Unknown Cannonball

[sunshine]

I just acquired a great looking cannonball, but am having trouble identifying it. I am questioning the seam; it runs from the fuse opening down while most confederate smoothbore cannonballs I have seen have seams around its middle. Is the placement of the seam not an identifying characteristic? It is about 8.5 pounds and 12'' circumference, the fuse is under an inch. Great shape and color. I found it in PA. I would love some more information on it. I have a picture attached.

 

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[trikikiwi]

Good Morning sunshine

and welcome to treasurenet.
Someone here will identify it for you.

Cheers, Mike

 

[CRUSADER]

Good Morning sunshine

and welcome to treasurenet.
Someone here will identify it for you.

Cheers, Mike

Yeah but not you or me

 

[hmmm]

if its hollow it could be a bomb , mid 1800's.

 

[outdoorsup]

Need to know if it's hollow or not? I got called to a "cannonball", (Army EOD) that was not hollow but had a nice fuze well on it. We x-rayed the iron ball and it was solid all the way through. The fuze well ended up being where the ball sat on a bed post and the "cannonball" was off of an old antique bed. The bed had 4 of these iron balls one on each post. Cool looking bed, from the pictures, but the ball looked much like the one you have posted. Just a thought.

 

[sunshine]

Need to know if it's hollow or not? I got called to a "cannonball", (Army EOD) that was not hollow but had a nice fuze well on it. We x-rayed the iron ball and it was solid all the way through. The fuze well ended up being where the ball sat on a bed post and the "cannonball" was off of an old antique bed. The bed had 4 of these iron balls one on each post. Cool looking bed, from the pictures, but the ball looked much like the one you have posted. Just a thought.

Great thought, I actually bumped into a cite that talked about those cannonball bedpost. I'll have to get a couple of pictures of them. I know that a polygon cannonball is hollow and this one certainly is not. Imagine taking a drill press to a solid ball, thats what it reminds me of, but it doesn't go all the way through. Thanks !

 

[littleneckhalfshell]

Just a note, since no one else mentioned it. the old centrifugal governors for steam engines usually had two 'balls' on the end of two shafts, the faster the balls were spun around caused them to swing out and pull or push on the valve giving the steam to the cylinders. If the balls went too far, it closed down the valve so the steam engine would not exceed the 'governed' speed. I had one once that I got from a guy who found it in an old quarry. It had a threaded hole, but other wise the cast iron ball was solid. the one I had was close to 6" in diameter. The bigger the steam engine, the bigger the balls. So they would come in different sizes. If the ball is not hollow, I don't think it would be a shell, and to my knowledge, solid shot cannon balls did not have a hole in them. So I would have to say that either it is decorative as in the bed post idea, or it could be a fence post decoration, but there is also the possibility that it has some mechanical purpose, as part of a steam engine.

 

[mad4wrecks]

It looks like a hand grenade to me. It would have been loaded with gunpowder and then a wooden fuse inserted in the hole.

Hand grenades were in use for quite some time. The one I have pictured here came from a Spanish shipwreck. It was loaded with gunpowder and ready to go when I removed the fuse before conservation.