Batch
Full Member
Hello all!
There was a three day French-Prussian engagement known as the Battle of Kaiserslautern (Germany) in 1793 and I have been detecting in the woods around one of the battle sites. Many detectorists have pulled musketballs, uniform items, and at least one cannonball from this area. As I was examining my finds this week I noticed the musketballs seem to be of two distinct sizes. Which leads me to the first two of three questions...what muskets were likely used in this battle and which side had which? I ASSUME the two different diameters were from opposing sides.
The smaller weigh 21.3 grams with a diameter of 15.9 millimeters (0.625 inches) and the larger weigh 25.8 grams with a 16.9 millimeter (0.665 inches) diameter. These are "averaged" measurements of multiple items for both weight and diameter; for the diameter, only "dropped"/round balls were used. I used an old school balance beam scale accurate to a 1/10 gram calibrated with a known weight and a quality digital caliper so I am confident in my base numbers.
As for calculations, if I use the density of pure lead (11.34 grams/cubic centimeter) the numbers don't "add up" so to speak...the diameters should be noticably less (15.3 and 16.3 mm respectively). However if I use a density of 10.00 gr/cc the numbers work out pretty darned close. Which is my third question, what alloy was probably used for these musket balls?
The photo shows a representative example of both sizes side-by-side.
Any answers/insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated...and if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
Respectfully,
Batch
There was a three day French-Prussian engagement known as the Battle of Kaiserslautern (Germany) in 1793 and I have been detecting in the woods around one of the battle sites. Many detectorists have pulled musketballs, uniform items, and at least one cannonball from this area. As I was examining my finds this week I noticed the musketballs seem to be of two distinct sizes. Which leads me to the first two of three questions...what muskets were likely used in this battle and which side had which? I ASSUME the two different diameters were from opposing sides.
The smaller weigh 21.3 grams with a diameter of 15.9 millimeters (0.625 inches) and the larger weigh 25.8 grams with a 16.9 millimeter (0.665 inches) diameter. These are "averaged" measurements of multiple items for both weight and diameter; for the diameter, only "dropped"/round balls were used. I used an old school balance beam scale accurate to a 1/10 gram calibrated with a known weight and a quality digital caliper so I am confident in my base numbers.
As for calculations, if I use the density of pure lead (11.34 grams/cubic centimeter) the numbers don't "add up" so to speak...the diameters should be noticably less (15.3 and 16.3 mm respectively). However if I use a density of 10.00 gr/cc the numbers work out pretty darned close. Which is my third question, what alloy was probably used for these musket balls?
The photo shows a representative example of both sizes side-by-side.
Any answers/insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated...and if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
Respectfully,
Batch
