Rusted metal ball, fluid inside.

[ballvalve]

Thinking this thing I found may be some tank or hydraulic system float... or a cannonball! weighs a couple of pounds, sloshing inside when shaken. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

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[3cylbill]

I don't even have a good guess what this could be . where did you find it ?

 

[d2]

Shot putt with mercury inside for weight is my guess. I had one years ago and thats the first thing that came to mind...d2

 

[HCW]

If its been in the ground for a hundred years plus I would assume it's water.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice find!

 

[against the wind]

If it is a standard put shot ball, it should weigh 8 lbs. and be solid steel.
Nice find, I was thinking; 4 lb. cannonball.

 

[BLK HOLE]

What’s the back story? Looks like a cannonball though I am not the guy to be authoritative in this matter.

 

[CASPER-2]

I you sure sloshing is fluid and not lead balls moving inside?

 

[Truth]

Where did you find it?

 

[CRUSADER]

To me, the look of the metal & patina doesn't remind me of a cannonball.

 

[sutphin]

??//

 

[ballvalve]

Where did you find it?

San Francisco Bay Area, near a highway close to Hayward/San leandro

 

[ballvalve]

Sloshing, not a rattling

 

[ballvalve]

Feels more like 4 lbs than 8. Will get weight today, if possible. No discernable seam, nowhere to insert liquid...

 

[ballvalve]

Update

708 grams // 1.56 lbs. What the heck is this thing?!? No discernible seam, looks to measure about 4" (see photos). Fluid inside when shaken--nothing solid inside. Found near Hayward, California, in ground that probably hasn't been disturbed in 40 years beyond rain although is proximal to a highway.

 

[WHADIFIND]

Ummmm a nitro ball?

 

[Slingshot]

Old cannonball with black powder turned to nitro-glycerin by water leaking in...

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Slingshot wrote:
> "Old cannonball with black powder turned to nitro-glycerin by water leaking in."

I speak the following as a 40+ years digger and nationally-known dealer of civil war (and earlier) cannonballs, and the co-author of the 552-page book "Field Artillery Projectiles Of The American Civil War".

Slingshot's statement, "black powder turned to nitroglycerine by water" is a fairy-tale I've heard before, and it's an outrageously false and needlessly terrifying statement. The only three ingredients in black gunpowder are sulfur, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), and finely-ground charcoal (carbon). Those chemicals CANNOT be made to turn into nitroglycerine. Adding water (H2O, hydrogen and oxygen) CANNOT turn the black gunpowder into nitroglycerine. It's a chemical impossibility. Look up the chemical recipe ingredients for making nitroglycerine.

 

[OneStudPuppy]

Any history of active or old mines in the area? Maybe one of the balls they have a huge crushing machine?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Having driven a silver stake through the heart of the "blackpowder turns into nitroglycerine" fairytale/horror-story, I'll now use the same Scientific methods on Ballvalve's mystery-ball.

It absolutely is not a cannonball. That is proven by the ball's diameter-to-weight ratio. Going by the historical data in the US 1861 Ordnance Manual, a 3.58-inch diameter solid (not hollow) cast-iron ball weighs 6.1 pounds, and the same size (3.58"-diameter) hollow explosive one weighs 3.22 pounds (3 pounds 4 ounces). Ballvalve's ball is bigger (4-inches), and he says it weighs 1.56 pounds, so it is definitely not a hollow explosive cannonball.

Let's continue with what its diameter-to-weight ratio scientifically tells us. It is approximately 4 inches in diameter, and its LIQUID-FILLED weight is 708 grams / 1.56 pounds. One cup of water would almost exactly fill a 4-inch sphere, and a cup of water weighs approximately 236 grams. But because Ballvalve hears sloshing, it is not completely filled with water. It's not made of thin sheetmetal, which would have rusted through in some places. Its diameter-to-weight ratio indicates its wall thickness is about 1/8-inch, plus or minus a bit.

I'm just the guy here on TreasureNet who knows a heckuva lot about cannonballs... I'm absolutely certain this ball isn't a cannonball, but I don't know this ball's identification. Rock-crushing balls ("mill-balls") are always solid, so this isn't one of those. I'm just giving you the info above to help y'all figure out its ID.