I'm not sure I understand torch technology...

[T'Baio]

I love watching movies that take place in the middle ages or some sort of fantasy realm like Lord Of The Rings.

One thing that has always seemed to confound me is, how long can a torch last? What sort of magic are these people using where torches can burn all night, or for journeys over days through dark underground lairs, yet the torches never shorten, they never run out of fuel or material to burn and they never burn out? In fact, they are always burning brightly.

What sort of technology did they have in the middle ages that we no longer have?

Fire...it confuses me so.

 

[backstept]

torches could be a wick burning oil like modern tiki torches
or a stick wrapped with rope saturated with pitch

 

[sojourner]

It's just a conceit to keep the scene lit for the audience.

 

[T'Baio]

It's just a conceit to keep the scene lit for the audience.

Damn you and your logic.

 

[Mike Farley]

What sort of technology did they have in the middle ages that we no longer have?

Well, Lord of the Rings had Magic.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

What sort of technology did they have in the middle ages that we no longer have?

Midichlorians.

 

[Aragorn]

We have this technology for modern times. But instead of keeping torches lit, it was adapted so that hand guns can hold 60,000 bullets.

 

[Christopher]

The torches were specially treated so that they'd last precisely until the moment when burning out and plunging the bearers into darkness would be most dramatic.

 

[Velocity]

We have this technology for modern times. But instead of keeping torches lit, it was adapted so that hand guns can hold 60,000 bullets.

sort of like how a starship has an endless supply of shuttles.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It's just a conceit to keep the scene lit for the audience.

Damn you and your logic.

Taking the conceit as a given, how long would a real torch burn?

 

[Mike Farley]

The torches were specially treated so that they'd last precisely until the moment when burning out and plunging the bearers into darkness would be most dramatic.

Kind of like how Roger Rabbit can only escape from handcuffs when it's funny.

 

[Trekker4747]

Ahh, the movies and the Everburning Torch, how you are so loved. I like it in movies where a character enters a tomb or some-sort that's been unoccupied for centuries and the character picks up a torch, or lights a wall torch and both work and burn perfectly as if they were made yesterday. Try striking an ordinary match that's been sitting in a box for more than a couple of years and tell me how that works out for you.

The everlasting part always cracks me up because, yeah, the torch just burns never appearing to shorten or consume anything it's like it's the Olympic Torch and it's being fed by an internal fuel delivery system.

 

[broberfett]

We have this technology for modern times. But instead of keeping torches lit, it was adapted so that hand guns can hold 60,000 bullets.

There is actually no limit. They could fire continuously until they destroy an entire planet. Alternatively they could create a planetary mass out of bullets and spent shell casings.

 

[Brikar99]

Better than torches that burn forever are caves that somehow generate their own soft, blue light... but that still require torches.

 

[Sephiroth]

We have this technology for modern times. But instead of keeping torches lit, it was adapted so that hand guns can hold 60,000 bullets.

There is actually no limit. They could fire continuously until they destroy an entire planet. Alternatively they could create a planetary mass out of bullets and spent shell casings.

name a movie where they don't digitally edit out flying brass (Star Wars doesn't count), EVERY movie weapon uses caseless ammo appearantly

 

[infinix]

name a movie where they don't digitally edit out flying brass (Star Wars doesn't count), EVERY movie weapon uses caseless ammo appearantly

I think the First Blood series had ammo casing, and I think the first predator movie did, too.

On topic, the torches burn as long as the character holding it lives. When the torch goes out, its a safe bet that whoever holding is about to die.

 

[T'Baio]

name a movie where they don't digitally edit out flying brass (Star Wars doesn't count), EVERY movie weapon uses caseless ammo appearantly

Really? I notice it all the time. I actually thought it was super cool the way they had Leonardo DiCaprio catch the spent shell casings flying out of his gun, so that he remained quiet, in the first sequence in Inception.

 

[Trekker4747]

name a movie where they don't digitally edit out flying brass (Star Wars doesn't count), EVERY movie weapon uses caseless ammo appearantly

Really? I notice it all the time. I actually thought it was super cool the way they had Leonardo DiCaprio catch the spent shell casings flying out of his gun, so that he remained quiet, in the first sequence in Inception.

I thought that was pretty cool too but then I wondered what the point of doing it was if he was in a dream.

But I notice the spent casing flying out of guns all of the time in movie, normally and there's time when, for effect, they put in the sound of the shell hitting the ground but much of the time, because it's pointless, the sound is gone. I mean it's not like a tiny piece of copper hitting the ground makes that great of a loud sound.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Then there was the helicopter scene -- well, just about every scene -- but particularly the slow-mo gun used in rescuing Morpheus in The Matrix.

 

[captcalhoun]

i was going to say the Matrix trilogy, you frequently see the spent casings flying out in Matrix and Reloaded when they're going all slo-mo, i think spent casings are also visible in Shoot 'em Up.

oh, yeah: Predator 2. when the guy shoots at the Predator on the rooftop near the start, you see the casings in the Predator's thermal POV.