continental scale paved road system. Most of their contemporaries used packed dirt / stone roads. It wasn't until much later that roads of similar or better quality became common. Truth is, after the Western Roman Empire fell, many of those roads fell into disrepair. There are still a few functional originally built roman roads, however they've been worn so much by horse drawn carriages and other wheeled vehicles that massive grooves exist throughout the paved / stone surface. Britain's first paved road network was Roman, same is true for much of Europe, and gradually they fell into disrepair in the Dark Ages / Byzantine Era.

There are people right now doing stuff that will land in a video like this one day.

@davidj Very likely that the one guy that actually had gloves on had the original (which was also placed on a stand instead of being held) I'd love a copy of it tho

I had the same thoughts. I suspect that they made copies of the original, and used those to leaf through.

@Tim Sexton Yes, very helpful, thank you. I had never heard the term CV used before, always Resume. Which is fine I think for most people. Those with advanced degrees, many accomplishments, etc, would likely know about and use CV instead.

​@Sanction H The ire & insults in response to your comment, do little if any, to inspire education. While your comment mentions the word resume, a person in the video mentions the term, CV a bit past 16:40. Résumé is a French word. Loose English translation means, "summary". One or two page chronological document that details the career background, education, and skills of a person (job applicant). CV is Latin for Curriculum Vitae (course of life). It is a formal document, usually of greater comparative page length, and details an exhaustive summary of the academic education and achievements of a person. Used by applicants for roles in academia, scientific research, and medical fields. As a citizen in the US, I was unaware of the term CV until just a few years ago. I get the impression this may be a cultural phenomenon where the term CV, is used more broadly in and around Europe, than the states. Anyways, hope this helps.

There was one thing missing in, let's say 1460s. To have grounds to call out a plagiar between works of large distances and time, if details in them were not a textbook common knowledge stuff. You had no internet. Scholarship and libraries had some information, if you were lucky to get them. But the rest of innovation was up to inventors/engineers, just as today. You always build on the works of your predecessors, even the geniuses. Principle of evolution and entrophy.

@Wicked Lee Stated or implied?

Mainstream Historians do spreads cliché, but real scholars tells otherwise.

Sütterlin script was created in 1911 to replace the Kurrent, cursive script of earlier centuries, but learning Sütterlin would help you read the old manuscript

@zelgades Gruß aus Oberbayern. Ich hab Sütterlin gelernt um die Feldpost meines Großvaters zu lesen, die er von der Ostfront geschickt hat. Ging überraschend einfach. 🤙🏻

I was wondering too when I hear this. I live in the south of germany and yes, I speak swabian. Its a little bit difficult for me to read the writing of the book, but I can a little bit of it. My Oma was still learning how to write the sutterlin writing in the 1940 until 1950

I guess it was more about what materials were at hand (metal isn't cheap) and it required serious smelting technology to create some of these contraptions. But ultimately, people are lazy and stick to what they know. They'd rather spend time learning how to use what was available to win a battle instead of risking experimental new techniques and inventions

For a follow-up: Willy Ley, The Conquest of the Deep (Chap I, The Submerging Elephant) Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1938

@Dan Sweda 🤦

@Dan Sweda They wait until it's good and dead, and fossilized, then use some kind of tools to clear the dirt away. It's easy.

Yep, that skull had been laying around outside for a while and was quite brittle.

@Dan Sweda bones can survive but their integrity may not. Fresh bone is pink and doesn't shatter into a million pieces. I've known people who have been hit over the head with some horrendous tools and although a fracture was caused, their skill didn't disintegrate

Good information, my first thought was that it was simply to avoid boiling oil , poured down from the parapets

@HomeDistiller I do wonder about the scale. But as exampled, I believe they could be very effective. Being low to the ground the bell would become ineffective. Grenades were common place, building things as once use items also common place. As a last line defensive system, rarely would they ever be employed. The cost in the face of this is miniscule.

@HomeDistiller they didn't ow it up at either end they would've had crudely made grenade like bombs that were replaceable

I don't think they interpreted the drawing correctly or its use at all... Why would you waste all the time building a steel contraption just to blow it up? Hogwash.. I think they got the scale all wrong

Great point!

Wanna bet. SAS Angola

Are you volunteering?😅

I mean . . . You want to be the test dummy? It's just there to give you an idea of how powerful it is.

It's a rock, they break skulls living or not, it doesn't even have to be the rock that's in motion as you can just drop someone head-first on a rock and it will still break their skull. It was an extremely pointless demonstration.

Nor is a woman who hasn't been training for a month, knowing she is going into a fight for her very life. I'm a martial arts guy and ex-military, I'll tell you right now the weapon being used could easily fracture a human skull and that as they say on FIF is a kill

Nope, I knew it was not because of the drawing style. Remember the images from the Voynich book were much more Linneo-style as topic,and medieval in appearance. These look more Gothic/early Rennaissance.

She's kinda hot

@Deacon Gowan Funny how there isn’t any cool inventions videos for where you came from. Hell… Even the wheel was too difficult of a challenge for your peeps. Lmao.

Sounds like crappy British English to me.

What if the Crayfish was rolled down a hill into enemy formations? It seems more likely given that it would acquire a decent speed with it's weight and would slam into battle lines where the bombs would then detonate after punching through and cause extra damage to rear lines. Trying to grab it to stop it would be extremely difficult as you'd get shredded by the blades, wheels and spikes, and would take off the legs of whoever it came barreling into.

This as very enlightening. Knocked some of my HS lessons out of my head! Thank you.

@Tony Pearson True. My best guesses would be one of the following: 1. Fuses can be very very long. Its possible that the fuse string would be fed through a small hole that goes behind the wall where the gear operators were. And they would be instructed to light the fuse (by a watchman) in such a way as to time the detonation to line up with the invaders entering the area. 2. It's possible that there may have been some sort of "match strike pad" that created a spark or something in the tracks, so simply moving the device past a certain point would ignite the fuse inside. 3. As you said, its possible they were never actually used as explosive devices in history at all, and that the moving blades were simply designed to cut at the ankles of horses and men invading. Which, I feel, is probably pretty adequate of a defense in and of itself. Besides that, detonating such a complex hand crafted device seems like a huge waste of a skilled blacksmith's time, given that mass production wasn't feasible yet.

My question is how is the fuse lit? There wasn't a person inside the device and they didn't have remote detonators. So you really can't believe all of this, besides this is how they THINK the things works.

It's used in modern times for instruction of European martial arts

Wow indeed this is very very interesting...I think it is a memory of a previous soul maybe...Very very interesting makes you wonder