✅ SOLVED Cannonball fuse

[myrtlebeach]

I found my first cannonball fuse today. Can anyone help me put a date to it or any other info? Civil war or revolutionary? I found it on a site that had history for both. Thanks

 

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[ATpro5]

Cant Help With A ID... But Nice Find!

 

[smokeythecat]

Looked at the Civil War book - couldn't pin it down, but not Revolution, that type hadn't been invented yet.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

I don't think that is a CW era cannonball fuse if it even is a fuse.. not sure. Are Cannonball and Projectile expert "CannonBallGuy" would know, he has written two well known books on the subject and answers questions here.. However, there is the Richmond Civil War show going on this weekend and he may be busy getting prepared for it and not able to log on here and answer questions - but I am sure he will get around to it..

 

[duggap]

Just to stir the pot until CBG get back, I have run that thru the book "Artillery Fuses of the Civil War" by Charles H. Jones. There is not a match presented. The one either have a line thru them for a screw driver devise or three holes in them. The only flat top with two holes in it had a pronounced lip on it. I wonder if it is, in fact, artillery. Just guessing and I will definitely yield to CBG.

 

[smokeythecat]

I checked out Mason and McKee's book on Civil War projectiles and there was no match there either.

 

[vhs07]

looks like a plug from a shot put.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

HutSiteDigger is right, I've been too busy to log on, making preparations to man my sales-table at the Richmond VA civil war relic show this weekend.

Please post a photo of the other side of the plug... and accurate measurements of its diameter and thickness. I wrote a longer reply but had to delete most of it because I need to see the plug's other side for certainty in identifying it. The "front" side showing two round spanner-wrench holes near the plug's edge resembles a civil war Bormann fuze's support-plug. But that kind of plug has a small hole going all the way through its center. If there's no hole through the center, it's not a Bormann support-plug.

 

[flatbutton]

Looks a lot like a Bormann fuze base plug to me too. From the pics, it looks like it may have a hole through the center. Nice find!

 

[myrtlebeach]

Here are a couple more pics. I used a toothpick to clean it up a bit, not sure really how to do it though. Thanks

HutSiteDigger is right, I've been too busy to log on, making preparations to man my sales-table at the Richmond VA civil war relic show this weekend.

Please post a photo of the other side of the plug... and accurate measurements of its diameter and thickness. I wrote a longer reply but had to delete most of it because I need to see the plug's other side for certainty in identifying it. The "front" side showing two round spanner-wrench holes near the plug's edge resembles a civil war Bormann fuze's support-plug. But that kind of plug has a small hole going all the way through its center. If there's no hole through the center, it's not a Bormann support-plug.

 

[flatbutton]

I would def call that find a base plug for a Bormann fuze! Heres some pics of a 6 pdr. ball with a Bormann fuze and a frag. The area below the large threaded hole on the frag pic is where the plug would screw in. Keep hunting that area, you may find some frags or even whats left of the fuze.

 

[myrtlebeach]

thanks!

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Those newer photos you posted shed more light on your find.. compared to what you first posted.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Myrtlebeach, thank you for cleaning the threaded plug and making-&-posting photos after the cleaning, as I requested. They confirm my suspicion that it had a hole going all the way through its center. Now I can give you the (long) part of my previous post that I wrote but withdrew until I had the needed evidence for confirming my ID of the plug.

----------------

Your find is not a cannonball fuze, but it is directly related to one... a Bormann timefuze from the civil war. Specifically, your find is the support plug (also called the underplug) which was screwed into the cannonball's fuzehole underneath the Bormann timefuze. There is a small "flash-hole" in the Bormann support-plug's center, which carried flame from the fuze to the gunpowder in the shell's bursting-charge cavity. The flashhole in your Bormann support-plug is full of dirt-concretion, and thus is very hard to see in your photos -- which is why vhs07 guessed it's a plug from a Sports Shot Put ball. But it's "there"... I spotted it because I knew exactly where to look. It goes all the way through the exact center of the plug. I suggest you use a nutpick or a small nail to dig the crud out of the flash-hole, so your civil war Bormann fuze support-plug will be more easily recognizable for what it actually is.

For anybody here who doesn't already know:
The Bormann timefuze for artillery shells was named for its inventor, Captain Charles G. Bormann of the Belgian Army, in the 1830s. The US Ordnance Department eventually got around to copying it and adopted it for service in the US Artillery in the mid-1850s. The US version remained in active service until the 1880s.

By the way... because your Bormann support-plug is made of brass, the odds are about 98% that it is a Confederate-made one. The yankee-made Bormann support-plug was made of iron.

Here's a photo of a sawed-in-half Confederate-made Bormann-fuzed cannonball. Look underneath the Bormann fuze and you'll see the (sawed-in-half) brass support-plug, with the flash-hole going through its center.

 

[myrtlebeach]

OUTSTANDING info you provided on this topic for me. Greatly appreciated!