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Where would i find out about cannonballs?

Started by ann, August 26, 2008, 12:12:34 PM

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ann

I found what I think is a cannonball.  It is 4.25 inches in diameter and weighs 3lbs (according to the fish scale).  Where could I find out what the approximate age is and what it would go to?  Considering I found it in Georgia, I assume it is probably Civil War era.  But I'd like to know for sure.

Spatulaman

 Send a PM to Cannonman61 on this forum. A good place to start. As a reenactor, he probably has a wealth of info regarding such projectiles- heck, since he's from GA, he may have lost one!


Scout

Listen, cannonballs from the Civil War could still be dangerous munitions. I was just at a home in Vicksburg where the Bomb Squad had to remove a cannon ball from a wall where it had landed after being fired from union gunboats during the siege. It went off when they dumped it into the bomb basket.

They said they had five more outside in a tree that had been there also. They had special procedures done to try and keep vibration from getting to the tree and possibly setting off one of the cannonballs that were imbedded in it.

Make sure the cannon ball does not have anything protruding from it, any metal parts. If it is solid shot it might be no problem, but if it is filled with powder or powder and shrapnel it could still be dangerous.
BattleRoadUSA.com

"Who wants Ice Cream?" Fred

Sixty seconds is way too long for a minute, I am cutting it down to thirty seven seconds- SoM

"You can shout it, you can preach it, but no matter how many times you repeat it, NEVER believe your own bullSh*t." (as told to me by Grin Reaper)

ann

i didn't know that.  I think it is solid.  3lb and 4 1/4 diameter.  It's mostly smooth, no openings and nothing that looks like a plug.  Maybe i need to stick it in the shop until we are sure.

Scout

Did you get Cannonman's PM? I have to concur, 3 lbs is too light for a shot that size to be solid. I would guess it should be around 7-8 for that size. That means there is a chance that it is hollow. The only reason it would be hollow is because it was meant to be filled with black powder.

I am not sure exactly what you should do with it, but here are three things I would suggest. 1. Keep it outside away from your living quarters and in a place it wil not accidently fall to the floor and keep a cushion under it untill you can get an answer. 2. DO NOT TAP ON IT TO SEE IF IT IS HOLLOW. 3. Get a licensed Tech to take a look at it. Call the local large museum and tell them that you found a cannonball and suspect it might be live and what should you do. They can point you toward a safe solution. You could also call the local bomb squad and ask them about it. Better to be safe than sorry. Hope it turns out safe and you can put it on the mantle. ;)
BattleRoadUSA.com

"Who wants Ice Cream?" Fred

Sixty seconds is way too long for a minute, I am cutting it down to thirty seven seconds- SoM

"You can shout it, you can preach it, but no matter how many times you repeat it, NEVER believe your own bullSh*t." (as told to me by Grin Reaper)

Old Dog

Just few months ago a Civil War collector here in Chesterfield County was killed while messing with a cannonball from his collection.  When it exploded it killed him (he was in the driveway) and chunk of it came down through the roof of a house almost a mile away.

Imagine if the good things we did/made lasted as long as the things made to kill/maim/destroy.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

—Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

Francis Marion

Quote from: ann on August 26, 2008, 02:25:51 PM
i didn't know that.  I think it is solid.  3lb and 4 1/4 diameter.  It's mostly smooth, no openings and nothing that looks like a plug.  Maybe i need to stick it in the shop until we are sure.

If your ball is cast iron, and is solid, and its diameter is 4 1/4 inches, then it should weigh 10.3 lbs. 

(4/3)*pi*(2.125^3)*0.256 lbs per in^3 = 10 lbs.
However, since your ball weighs 3 lbs, it has either:
  1)   a hollow core only, empty space, with an inside diameter of 3.79 inches, or 28.5 cubic inches, or
  2)   a hollow core with an inside diameter of >3.79 inches AND plus something else...  a generous helping of black powder, perhaps?

Do handle carefully and ask somebody knowledgeable in these matters.   
   

ann

huh?  i'm not a math person..  what do those numbers mean?

I remeasered the thing.  It's actually about 2.5 in diameter.  I had got my hubby to measure it and I'm not sure what he measured.  Here is a pic

cannonman61

Ann,

That sounds much better. My 3 pound cannon, Grendel, is a British Light pattern gun whose full dimension bore is 2.55 inches. So your initial weight of the ball at 3 pounds makes it very likely a solid shot from a 3 pound gun.

The Rev War and War of 1812 were the heyday of the 3 pounder. By the Civil War a 6 pound gun was considered "small" and the 12 pound Napolean was the dominate field piece during that war.

I would still be VERY safe with that ball until it was looked at by a professional, but given your new information I am much less concerned now than I was earlier.

And no, I have not lost a cannonball anywhere near ann's place. All mine are accounted for or in a nice, safe berm where they buried themselves after hitting their target!  ;D

Ann, try a call tomorrow to a man named Danny Brown at Fort Mcallister State Historic park in Richmond Hill Georgia. He is very good with Artillery ( He is a Civil War comrade) and he will set you in the right direction to have that shot analyzed.

CM61
Artillery lends dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.

Francis Marion

#9
That sounds less likely to be dangerous.   
Do check the weight again... if your ball is cast iron, approx 2.5 inches in diameter, as the photo indicates, then it should weigh around 2.09 pounds if solid. 

What do all those numbers mean?  If you had a one-inch cube of cast iron, it would weigh 0.256 pounds.  We say then that the density of cast iron is 0.256 pounds per cubic inch.   

When you multiply the volume of a solid times its density, you get the weight of the object. 

So an iron ball with 2.5 inch diameter has a volume of 8.18 cubic inches... (we get that from the spherical volume formula: volume = 4/3 times pi times the cubed radius of the sphere.)  ... 8.18 cubic inches times 0.256 pounds per cubic inch is 2.09 pounds. 

Ball Diameter   Radius   Vol, cubic inches   Density cast iron, lbs/in^3   Weight of Ball, pounds
2.75               1.375     10.89                     0.256                             2.79
2.5               1.25         8.18                     0.256                             2.09
2.25               1.125      5.96                      0.256                             1.53



ann