It may have been a shot put ball
Posted on 09/01/2015 8:27:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Excellent question.
I’m guessing it has something to do with Nicolas Cage. ;- )
With care, it “might be” a hollow (powder-filled) old shot. Does it have ANY kind of a screwed-in or plug or fuze? Those would indicate it might contain powder (explosive) inside. A solid, smooth outside is probably a solid interior. And so “somewhat safer”
Problem is, the explosive inside either becomes unstable and more likely to blow up with little provocation like heat, pressure, shock, or tampering, or becomes inert and less likely to blow up. Happens both ways.
A dental xray is not likely to be strong enough. Medical xray might be. NDE xray or gamma ray specialist is definitely strong enough to see through - but they’d be expensive. Do you have a Civil War collector’s group in your area? Rev War group? Try a local arms show - ask a collector/sales exhibitor who has old cannonballs or muskets for sale. They can get you in the right group to find experts. If yo prefer NOT to go straight to the police or local sheriff.
It may have been a shot put ball
That’s a pretty definite fuse. Be careful of it.
As good a guess as any.
Thanks for the info. Been way too long since I studied history although sometimes my youngest grandson thinks I lived during the Revolutionary War.
A metric cannonball?
85mm is more like three and a half inches, not five inches, which would be about 125mm (25.4mm - 1.0 inch)
There were some munitions factories in NJ. I used to work for a company based near Newark that was on the grounds of a former munitions plant around WWI. They found all kinds of stuff buried in the ground, even years after the plant was built, during renovations.
I heard that at some point, the munitions plant had an explosion that scattered live rounds for a mile or so around the plant. Occasionally one is still dug up.
The plant borders a swamp. Probably not too safe in there either.
OMG! No!
That actually IS a shotput!
The markings are almost exactly as this article states!
LOL it might just be shotput! That makes more sense than a metric exploding cannonball in the US.
OK, but the point is in the eras of balls, metric would not have been the system used in America.
8<)
“Nope, there were no exploding shells then!
Has to be 20th cent.”
Exploding shells were used during the American Revolution (1777-1783). Mostly fired from Naval guns, heavy mortars and field howitzers. The typical field artillery of the time was a 4 pd smoothbore which usually used solid shot or grape. The English did use an 8” Howitzer for field use which fired shell almost exclusively. 1-3 lb grenades were also used which are identical to shells except for their much smaller size.
By the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) the use of exploding shell and case shot (later known as shrapnel) was widespread. Shell and case shot were used in almost every caliber gun for field, seige and naval applications.
From the description of the shell in the article, it seems likely to be 20th century.
The cannonball pictured (the one found in Madison) appears to be a solid shot and quite old. Judging from the size of the grass in the pic, it looks to be a 3-4 lb ball, typical of the size used in the Revolutionary War. Madison (known as Bottle Hill during the 18th century) saw quite a bit of troop movements during the war and it would not be a shock to find Revolutionary War relics in that general area (nearby Morristown was the site of extensive military occupation for most of the war).
If indeed it was a solid shot, the homeowner was pretty stupid for calling the police. The only way this cannonball could hurt you would be if you dropped it on your foot. To a collector it would have been worth $200-300. I bet someone in EOD now has it up on their shelf somewhere.
I was totally unaware of any exploding shells prior to c.1800.
Seriously? I’m pretty sure I read that.
BTW, see the pix in the thread and the markings.
If the pix matches the written description reasonably well, this could very well be a shotput ball!
Thank you for your observation on this point. I had figured that out, but it became obvious to me that 85mm didn't refer to a five inch object, eh? More like a concussion grenade without a spoon over the tit and as yet unexploded, hmmmm?
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