this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Illustrations of history

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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to !historyartifacts@lemmy.world

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Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

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Castle defenders pouring hot sand through a murder-hole to injure the attackers below (infosec.pub)
submitted 4 months ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historyillustrations@lemmy.world
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[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Why stop at boiling water temperature? Sand can get much hotter. Was the improvement in damage not worth the time required to heat it more?

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Oh, I have no clue about the exact temperatures, only that they used boiling water for similar functions, so it seemed intuitive to use it as a comparison.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 months ago

One of the benefits of sand over water is the same as the benefit of boiling oil: it can get considerably hotter than water's 100⁰C

[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ah ok. I guess I'll have to find the optimal temperature for the hot sand some other way, you know just in case (for minecraft of course).

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

"A man's home should be his castle." - Someone planning on dumping red-hot sand on top of uninvited guests

[–] Arbiter@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Probably also the fact it flows a lot slower as molten glass.

[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 9 points 4 months ago

There's plenty of room from boiling water temperature to the ~2000°C (3632°F) needed to melt sand. At 600°C it'd be still solid but also could set the things it touches on fire.