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I have an old shotput that looks pretty similar to this. At least I think it does, but can't confirm. About fifteen years ago I thought it would be funny to put it in a small safe. I guess I was thinking if someone robbed me they could have that treasure to obsess over.
Then one day a friend was messing with it and the shotput rolled against the door and apparently broke the lock tumbler. So now I have the most useless 20 pounds of metal sitting in my garage. Literally just an iron ball permanently locked in a busted safe. Maybe after I die the "what's in the box" prank might come to fruition though.
I know I'm not helping OP at all here I guess I just had to get that off my chest.
I know 'most everyone else is saying shot put (and that seems reasonable) but my first thought was that it's an old (have to be VERY old) cannon ball. Since it lacks markings, that adds weight to my first thought.
It’s very common for cheaper shots to not have numbers stamped onto them, but if weighed it should either be, a 6lbs (middle school girls), 4kg (8.8lbs), 12lbs or 16lbs. This looks like a 4kg tho
The ones we had in school were fairly smooth but not polished or anything. I believe we had some of lower quality that were just for practice that had the casting line on it and if left out in the yard for some time could degrade like this.
After googling the size/weight of a shotput though I think this is close to the diameter range of a women’s shot, but a shot would be heavier according to google. So I was off the mark.
Much too light and a bit small for a shot put. The standard weight for men’s is 16 pounds and 8 pounds, 13 ounces for women. Also, the diameter of a shot put shot is 3.54 inches.
Thankyou!!! This helps ease my mind and saves me the embarrassment of calling the police for nothing. I did call the museum before receiving your comment as they have a civil war exhibit. They said they would find someone for me. I haven’t heard back yet. Should I call back and cancel?
Yeah, no need to bring it to the museum anymore, but props to you for taking that action!
So often when people do stumble across real Civil War cannonballs, they immediately call the bomb squad to blow it up before contacting museums, universities, archaeologists, etc, and they destroy these priceless artifacts without even considering the historical value :(
Do people not realize that cannonballs, while projectiles, are not (broadly speaking) explosive? They were literally just big spherical hunks of irons that were launched with a ton of kinetic energy.
Well during the Civil War, almost all cannonballs were explosive. So “cannonball” is a pretty broad term, which often leads to this confusion, but it’s actually made off of three separate types: case shot, shell, and solid shot. What you are describing is solid shot, which was mainly used to punch holes in ships and forts. Most cannonballs during the civil war however, were case shot or shells. Case shot is a hollow iron ball, filled with many small lead balls, and a bit of explosive. The explosive would go off, shattering the ball, and shooting the lead balls everywhere. Shells are thicker hollow iron balls, filled entirely with the explosive. When the explosive went off, the shell would shatter, shooting the iron chunks, shrapnel, everywhere.
So while some cannonballs certainly are just solid iron balls, most were very much explosive.
So there were four main types of fuses to ignite cannonballs during the Civil War: paper time fuse, Bormann fuse, percussion fuse, and combination fuse.
Paper time fuses are just a bit of gunpowder rolled up in a bit of paper, and cut to length. For example, half inch would burn for one second, an inch would burn for a second, etc. when the cannonball was shot from the cannon, the fire would ignite the fuse, which would burn for a few seconds before exploding the ball.
Bormann fuses worked similarly, it was a metal tube filled with powder, and instead of cutting it for a certain time, you would punch a hole in the tube, which would determine how long it would burn. This is ignited the same way as a paper time fuse.
A percussion fuse ignites when it hit something hard, like those little firecrackers which pop when you throw them on the ground.
Lastly, a combination fuse combined percussion with one of the first types.
About the powder being live: most of the time the powder degrades over time, or is damaged by water, but some shells do remain very much explosive. You shouldn’t be too afraid of the explosive shells though, the powder is pretty stable, and won’t ignite unless you throw it in a fire. If you ever do find an unexploited civil war cannonball or shell, the best action is to contact a collector like myself, who can get it safely defused and safed.
Can you give me your take on this cannonball, dug up in a garden in 'Lundy's Lane' in Ontario. The chap who found it also uncovered various uniform buttons and other war artifacts presumably from an 1812 battle. It weighs about 16 or 17 pounds. A fastidious home-decorator thought it was ugly, so painted it silver to pretty it up. Any thoughts on this?
Hmm, if the diameter is exactly 5.68, which it looks to be in the pictures, that would be a 24 pounder. The weight doesn’t seem right though, a solid 24 pounder should weigh exactly 24 pounds, and your doesn’t. Are you sure it didn’t have a hole somewhere? A 24 pound shell (hollow) weighs 16.8 pounds, which is right on what you say it weighs.
A quick googling says the British did indeed have 24 pounder cannons at the battle of Lundys Lane, so you might have something real!
Early shell fuzes were originally lit before being rammed down the barrel (very dangerous) with a length of fuze with a known burn time depending on range. But by the 18th century fuzes had been developed that were lit by the flash of the propellant charge in the barrel with precut lengths for different timing. They were then superseded by impact and combined timing/impact fuzes for shrapnel shells.
I agree with your assessment that some cannonballs were essentially civil war era artillery, but I disagree with your statement that “most” of the projectiles fired by cannons during the American civil war were of the explosive type.
I’m willing to be wrong about this, but I find it hard to believe that the majority of round fired out of a cannon in the 1860s were fused, explosive rounds.
You probably have way more experience with this, however, so I suppose I would have to defer to you.
I can confirm this. I found one of these in a load of dirt I bought. I kept it for years thinking I had a civil war cannon ball. I finally found a civil war expert. He confirmed I had a grinding ball from the rock quarry
Well, I just bought one at a Civil War relics trade show, got some books to learn, and then from then on I kinda just picked up a new one whenever I had the funds haha. There were hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of unique designs of cannonballs, artillery shells, bolts, grape, & canisters used in the Civil War, so there is near-endless research one can do to learn about them, making this a great hobby!
What about 6lbers? I watched a buddy dig a 6lb solid Rev War cannon ball in front of me at a confirmed Rev War battlefield. We all dug a bunch of roundballs and iron grape shot there as well.
3lb, 4lb, and 9lb solid canon shot all exist as well.
They used 6lbers in the Civil War as well. And some of the balls had seams on them like this.
I’ve searched google already and it looks like it could be a cannonball or a piece of machinery that crushes rocks. It has a center seam which google says could apply to either object. I looked up what a fuse hole looks like and I’m still unsure because there is a fuse hole size marking on the ball though it’s unclear. Is it sealed? I don’t have any experts in my area to take this to either.
More info, I live in southwest Idaho. So hopefully a higher chance of it NOT exploding in my face. Though there is a small chance of a careless amateur collector dropping it in a field. I just called the Idaho state museum since I can’t find experts of these things in my area. They said they would try and find someone for me.
It really looks exactly like media from a ball mill. I'm certain that's what it is. How it got in your yard is another thing, but thousands of those are used inside of a cement ball mill, so they aren't uncommon. I used to work for a cement company and have one or more floating around my house.
There is a cement plant in Inkom and a terminal in Idaho Falls. Perhaps it started its journey there.
It’s a steel ball for a ball mill. Basically a long rotating cylinder with hundreds or thousands of these inside. They pound or crush whatever is put inside. Gold ore, limestone for making Portland cement etc.
Not an expert at all but I once found a similar item that we (archaeologist and me) idetified as part of a ball mill. These were small chambers with metal balls inside used by miners to crush small amounts of ore when prospecting in the 19th century. Like yours it had seams and rough elements which wouldn’t matter for a ball mill as opposed to a shot put or a projectile for a weapon. I should probably mention that at the time I worked on a national forest that had a lot of gold rush mining activity between 1850 and into the 20th century.
One day I saw a flat deck semi-trailer which appeared to have a load of potatoes? Only 8" deep and uncovered. I thought that was quite odd and walked over to check it out. When I picked one up, I was surprised to find these were random oddly shaped balls of rusted steel. Turned out these were ore grinding balls which were worn down and were being sent to be recycled, melted down and recast.
Shot puts are larger weight exactly 16 lbs and are better cast with a perfectly smooth surface. It is could be a very old womens or junior shot put
But if you are somewhere with late medieval settlement I'd go cannon ball because is looks like a primative lead casting with half moulds, and has an impact damage.
I grew up on a chicken farm. The feed silo had something like that to break the feed up if it got clumped up. It rested at the bottom and bounced on the auger. It was a simple solution. If you are in farming region... that might be it.
Toured a coal fired power plant in eastern PA when I was interning for a utility provider. They gave each of us a steel (I think?) ball like this. Used for breaking up the coal in a mill.
I believe it's too small for a shot put. If you live near any mines, this appears to be one of the balls used in ball mills. They're used to grind ore for processing. Basically, put a bunch of these in a big cylinder with broken rock, and rotate. The iron balls break the broken rock ore into smaller particles.
I’d say cannon ball cool find edit though it could be a grape shot round size could be a bit small or it’s a 5lb horse gun though not sure if you have those in that area
This looks like a 6lb solid canon ball to me. I watched a buddy dig a 6lb solid Rev War cannon ball in front of me at a confirmed Rev War battlefield. We all dug a bunch of roundballs and iron grape shot there as well.
3lb, 4lb, and 9lb solid canon shot all exist as well.
They used 6lbers in the Civil War as well. And some of the balls had seams on them like this.
It's a shotput, for elementary school age kids. Their weights are 2kg for that age. I threw shot in jr and high school and helped for the elementary aged meets.
Yeah😭 i put it in a field far from my house. Some neighbor kids were chucking it on the ground and I immediately took it from them. Really hoping it’s not explody and just a rock crusher.
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