Bullet and Shell Civil War Projectiles Forum

Relic Discussion => Artillery => Topic started by: mccaul on February 16, 2015, 12:13:21 PM

Title: Oldest Cannonball???
Post by: mccaul on February 16, 2015, 12:13:21 PM

Saw this article and thought it would be of interest to the group

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/02/16/lost-and-found-oldest-cannonball-in-england-rediscovered/?intcmp=features

Title: Re: Oldest Cannonball???
Post by: scottfromgeorgia on February 16, 2015, 01:34:59 PM

Interesting. It is lead and while measurements are not given, the article says it is "massive." That would be one heavy ball.

Postscript: Here is another article that says, "The ball is about 3ins (50mm) in diameter and has been analysed by Dr Foard, who said it had suffered massive impact damage from at least two bounces and may have hit a tree." Not sure how 3 inches became "massive", but Ok.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-31412617

Title: Re: Oldest Cannonball???
Post by: CarlS on February 16, 2015, 02:20:20 PM

Thanks for sharing.  Very interesting.  I would imagine at the time that was a decent size ball to be fired with gun powder.  Metallurgy and black powder were not what they were even in the US Revolutionary War.

Amazingly but perhaps not, the Fox article didn't even show the whole cannon ball even though it was only 3 inches in diameter. But then again, that's Fox...only giving part of the story.  :(  Fortunately the BBC article was on top of things with a nice image.

Title: Re: Oldest Cannonball???
Post by: John D. Bartleson Jr. on February 16, 2015, 04:33:44 PM

Hello Ed, good to see you again. I am afraid my knowledge does not go earlier than 1865. :'(
Regards,
John