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Author Topic: Please help me identify this cannon ball!  (Read 43957 times)

StoopStoop

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Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« on: March 06, 2012, 10:12:40 PM »
Hi! I received this cannon ball last year through an estate sale and was told it was from the Civil war. I honestly don't have a clue when it was made or where it came from. Can someone please help me out. I put a listing up on Ebay for this cannon ball with the information that I was given. Please help me add more to it!! Thanks.

Here is the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/280839092364?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

Pete George

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Re: Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2012, 10:35:13 PM »
  The problem for us "serious" collectors of cannonballs is that there are literally millions of iron balls in existence which were NOT manufactured to be used in artillery.  Some examples are ball-bearings, Ornamental Ironwork balls, Sports Shot-Put balls, and (especially) rock-crusher balls from the Mining & Stonemilling industry.  So, we cannonball collectors must do extra-precise size and weight measurements to determine whether an iron ball is an actual cannonball, or not.  If a ball's very exact size and weight measurements do not match up with any of the well-known sizes of actual cannonballs used in America, that ball is not a cannonball.

  The size-&-weight data for cannonballs used in America can be viewed online, for free, at: www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

The good news for you:
  You say your iron ball is 4 inches in diameter and weighs 9 pounds 1 ounce.  Those measurements match up very nearly exactly with a Revolutionary War era 9-pounder caliber Solid-Shot cannonball.  It is almost certainly not from the civil war era, because the US Ordnance Department had officially declared 9-pounder caliber cannons to be obsolete many years before the start of the civil war (1861).

The bad news:
  Your photos of the ball seem to show it has a flat-ish area on it.  All actual cannonballs were very carefully manufactured to be perfectly-round, because being out-of-round can cause a cannonball to jam in the cannon's barrel during loading or firing it.  If your ball is out-of-round (somewhat "lumpy"), it is not a cannonball.

  Doing a very-precise measurement of your iron ball's diameter will tell us whether it is a cannonball or not.  It should be 4.10-inches in diameter.  Being off by a few one-hundredths of an inch doesn't matter ...but if the ball is (let's say) 4.20-inches in diameter, it is not a cannonball.  To learn how to do the neccesary very-precise measuring, go here:  http://www.pochefamily.org/books/SolidShotEssentialsMod.html

  As I indicated in the text above, the US Ordnance Department's official size-&-weight specifications for 9-pounder Solid Shot cannonballs can be viewed online, for free, here:  www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

  IF (big if) your ball is perfectly-round, you should include the size-&-weight data for a 9-pounder Solid-Shot cannonball in your Ebay auction.

Regards,
Pete
« Last Edit: March 06, 2012, 10:55:07 PM by Pete George »

StoopStoop

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Re: Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2012, 11:35:18 PM »
Thanks for the awesome reply! I measured the cannonball with a string and the string was 13 inches long, do I divide that by 3.14 to get the measurement? So it's 9 pounds 1 oz and the string is 13 inches long. There is a flatish spot on one side of the iron ball and on the exact opposite side. The side with the seam is round and that's what I measured. Are the file markings on the seam any clue? Thanks again for the reply!

Pete George

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Re: Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2012, 07:25:36 PM »
StoopStoop wrote:
> I measured the cannonball with a string and the string was 13 inches long, do I divide that by 3.14 to get the measurement?

  Because hundredths-of-an-inch are extremely important in authenticating an iron ball as a cannonball (or not), it's better to use 3.1416 when mathematically calculating the ball's diameter.

  Using a string and measuring it will get you an "in the ballpark" number ..but even a 1/4-inch error in measuring the string will produce a significantly incorrect calculation.

  That having been said, let's do the calculation with the measurement you've given:  the ball's circumference is 13.0 inches, divided by Pi 3.1416 equals diameter 4.138 inches.  Let's call that 4.14 inches ...which is larger than a 9-pounder Solid-Shot's prescribed diameter of 4.10 inches.  So, either your iron ball is not a cannonball, or your measuring is incorrect, or the ball's diameter is inceased by rust-concretion on the ball's surface.

StoopStoop also wrote:
> There is a flatish spot on one side of the iron ball and on the exact opposite side.
> The side with the seam is round and that's what I measured.
> Are the file markings on the seam any clue?

  I know you've put the ball up for sale on Ebay as part of a Charity auction.  Threfore, please believe me that I take no pleasure in having to tell you, those two characteristics (flat-ish areas on opposite sides of the ball, and file markings on the seam) definitely disqualify it from being a cannonball.

For your own certainty:
  Closely examine photos of properly-authenticated cannonballs -- not the ones on Ebay, but at authoritative sites such as civilwarartillery.com and the photos in my book "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War."  You will see that NO actual cannonballs have flat-ish areas.  Although some have a visible mold-seam, their body is perfectly round as a ball-bearing or a glass marble.  The flat-ish areas on your iron ball mean it is out-of-round, so it is not a cannonball.

About the file-marks:
  During metal-casting, there typically will be a tiny amount of "seepage" by the molten metal into the mold's seam (where the two halfs of the mold are put together).  When that happens, it is neccesary for a Foundryworker to remove the casting-seepage iron from the ball's seam-line after it cools and comes out of the mold.  During the civil war (and earlier), that work was ALWAYS done with chisel -- NEVER a file ...nor, a grinding-wheel.  File-marks or grinder-marks on an iron ball mean it is not a cannonball.

  If you are in doubt that what you said are file-marks really are file-marks, please use the Macro setting on your camera's controls and take some super-closeup photos of the marks, and post those photos here.

Regards,
Pete

StoopStoop

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Re: Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2012, 09:15:57 PM »
Thanks for all that info. After looking into it a little bit more, I believe this isn't a cannon ball. I took the listing off until I am 100% sure of what it is! What could it possibly be? I don't think it's a mill ball, but I can't be sure! It just sucks that I had to take the listing down, but better safe then sorry. Thanks for taking the time to help me out Pete!

ETEX

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Re: Please help me identify this cannon ball!
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2012, 01:04:43 PM »
My hats off to you for removing the listing on eBay.