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Warbow speed shooting

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CraigMBeckett:


--- Quote ---Exactly what I was thinking. Seems counter-productive and distracting to be arguing about grammar and periods of recorded time from the original post. JMHO.
--- End quote ---

ADB that is where we differ, I think it is important that any reference to historical events etc is reported accurately otherwise how do we know what is truth and what is merely conjecture, if the minute was not in use during the period reported then the report is factually incorrect and must be treated as suspect in total. In addition if the minute was not in use then how did the person doing the testing know to count to 60. If the report actually said something like "shoot 10 arrows in the time it takes for a slow count of 60", then I could understand it which is why I said it would be nice to see the actual text.

Craig.

Phil Rees:
Erik
...I think you've posed a very interesting question regarding "how did they measure a minute".
One possible answer, and this is pure speculation on my part, is that in human gait, each step from heel strike to heel strike is very slightly under 1 second and the average adult take about 80 steps per minute.
This cadence is remarkably consistant with adult males of all morphological types and reduces slightly in females.
It wouldn't be beyond the whit of man to instruct an archer to loose X number of arrows in the time it takes for a man to walk 80 paces.
...Just my thoughts ...I've no historical evidence to back it up

Cromm:
How about beating a drum?

Phil Rees:

--- Quote from: Cromm on October 20, 2010, 06:38:48 am ---How about beating a drum?

--- End quote ---

..Yes ..sounds (forgive the pun) perfectly feasable

bumppo:
Craig,

No I didn't take it as a personal criticism, didn't mean to come off that way. Just trying to point out that she's a 21st century writer using modern english, not latin or french, thought we would all be smart enough to realize that. Today the verb "fire" describes a process wherein some sort of energy is used to start or direct another action, usually in a direction implied to be forward. Whether you fire an imagination, fire off an email, or fire an employee. Are these things literally propelled forward through a combustive process, of course they aren't, but I don't think anyone would dispute the fact that they are all "fired".

I hope we can get past this and get to the heart of the matter. Excellent point in questioning what a minute actually was in the 15th century and how Ms. Barker interpreted the record as written in her book. After reading these questions, I wrote to Ms. Barker to find out where the reference was. This is what she wrote:

"The manuscript reference you are seeking is in the National Archives, in the exchequer records (E) and the call number for the manuscript is E101/45/19. It certainly won't be on line but you can get copies through the National Archives website either sent to you via e-mail or as photocopies. (I prefer the latter as being more legible). A word of warning - you need to be able to read exchequer script and latin to be able to decipher it!
 
Best wishes
 
Juliet"

I've written to the National Archives for the records and hope to post them soon. Hope this helps.

Walt

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