this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
98 points (98.0% liked)

Historical Artifacts

606 readers
134 users here now

Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.

Generally speaking, ruins should go to [email protected]

Illustrations of the past should go to [email protected]

Photos of the past should go to [email protected]

founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The podcast "American Carnage" is a great journey if you don't know anything about John Brown. They mention this sword in the podcast, it's got a hollow compartment in it that contains liquid mercury. The mercury flows forward when it's swung in a slash, changing the weight distribution of the blade to kill the enemies of abolition with greater prejudice. Based

Edit: My only source for this was the podcast I mentioned, so take it with a grain of salt. I hope it's true though. It's such an interesting idea for a sword.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

You sure about that? I can't find any reliable source saying as much.

[–] lurch 3 points 2 days ago

I hope they took the mercury out or the chamber has some non-metal finish, because mercury is one of those metals that gets absorbed into other metals making them brittle and weak and ultimately destroying the object.