Cannon Ball FUSES

[pistol-pete]

Been a lot of talk lately about cannon balls lately. How many of you are Know about the fuses that went in them Here are 5 boxes of fuses 4-5-8-20-35 second ones as well as friction fuses to fire the cannon.

 

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[webatch]

Pete - where in the world did you find something like that?

I like your footer - but don't even want to get started on those discussions other than "Political correctness" is just a way to divide us... WE ARE NOT - African Americans, Irish Americans, German Americans... we are just AMERICANS PERIOD! PC is away to play various interest groups against one another.

The America that I knew and loved committed suicide Nov. 6th 2012. I'm seriously considering moving to Australia... but they tell me all my compasses will work backward.

 

[got2dig]

WOW, Pete you have some cool boxs there. Get with Cannon Ball guy, he will tell you all you need to know about them. Cool stuff Pete.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Never seen boxes of CW fuses either,pretty neat!

 

[Gunrunner61]

How did you come by those Pete? Those are some more cool..................................HH

 

[birdman]

Way cool!!

 

[BosnMate]

Everyone is asking, where did you get them? So am I. Geeze man, talk about neat. Back in the old days you could buy all that kind of stuff from Bannerman's, so there is some still out there in civilian hands, but I wouldn't think that many. I have one open box and a couple of fuzes I bought on ebay way back when it first started. At that time I got a couple of pretty good antique cartridge boxes also, and some good very early inside primed 45-70 ammo before all of ebay's stupid bans and regulations.

 

[digging440yrs]

AWESOME !!!

 

[LinkHylian]

Those are so cool!!! Take one out or something if a box is already opened, I'd enjoy seeing that pic as well, even if it is just a fuse.

 

[pistol-pete]

Hi all, These were around by the case lots in the 1960's 70's and I would certainly believe they came from Bannerman's. . Haven't see any now for many years. Would like to know what other times in seconds there are. As I said above, these are 4-5-8-20-35 Second ones. Guess they would shoot a ball and nothing happened, Soldiers felt safe, then a few seconds later the thing exploded. Here is a single, 2" long and tapered 1/2" to 3/8". This one reads "4 Second Fuze" around the thing. Were there different size fuses for different size balls Yes Bannerman's was great, in the 50's I bought an 1873 Springfield Trapdoor rifle for $12.00, and 100 rounds of 45-70 Smokeless ammo for $3.00 Toooooo bad the place burned up or we would still have goodies. Love some of your signatures, took some thinking

 

[oldsalty19]

 

[Papa Bear]

Thanks for sharing some history with us pistol-pete. Of course you are giving your age away talking about the 1950's. Heck I wasn't even a twinkle in my dads eye then.......

 

[BosnMate]

This is an explosive cannon ball sawed in half. This particular shell has a Boreman fuze, but they work basically the same as your fuzes, they time the charge. With the Boreman if the gunner wanted a 5 second delay they would punch a hole in the fuze at the 5. With your type fuze, if they wanted a 5 second fuze it would be inserted in the shell, or if all they had was say, 10 second fuzes, they would saw the fuze in half. Your longer burning fuzes had lines marked so they would know where to cut them off to get the proper burn time. The hollow cast iron shell was filled with round lead balls, then melted sulpher was poured into the hole. When that set up they drilled a hole in the lead like you see in the picture, and the black powder bursting charge was placed in there. You will note that the pictured ball has a hole in the bottom, that was to let the bursting charge out before heating things up with the saw. That hole wouldn't be there when those balls were being shot. The idea behind these shells were to time them so they would explode in the air above and in front of the advancing troops. The black powder didn't splinter the shell like modern artillery, the bursting charge broke the shell open, raining round lead balls into the advancing infantry. They must have worked pretty good, because they sure killed a hell of a lot of people. 150 years ago on the 11th of this month, General Burnside attacked Lee at Fredricksburg, and in the union suffered 12,600 casulities that day. Watching the carnage General Lee said, "It's good war is so terrible, lest we become too fond of it." Anyhow, the ball was loaded with the fuze pointing out the muzzle, and fire came around the ball when the gun was fired, lighting the fuze.

 

[pistol-pete]

Thanks BosnMate, VERY informative, I've learned alot