Iron ball?

[Jack873]

Found this in my backyard maybe 2-3" down. It's about 1in. in diameter and weighs around 37g. I don't think it's a ball bearing off an old tractor. Aren't ball bearings generally made of steel? From what I've looked up it could be a Civil War shot from a cannon grapeshot round. Although, from what I've read, the sizes of these shots ranged from 1 1/2in. - 2in. A lot larger than this is.
Willow Grove didn't really have any significance in the Civil War either, except that Old York Rd. was one of the main routes of the Underground Railroad into Canada.
The Revolutionary war though is different. I read that Washington's troops did in fact march through Willow Grove in 1777 on their way to the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Crooked Billet took place around Hatboro. Could this be a Revolutionary War shot?

 

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[CRUSADER]

maybe 1 of the shot from a canister shot.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

First... thank you very much for providing PRECISE measurements of the unknown object's size and weight -- because precise measurements are crucially necessary to accurate identification.

That being said... with excavated iron relics, the rust-&-dirt concretion must be removed in order to get an accurate measurement of the iron object's size. In your case, the rust-encrusted ball's 37-grams weight proves that the ball's actual diameter is significantly smaller than the .87-inch size shown on the caliper's dial in the photo.

Unfortunately, I have to tell you that no iron balls which were THAT small were used as any kind of artillery projectile in the Revolutionary war.


Also, none that small were used as artillery projectiles in the Civil War. All of the civil war artillery projectile iron ball sizes (cannonballs, grapeshot-balls, canister-balls) are listed at www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm ...and you'll notice that the smallest iron one was 1.06-inch in diameter.

However, during the Civil War, some .66"-diameter iron balls were used inside certain types of Antipersonnel artillery shells (which were called Case-Shot shells). But, you say there was no Civil War artillery action in your vicinity of Pennsylvania. So there seems to be zero possibilility that your tiny iron ball was an artillery projectile of any kind. (And, for anybody who doesn't already know, no iron balls were ever used as bullets.)

You asked "Aren't ball bearings generally made of steel?" Yes... 20th-Century ball-bearings are made of steel. But ball bearings existed before the 20th-Century, and those "earlier" ones were made of iron.

 

[Jack873]

Thank you very much CannonballGuy! Very informative! I'm a bit disappointed now, lol. Thought I had something cool.