Artillery shell and lead sabot

[bearbqd]

Ok, I know this is difficult without pics but my camera battery is charging. I found what I believe with 90 percent certainty is part of a Hotchkiss shell with lead sabot still intact. It was found 14 inches down in a battle site. The only thing weird about it is the bottom of the lead sabot seems to have neon orange paint remnants. How is this possible? There would be no reason for paint as it was attached to the bottom part of the shell. Second, was neon paint even invented? What the heck?? I'll post a pic as soon as battery charges.

Ok, here's the pics:

 

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[goonie1day]

That battery has to be charged by now!

 

[bearbqd]

That battery has to be charged by now!

Lol, I'll see if it has enough juice after "Shooter" is over.

 

[gordygroover]

I think your identification is spot on. And a great find by the way.
The neon color is strange. Lead doesn't take color usually. The white patina from a old find we all know about but that orange color in a new one.
I am sort of wondering if it is some remnant of algae or bacteria that left its color behind.
Seen it in the snow and on some fabrics but a lead sabot is something else all-together.

 

[bearbqd]

I think your identification is spot on. And a great find by the way.
The neon color is strange. Lead doesn't take color usually. The white patina from a old find we all know about but that orange color in a new one.
I am sort of wondering if it is some remnant of algae or bacteria that left its color behind.
Seen it in the snow and on some fabrics but a lead sabot is something else all-together.

Hmmm, didn't think of that possibility. You may be on to something there. Thanks

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

You've found the exploded base of a civil war Dyer 3"-caliber Common-Shell. By the way, the term "Common-Shell" does not mean plentiful, it means a "plain" or "ordinary" shell, which contained only an explosive charge ...it did not contain any antipersonnel slugs (which were called Case-Shot).

The orange color on your Dyer's sabot is original Ordnance Department color-code paint. The color-code enabled an artilleryman to very quickly identify each type of ammuntion in the cannon's ammo-chest. Orange signified Common-Shell. Red meant Case-Shot. Black meant Solid-Shot.

The color-code paint rarely survives on projectiles which have been in the ground for about 150 years ...so your Dyer shell-base still showing some color-code paint is a very scarce find. Congratulations!

The sabot on your shell was made of a solder-like alloy, not lead. (That is why it doesn't have the smooth white patina typically seen on Minie-balls, which were almost always made of pure lead.)

The presence of very deep "cast " (not cut or chiseled into the sabot by hand) flamegrooves on your sabot means your shell is the second version of 3" Dyer, which made its first appearance in combat during Spring 1862.

 

[Hiker]

Dang, they don't call you the cannon ball guy for nothing, great information, thank you.

 

[RiverRat3]

I learn something on this website every day. Great info Cannonballguy.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I'm pleased to be of assistance to my fellow relic-hunters ...just like I was assisted by the "oldtimers" who helped me when I was new to the hobby.

For almost 40 years, my main area of relic-digging and relic-study has been civil war projectiles. With that subject being my relic specialty area for several decades, the nickname "The Cannonball Guy" was given to me by the numerous relic-diggers who couldn't remember my name. It went like this... one digger says to another, "Cool-looking shell you found -- since we don't know what kind it is, let's ask ...er... ummm... the Cannonball Guy to identify it at the next relic-show."

That's the story behind my Treasurenet user-name.

 

[bearbqd]

Wow, thanks cannonball guy. That is awesome info and clears up the paint. So now I know this was the bottom of the shell and that it didn't have a third part like a 3 part Hotchkiss. What can you tell me about the wooden fuses that these had that were lit by the flame grooves? Was there different thickness wood to determine how many seconds it would reach the internal powder charge?

Sure glad I went after this signal. It was iffy and jumping around, obviously from the two different metals. I first dug down about 9 inches, didn't get any signal confirmation with my pinpointer, didn't really hear much with my coil, and ended up filling the hole back in. I swept it again and still got that odd, week signal. Dug it out again and finally started hearing it about a foot down. Finally came out at about 14-16 inches. Thanks again.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Bearbqd wrote:
> What can you tell me about the wooden fuses that these had that were lit by the flame grooves?

These 3"-caliber Dyer shells never used a wood plug for the timefuze adapter plug. US Captain Alexander B. Dyer designed a threaded metal adapter plug to hold the paper timefuze in his 3"-caliber shells. I'll attach photos to show you a Dyer 3"-caliber shells ...and a "halfsection" photo showing a Dyer timefuze-adapter plug, threaded into the fuzehole of a 3"-caliber Dyer Case-Shot. (Remember, the Dyer version you found is a Common-Shell, not a Case-Shot, so yours did not have any antipersonnel balls inside it.) Sorry I don't have a better-looking "halfsection" photo to post.

Just in case you (or other readers) are not familiar with a "paper" timefuze, I'll describe its construction. First... at an Arsenal, black gunpowder was wetted just enough to give it a thick clay-like consistency. While it was claylike, it was packed into a hollow cylinder made of multiple rolled-up layers of heavy paper, similar to today's grocery-sack paper. The paper cylinder was usually about 2 inches long. It was slightly tapered, being about 1/2" wide at one end, and about 3/8" wide at the other end. The outside of the paper cylinder was marked (with ink) like a ruler, except the lines represent seconds of burning-time.

Just prior to firing, the gunner calculates the range to the target, in both yards of distance and seconds of fuze burning-time. Let's say the range to the target was 8.5 seconds. A member of the cannon's crew pulls a 10-second paper timefuze out of the shipping-packet it came in (which usually contained five paper timefuzes per packet). Noting the time-marking lines on the paper fuze, he then would use a fuze-cutter to slice off the un-needed 1.5 seconds from the 10-second fuze's length. He then presses the paper fuze into the 1/2"-wide hole in the fuze-adapter plug in the shell's nose. The "fuzed" shell is then loaded into the cannon. At the instant of firing, the flaming blast from the cannon's propellant powdercharge ignites the exposed tip of the paper timefuze. (During the civil war, an average of one out of four timefuzes failed to ignite, which is why we diggers have found so many "duds" on civil war battlefields.) If today is a good day, the shell will burst in the air 8.5 seconds after firing, scattering shrapnel among the enemy's troops.

Please note, a timefuze is used only when an airburst is desired. If you wanted to blow up a fort's walls, you would use an impact-detonation fuze ...which in the civil war was called a Percussion fuze. Unlike a time-fuzed shell (which is intended to explode in the air), an impact-fuzed shell doesn't explode until it hits a solid object (or the ground).

> Was there different thickness wood to determine how many seconds it would reach the internal powder charge?

The only such civil war fuze which worked anything like your question is describing is a extremely long-bodied wooden timefuze-plug for use in Heavy Caliber mortars. Being so lengthy, a wooden cylinder was used instead of paper. The rulerlike time-markings were engraved into the wood, instead of printed in ink.

> Finally came out at about 14-16 inches.

For the shell's exploded base to be found that deep, you very probably found what we shell-diggers call a "groundburst" shell. Meaning, the shell burrowed down into the ground before it exploded. The entire rest of that shell, exploded into fragments, could be down in that hole, or a little bit off to one side of the hole, at that depth or deeper. So, my Oldtimer's advice to you is to go back to that hole and dig it out wider and deeper, checking it for more readings. Since you'll be looking for iron frags, set your detector to zero discrimination.

In addition to the iron frags, there's a decent chance your shell's solder-alloy Dyer timefuze adapter-plug is also in that hole. If it's not smashed, a Dyer fuzeplug is worth about $50. Good luck!

 

[bearbqd]

Sweet,thanks for all of that great info. I know who to come to with any artillery questions now. Thanks again and I'll go look for more around that hole.