Found these metal balls (52 of them)

[Coffee Cars & Cash]

A few years back I was driving around in Ames, IA in an area where a man made lake was beginning to be made. I wasn't hunting for anything, just walking around. I noticed something shiny so I dug it up. I found 51 more of these little metal balls. I cleaned them up and have had them sitting around for a long time. I've never known what they are, but always curious to know.

I have asked several people and I always get the same answer. Ball bearings. I always figured they were a bi-product of something being made.

They are slightly magnetic to each other, they vary in size and some have dimples.

Edit: Guesses so far
ball bearings (sizes differing too much?)
mill balls (too small?)
grape shot from a cannon shell


On a side note, has anyone seen a penny with its face popped out like that? - Solved - Magician coin sold in comic book. a dime fits in one side.

 

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[UncleVinnys]

Sorry, the Devil made me do it.

No, actually I was wondering if they might be some kind of polishing product,
like when you tumble stones for a fine finish - the metal objects are put in
a slurry with water and abrasive, and tumbled for a long time to produce
a polish, or de-burring. Those look way too big for tumbling stones though, so,
maybe to polish other types of products.

 

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[SWEATYSOCK]

looks to me as if most of the balls with flats on are a simillar size,so here's my theory. balls that are used as bearings in a "thrust race" often wear to this shape over time. mechanical diggers use a huge thrust race in their slewing mechanism (the bit that allows the cab/digging arm to rotate) if they had a digger break down in the area in which they were found and the maintenance guy came along with a crane and lifted the top section off, the balls would simply have fallen onto the dirt,as for the different size balls,it could be down to other repair work from the same vehicle.
if you've had a heavy day cutting,grinding and burning enormous bearings from heavy earth moving plant,you're not gonna be too bothered about getting out the dustpan and brush !
as for the grinding mill theory,i would think it should be quite easy to find out if a balling mill ever existed there in the last 100 years or so.

 

[detector de metales]

Actually I agree with Uncle Vinny, they are polishing balls.

J2

 

[HunterJames]

I'm guessing the balls are from a gun "used for hunting long time ago"
And i'm guessing the person was testing thats why there were 52 balls close?.. (just guessing)

 

[SWEATYSOCK]

surely polishing balls wouldn't wear unevenly just tumbling around. I'd have thought they would just reduce in size with use ?

 

[baspinall]

My first thought was pig iron. Also, we used to find similar balls along railroad tracks when I was a kid. Perfect for the old slingshot

Brian

 

[pronghorn]

A few years back I was driving around in Ames, IA in an area where a man made lake was beginning to be made. I wasn't hunting for anything, just walking around. I noticed something shiny so I dug it up. I found 51 more of these little metal balls. I cleaned them up and have had them sitting around for a long time. I've never known what they are, but always curious to know.

I have asked several people and I always get the same answer. Ball bearings. I always figured they were a bi-product of something being made.

They are slightly magnetic to each other, they vary in size and some have dimples.

Edit: Guesses so far
ball bearings (sizes differing too much?)
mill balls (too small?)
grape shot from a cannon shell

I worked in the cement industry for a few years. The plant I worked at in Norfolk Va.
(Lafarge) had these balls laying all over. The raw klinker rock would come in on a barge.
It would be off loaded and run through a series of "Ball Mills" The first one had these
large iron balls, maybe 5 or 6 inches in diameter. They are cast iron, explains the pitting, cast iron is as cheap as iron gets for this sort of use and is often full of pits,
they have a small seam around the middle from the mold when new. Many were not fully round as the molds didn't always get filled to the top with the molten iron, which I think explains the flat sides. Ball mills are used to crush a variety of materials, paint, fetilizer, grain, and many other things. The balls don't wear consistently when grinding
klinker for powdered cement, so you end up with many sizes and shapes.
The long cylindrical mill they go into rotates and is set at a slight angle so that the material works its way to the low end as it is crushed. Then it goes to another mill with smaller balls and so on and so on until it is as fine as baby powder. You have never heard such a racket in your life as that inside a building full of ball mills crushing rock.
When the balls wear out and get smaller, they transfer them
out of one mill and into the next mill with smaller ones and add
new ones to the big mill. Since the big ones are not as numerous, they also have
stores of smaller new ones also but they are all recycled until they are around 1/2 inch
or so, maybe even smaller. Then I think they sell them for scrap. I think that explains why they are found along railroad tracks, they are being shipped back to be recycled.

 

[UncleVinnys]

Wow, Good find, Pronghorn.

I'd say "Solved"!!