Explosive Cannonballs

[Doc Ivory]

No, the timers were all fuses almost like firecracker fuses that could be adjusted for length. In the early 1800s they were all cigar thickness and fitted tightly into wooden plugs that tightly sealed the balls. Once cut to length they allowed the balls to be airburst or penetrate before exploding. By the CW, many types were used, all still basically a firecracker fire but many housed in metal screw in caps etc. The Round Shots and Rammers book they suggested will show you diagrams of this. Interestingly, I just gave my much loved copy of that book to my eldest grandson

I need to get out on Abe books and get a copy, thanks!

 

[Whitworth]

Years ago I took a 20 lb. Parrot shell to a well known "expert" for disarming, expecting something like a high tech remote bunker setup. Well this guy takes me back to his garage and wheels out a kids wagon equipped with a drill press and garden hose. He clamps the shell in the drill press, turns on the water and the drill press and we retreat to the garage. Using a rope tied to the drill press handle while peeping out the slightly cracked metal door he starts drilling. Well I looked around for something solid and stood behind a masonry column, not quite believing what was going on here. This guy had neighbors close by in a city!!!!! Fortunately it went well, I paid the man his $20 and went safely home.

 

[Greg Blackburn]

My college Biology 101 teacher told my lab section how he heard of a museum that had such a weapon on display for years until a knowledgeable collector came in and explained how "that cannonball there is actually an exploding version and looks to be still armed."

 

[Doc Ivory]

My college Biology 101 teacher told my lab section how he heard of a museum that had such a weapon on display for years until a knowledgeable collector came in and explained how "that cannonball there is actually an exploding version and looks to be still armed."

Yikes!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

A little off topic, the mortar ships, which had multiple mortars on board used leather for their sails. Although the sails were usually furled during bombardment, cloth sails could catch fire from the blasts of the mortars.

Talk about weight. How did they keep them supple? Or did they grease them and simply deal with more weight?

LD

 

[Doc Ivory]

Talk about weight. How did they keep them supple? Or did they grease them and simply deal with more weight?

LD

I thought about that as well.

 

[SDSmlf]

A little off topic, the mortar ships, which had multiple mortars on board used leather for their sails. Although the sails were usually furled during bombardment, cloth sails could catch fire from the blasts of the mortars.

Talk about weight. How did they keep them supple? Or did they grease them and simply deal with more weight?

On the topic of weight, have read where chain was used for the front rigging on mortar ships to withstand the muzzle blasts from the mortars.

 

[Whitworth]

The Parrot shell I had disarmed had been a farmhouse door stop for decades, lots of Parrot shells were used as door stops. I know this for sure, saw them friends houses around Sharpsburg and at relatives in W.VA. Guess everyone figured it was a dud, its safe. Lots of live shells have been sitting harmlessly in collections and holding doors open for 150 years. Handle and store with the care give would an open container of black power made of eggshell china. Might want to give the fire department a heads up about your door stops if your house catches on fire

 

[Okie Hog]

The round i drilled in 2003 is in Petersburg, WV. Ran a jobsite in Dolly Sods in 1997-98. Talked with locals around Petersburg. Some CW explosive ordnance in that area may have come from a B&O train plundered by John Hanson McNeill and his crew. In 1938 some boys were killed while messing with explosive ordnance at the wreck site.

A farm at Bartow, WV includes the old Allegany Fort. The property owner in the early 1960s had wooden barrels full CW explosive ordnance that his ancestor gathered up.

Just remembered: The old geezer had a Hotchkiss round with Tice concussion fuze sitting on the mantel.

 

[Doc Ivory]

Okie!
He had a live round with fuise sitting on the mantle?!!!!
HOLY SMOKES!!!

 

[Whitworth]

Just remembered: The old geezer had a Hotchkiss round with Tice concussion fuze sitting on the mantel.

YIKES!!!!

 

[Essayons!]

excellent cut ball. That looks like a confederate 12 pounder ball. The confederate balls tend to have random sized shot in them while Yankee balls are usually full of the same size shot. Also the Confederate balls tend to be full of pine tar as a matrix for the shot. That appears to be what you have here. But its more complex than that. This is "spherical case shot" which if you google it is a story in itself. In earlier years, especially the Napoleonic Wars period, they actually made just exploding cannon balls. They were cast with multiple flat sides in a large powder cavity similar but thicker that a mortar ball. When they exploded they only broke into 5 or six pieces. So they were more a weapon of terror in those times than an actual danger to men on the field.. It was the development of fused "spherical case shot" later named "Shrapnel" after its inventor that made exploding shells an effective tool of war. Regarding fuses, the heat/flame from the cannon shot lights the fuse as the ball exits the bore. There were a number of types of fuses from rolled paper to metal plugs with timers. But all were designed to keep sparks out of the ball until it was a safe distance from the gun...didn't always work. But at least with most, the forward acceleration of the ball caused any pieces to continue forward from the gun and save the crew if the ball should go off prematurely. Does that make sense?

The Schrapnel shell originally combined the range of the solid shot with the cannister round. Max range of cannister(most field guns) was about 300 yards, though it's effect wasn't very good due to shot spread. Schrapnel wanted to have the best effect of cannister at longer ranges than cannister

Irrespective of laws on exploding projectiles, it is way too dangerous to make and use them. You can't bring back dead people. Many, many black powder arterialists in the black powder age, were killed launching(explosive) military projectiles; and they knew what they were doing.

I agree. I'd be hesitant to use solid shot except on special ranges. Canister might be the only projectile I'd even consider..as a demonstration for education..

 

[Essayons!]

Through most of muzzleloading cannon era cannons shot non exploding shot. Shells busting on the field of battle or explosions going on all over sailing ships is a myth.
Solid ball, bags, or tin cans of musket ball, balls cut in half joined by an expanding bar or chain were what was shot.
Mortar did shoot bombs that looked like the cartoon bomb, and grenadiers could throw what looked the same only smaller, or launch them from a hand mortar. But bombs from cannon was rare till reliable fuses were developed.

Yep. The intent of Schrapnel's shell was essentially to increase the range of the cannister round. The explosive charge was meant to spread the shot but further away from the piece- in more of the horizontal plane. Fuse timing wasn't critical. Not until better fusing(US CW onwards) and synthetic propellants and explosives did the lethality increase, giving the ability to lob rounds overhead, showed its' effectiveness in WW1.

 

[Auldjin]

Just a couple of instances from Napoleonic times.

First from KIncaid of the Rifles:

Among other things carried from Ciudad Rodrigo, one of our men had the misfortune to carry his death in his hands, under the mistaken shape of amusement. He thought that it was a cannon-ball, and took it for the purpose of playing at the game of nine-holes, but it happened to be a live shell. In rolling it along it went over a bed of burning ashes, and ignited without his observing it. Just as he had got it between his legs, and was in the act of discharging it a second time, it exploded, and nearly blew him to pieces.

and -

There was a little spaniel belonging to one of our officers running about the whole time, barking at the balls, and I saw him once smelling at a live shell, which exploded in his face without hurting him.

From Mercer of the RHA -

Whilst in position on the right of the second line, I had reproved some of my men for lying down when shells fell near them until they burst. Now my turn came. A shell, with a long fuse, came slop into the mud at my feet, and there lay fizzing and flaring to my infinite discomfiture. After what I had said on the subject, I felt that I must act up to my own words, and, accordingly, there I stood, endeavouring to look quite composed until the cursed thing burst—and, strange to say, without injuring me, though so near. The effect on my men was good.

 

[Treestalker]

Years ago I took a 20 lb. Parrot shell to a well known "expert" for disarming, expecting something like a high tech remote bunker setup. Well this guy takes me back to his garage and wheels out a kids wagon equipped with a drill press and garden hose. He clamps the shell in the drill press, turns on the water and the drill press and we retreat to the garage. Using a rope tied to the drill press handle while peeping out the slightly cracked metal door he starts drilling. Well I looked around for something solid and stood behind a masonry column, not quite believing what was going on here. This guy had neighbors close by in a city!!!!! Fortunately it went well, I paid the man his $20 and went safely home.

A 20pdr will mow the weeds!

 

[HiDesertHunter]

A little further along in history but it has been noted there could still be some Japanese balloon bombs possibly undiscovered in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, and a few other areas as well - such as the one found in British Columbia in 2014.

 

[zulu]

 

[smoothshooter]

Good morning.
I searched the forums here but didn't find an explanation. My apologies if this has been discussed before.

How are Cannonballs made to be explosive?
I would think loading them with powder would be problematic as the cannon discharged, the powder within would ignite from the heat.

I'm just curious how it was done.

Thanks,
Doc Ivory

The heat is of such short duration that it has no real effect.
I will let others explain the details, but something called the Bormann fuse was a variable time delay system that had a series of small internal powder trains of different lengths that were covered by a lead disc. The fuse-setter used a pick to pierce the appropriate spot for the delay desired on the disc before loading to allow the flame from the barrel charge to ignite the exposed “train” leading to the explosive charge.

 

[SOLANCO]

Bears repeating: The fine folks at BATF take a very dim view of ANY projectile that will explode after leaving the barrel of the weapon that fired it. And they will not particularly care if it's black powder.

 

[Canute Rex]

To expand on Smoothshooter's post: Years ago, divers in a Vermont pond found boxes of dozens of explosive shells from the Civil war sitting on the bottom. Apparently they had been given to the Vermont militia after the war and then disposed of in the pond. They were sealed and still live. Unfortunately, some were detonated by a military EOD squad.

Interesting design known as a Bormann shell. A pewter disc threaded into the hollow ball, with a rubber seal below it. Inside, there was a powder charge surrounded by minie balls cast in sulfur. The pewter disc had an internal spiral chamber for the fuse powder. On the surface it was marked with numerals corresponding to hundreds of yards. The ball was strapped to a wooden plug to keep the disc end facing forward. The gunner would pierce the disc with a pick at the range he wanted the shell to explode, right before loading. The propellant flash would light the fuse powder through the punched hole.

The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (great place to visit) got their hands on some. They set up a remote control ultra-slow hydraulic drill press in a small bunker and drilled 3/16" holes in the bottom of the shells. Then they used a modified pressure washer to clean out the powder charge. A number were then sawed in half like the OP photo.

A note on the minie balls. Most of them were a particular odd type with a zinc disc on the bottom. The U.S. ordnance department issued packs of paper cartridges where every fifth round was a "cleaning" round, where the zinc disc would scrape the barrel. The Union soldiers were suspicious of these, afraid that they would jam in the barrel on the way down. They would discard the cleaning cartridges. The ordnance dept. gave up and discontinued the practice, leaving them with piles of zinc disc Minie balls. They ended up in these shrapnel shells.