Cannon Ball ID

Joker-T · Apr 4, 2013

Hello

Can anyone ID this as being an actual CW cannon ball and if so is it north or south? Any assistance would be great.

It measure 5 1/2" and weighs 16 lbs 5 1/2 oz. It also has what looks like a fuse hole. It was reportedly dug in PA.

Steve

AU Seeker · Apr 7, 2013

A ballmill is a large drum that has many balls such as the one you found and also ball of different sizes in it, ore from the mine is put into the drum and the drum is sealed, the drum is then rotated causing the balls and ore to tumble inside the drum the result is that the balls breaking the ore down into small particles making it easier to extract the mineral being mined from the ore, the product being mine could be gold, silver or many other types of minerals or precious metals.

I will have to do some research for any mines in your area later.

TheCannonballGuy · Apr 7, 2013

About a "ball-mill" (in layman's terms, as you requested) ...
The simplest and least-laborious way to turn a large quantity of big rocks into little rocks is to put the big rocks inside a huge metal barrel, along with a bunch of iron or steel balls, close the barrel, and slowly spin the barrel on its axis for a while. As the barrel continuously rotates, the rocks and balls inside it tumble onto each other repeatedly, with the balls smashing the rocks to bits. (This is why a ball-mill is also called a tumbler-mill. See the "cutaway-view" of a large modernday tumbler-mill, posted below. Tumbler-mills have been used for many centuries. They are used fo many purposes, such as ore-crushing in the Mining-&-Refining industry, and gravel-making in the Stonemilling industry, and coal-pulverizing, etc. But (smaller) tumbler-mills are also used to clean casting-sand and burrs off of fresh-out-of-the-mold castings in the Metalcasting industry -- and also, to polish castings, and even to make pretty pebbles for rock-collectors. (But for that last one, you don't use metal balls in the tumbler barrel.)

Edit: AU Seeker and I were typing at the same time.

rstanza · Aug 5, 2013

This was found in an old barn the owner was a Dr. this and a lot of old iron and rusted tools, not sure what it is? it weighs about 8 pounds, I see Cannon Balls with 1 hole but nothing with 3? What else could this have been? Thanks in advance, from Louisiana Ron Costanza