civil war artillery pictures cannon and shells

[alwion]

www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/02/the-civil-war-part-1-the-places/100241/
Maybe you all have seen this, was sent to me in an email. 50 CW pictures in a slideshow. the link was kinda flakey, the first time I had to just use the above through the 2012 part, and then find the rest of the title. was worth the time, lots of cannon and projectile pictures. especially like the large grape stands and atlanta arsenal picture, 1000's of shells we wish we had:)    enjoy

[CarlS]

That list of images has been making the rounds and they are very good.  I think there was a reference on this site to it as well but I'm too lazy to look.

I just now looked through the images again as I enjoy them so much.  One thing I noted that I'd like some feedback on is the items in the foreground of image 47.  Note that in the zoomed in area of  foreground of image 47 there looks to be some odd grape stands.  I say odd because they appear to be large caliber and only have two plates with multiple layers much like a canister with no sheeting.  But like a grape stand the plates seem to have depressions for the 5 balls per layer to sit in (see one pointed at by lower right arrow in image below).  They also have screws/rods holding the plates in place.  On the one pointed to by the back arrow, the rods are in place around the circumference and on the closest one there appears to be a bent rod still attached at 2:00.  Looking at the back one it appears to be 3 layers of 5 or 6 balls each and the rods keep them intact.

Is this just my imagination?  I've not seen one like this.  I'd like to hear other thoughts.

Zoomed in area up front:



Full Image:

[alwion]

Looks as if the plates or circular rings were omitted, and looks 5 ball with a 5 rod "birdcage" used instead. Notice the hole in the plate past the shot cup at the top of the plate. if the rods were spaced smaller than the Grape shot, they wouldn't fall out. if the smaller shells in the picture were even 8" (they look like 10" but hard to tell), that would make these grape stands huge. see what your  :Dexperience see's, I was impressed with the stack of more common grape stands in picture 22.

[Dave the plumber]

    amazing the clarity and depth of field the old wet plate photo's had 150 years ago. How many pixels in a wet plate ??!!

[Selma Hunter]

Carl -

Look immediately to the left of the upper "stand" and you will see a round shell with two of what appears to be sizable fuze holes very close together. 

I sure hope that the authors of the books on heavy artillery projectiles are reading these posts as it appears they are leaving much work on the table for future artificers - and not that their work to-date hasn't been outstanding, but the evidence such as this clearly indicates there is much yet to be discovered.

[CarlS]

Dave: That's what makes a real picture so much better than digital.  They don't have pixels and are a clear and detailed as the light allows.  I've always liked how detailed they are as well.   People who sell the old plate images are always blowing up the buttons and plates to show the detail and it is neat.

Bill:  I saw that too and finally decided that it was tong holes/lifting ears on a mortar shell.  Given that it would be a small mortar shell it would be a nice addition to my collection.