My motto -- no good deed goes unpunished ;-)

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Dave,
  It is a small resolution image to begin with.  He should really take a close up of the lifting hole since that is the topic subject. The image  is only a little over 2X3 inches.
John

[misipirelichtr]

Ronnie, great 10 inch shell, excellent piece of research, and even better the possibility it was indeed the headstone noted in your reference for the NH officer.  After all how many CS fired 10 inchers could have been just laying around on top of the ground after being fired? 

[CarlS]

Dave:  There are quite a few ways to make the image larger but the easiest probably is to do one of:

• If you use Internet Explorer, on the bottom right of the window is a zoom function.  Click once to get to 125%, twice for 150% and the third time to get back to 100%.  There is an arrow next to the number where you can choose a different magnification.  There is also a zoom functions at the top.  Click "View" and then click "Zoom" and chose the enlargement factor. 
• For most browsers, if you have a scroll mouse, you hold down the 'Ctrl' key on the lower left of your keyboard while rolling the scroll button on your mouse.  This will enlarge or shrink depending on the direction you roll it.

I hope that helps.

[Dave the plumber]

              Carl,    I did the control button method and it worked fine. Thank you.   

   Rommack, as John asked, can we get a close up of the tong hole when you have time please ??

[rommack]

Dave will be glad to this afternoon. Ronnie

[rommack]

Here is a better picture of the 10 inch Mortar Ball Lifting Ears (tong hole).   Ronnie

[CarlS]

What would they grab those lifting ears with?  Was there a piece of rope tied between the ears?

Ronnie: Thanks for the picture.  Very neat.  I've not seen one like that.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
    The lifting holes were engaged with a pair of tongs similar to that used by the iceman who delivered block ice to "ice boxes" in  homes before refrigerators.were invented.
      See the lower left corner of this Mordecai Plate.  Spource Warren Ripley's book. sorry I can't post a larger image but the system will not let me.
Regards,
John

[emike123]

Here is a shot of the tool that John is referencing using PhotoBucket which allows for larger pictures.  It shows the cylindrical tip of the "standard" set of lifting tongs.  For Rommack's ball, however, these ends do not appear to be a fit with those odd "ears" which is I think what Carl was asking.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
   Thanks for an image of the real thing.  I believe Carl was asking for a tool in general.  Perhaps shells large enough to be lifted by tongs  were made at different arsenals or civilian companies and each provided tongs to fit their shells.??
 Have you ever tried fitting your tongs into different holes and see if its a matter of one size fits all?
Regards,
John

[emike123]

I have only tried them in the ears of shells where it looks like they would fit and each of the couple times I did, they worked.  It is pretty obvious to me that these would not fit the ears on Rommack's ball.  They look like they would fit in Lamar's.

[CarlS]

I was asking relative to the lifting ear like that which Ronnie posted.  I"m quite familiar with the standard tongs and holes typically used in the ACW.  But there are a variety of 'ears' that the type Mike pictured wouldn't work well in such as Ronnie's and the War of 1812 ball I posted.  I've only seen tongs like Mike's and wondered if there were other styles or if they simply had a rope handle tied to them.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
   According to the Mordecai plaes, strapped 8 and 10 inch shells to have rope handles attached to the straps.
See page 10 in my book.
Regards,
John

[CarlS]

So they do!  Thanks!  I should have looked more closely at those drawings.

[emike123]

Those ropes seem to be attached to the metal straps holding the ball on the sabot, not the ears in the ball itself, but I guess it is not much of a leap to think that they could've been tied directly to the ball in a similar fashion in some cases.