History Channel
Ancient Discoveries: Ancient Mining Machines
Thu April 16th at 9:00pm
Fri April 17th at 12:00am
Fri April 17th at 10:00am
The Romans created a hydraulic mining system that literally blew millions of tonnes of mountain away. How was this possible? Ancient sappers dug under the walls of the mega castle Jacobs Ford in 1178 and brought a whole castle down. How?
Ancient Discoveries has built a wall and will dig a tunnel and bring it down the ancient way. Castle defenders invented listening devices to warn them of miners digging under their walls - how did these work, and what was the lethal concoction they used to smoke attacking sappers out of the tunnels?
Also investigated is exactly what device brought gunpowder explosives to the mines