Not a cannonball but WHAT??? Attn. CBguy

[VOL1266-X]

A friend sent me this pic of an iron ball found today by some guys digging a waterline. He said it looks to weigh about 30#. I told him that it could be a counterweight but no cannonball had a ring fused to it. The county historian suggested it may be a slave ball. Help Cannonball guy. HH, Quindy.

 

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[Dig-m-Deep]

Looks like it belonged to the chain gang

 

[worldtalker]

Looks like it belonged to the chain gang

I agree.

 

[truckinbutch]

Mebbie tether ball for a buggy team .

 

[High Plains Digger]

What? Y'all never heard of chain shot? Or perhaps that is only a British Navy thing.

 

[nova treasure]

I will say the prisoner ball from chain. the prisoner ball weighed 25 to 30 lbs.

Bill

 

[High Plains Digger]

They were digging ditches. Perhaps one of the guys digging lost it. Time to count noses.

 

[Rasputin]

It's a counter-weight for a garden gate.

 

[Gunrunner61]

My vote goes to the Chain gang

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

VOL1266-X wrote:
> Help Cannonball guy.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, there are quite literally milions of metal balls which were not manufactured as artillery ammunition. In actual fact, Civilian-usage metal balls vastly outnumber all the cannonballs ever manufactured in human history. Some example categories are ball bearings, Mining-&-Stonemilling Industry rock-crusher balls, Sports Shot-Put balls, counterweights, and Ornamental Ironwork balls (such as gatepost-tops).

The way we cannonball collectors can disinguish an Artillery ball from a Civilian-use ball is by very precisely measuring the ball's diameter and weight. If the diameter and weight don't match up with any of the various sizes of historical cannonballs, the ball is not a cannonball. Putting that in simple terms: there has never been any such thing as a .47-caliber bullet... so, no matter how much a lead slug may look like a bullet, if it measures .47-caliber it is not a bullet.

If you want to learn more about the precise sizes and weights of Civil War, War Of 1812, and Revolutionary War cannonballs and grapeshot, go to: www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

By the way, note how super-precise the Artillery Ordnance Department's specifications for cannonball ball-sizes are. That is because a cannonball absolutely MUST fit the cannon's bore precisely right. Part of an Artillery Ordnance Inspector's job was to very carefully measure the size of EVERY cannonball, to make absolutely certain that each one was in exact compliance with the Ordnance Department's strict size-specifications.

The ditchdigger's 30-pounds-or-so ball (with iron ring) is very-very unlikely to be a cannonball. For 100% proof that it is not a cannonball, you'd need to clean the rust-crust off it and measure its diameter and weight extremely precisely, using calipers and a Postal Shipping scale (because common household bathroom-scales are not accurate enough).

There are several types of iron (or steel) balls which have an embedded ring:
counterweight ball
gate-weight
Colonial-era Chain Shot
Sports Hammer-Throw ball

No artillery "Chain-Shot" balls weighed approximately 30 pounds, so we can exclude that ID for this ball. Also, no Hammer-Throw balls weigh approximately 30 pounds.

The ditchdigger's ball is most probably either a counterweight, or an unusually large gate-weight, or (based on Nova Treaure's statement) a prisoner-ball.

Edit: Rasputin posted his gate-weight idea while I was typing this long reply. I'm glad to see that somebody else here in the What-Is-It forum knows about the existence of gate-weights. ;-)

Also, I mis-typed the URL for the cannonball size-info. I've corrected the URL.

 

[allan]

Weight for a small buoy maybe ?

 

[VOL1266-X]

Thanks to everyone for looking. Here's a little geographical information. The Cumberland River is about a mile away and no other body of water of any consequence is nearby. As CBguy, says there are multiple possibilities. Thanks for your replies, Quindy.

More info: the ironic thing is that I hunted that yard about 2 years ago as the landowner lost a very valuable diamond ring there and asked me to look for it but iron was not what I was thinking of that day. After I searched more than an hour, the lady decided the ring had fallen off her finger into the trash-LOL. She and her family were my friends anyway. Mark it down for Detectorist PR and good will.

 

[High Plains Digger]

I say, stick with the "ole ball and chain". It makes a great story. Gate weight, not so much. Do you know a blacksmith that can make you an ankle cuff? And an extra key.

 

[VOL1266-X]

I say, stick with the "ole ball and chain". It makes a great story. Gate weight, not so much. Do you know a blacksmith that can make you an ankle cuff? And an extra key.

If I did, I think I'd pass HPD-LOL. Thanks for looking, Quindy.

 

[ModernMiner]

Q-
You come up with some off the wall stuff.
I swear I saw my married younger brother wearing that thing.
At least he was able to shed his. I'm still wearing mine.
I agree with HPD. Get a chain and ankle cuff made up.
Great informative post. Thanks TCG.

-MM-

 

[High Plains Digger]

You can wear it twice a year, halloween and your anniversary. That will whoop up a serious batch of trouble.

 

[bradyboy]

IM going with ball and chain
Brady

 

[Edmundruffin]

It's a counter-weight for a garden gate.

I agree with Rasputin. I had a con man try to sell me a pair of gate weights that had the ring ground off. The size and weight were not close to a six pound solid cannonball.

 

[tomjiggy]

Maybe it will shed a little light on what your ball is, maybe not. You should spend a few days of electrolysis on it to see if any lettering shows up. Looks like it's pretty rusty to me...just saying it can't hurt anything.