Oldest Cannonball???

[mccaul]

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

[scottfromgeorgia]

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

[CarlS]

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.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

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