Cannonball and rosette?

[fyrffytr1]

I was contacted by a gentleman today about some items he had. The first is the "cannonball". His best measurements and my best memory of them are a circumference of just under 12 inches and a weight of 6 pounds. Bear in mind that he weighed the ball on a baby scale. The circumference would work out to about 3.5 inches which is close to a six pound solid shot. But the seam is raised and there is a plugged hole in it. I told the gentleman that I didn't think it was a cannonball, I told him I thought it was an iron gate or fence post topper that had broken off leaving the post part in it. I also told him I would post it here for confirmation either way.
The second item is a little larger than a quarter and depicts a running horse on the front. It is lead filled. We think it may be a rosette.
One final item is a smashed bullet that has a small piece of wood embedded in it. I know it is difficult to tell but could it have been an Enfield with a rosewood plug? All these items came from Pennsylvania some years ago. Second and third pictures are the "rosette"

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

First observation:
That is not a plugged hole on the ball... it is either the ironcasting mold's filler-hole sprue or vent-hole sprue. It's huge in comparison to this ball's reported diameter. I've never seen a filler-hole sprue or vent-hole sprue even close to that large on a cannonball of this size.

Second:
Although the ball's reported circumference is "just under 12 inches," let's do the diameter math on 12 inches circumference. It is 3.81-inches. That is .23-inch larger than a civil war 6-Pounder caliber cannonball. So, a LOT depends on how much "just under 12 inches" it actually is.

Third:
Weighing it on a precise scale, such as Postal Shipping scale, would also be helpful. According to the US Ordnance Manual of 1861, a 6-Pounder caliber Solid-Shot cannonball weighed precisely 6 pounds 1.6 ounces.

The disc-shaped object appears to be an actual historical horseharness rosette. The "moon-crater" pitting of the solder (not lead) filler-metal in its back is a definitive clue to its correct ID and age.

Sorry, but no, that cannot be a fired impact-smashed .577 Enfield Minie-bullet with some of its boxwood base-plug preserved. The Enfield boxwood plug's grain ran "vertically" from the plug's top through to its bottom... not "horizontally" (from side to side) as we see on wood fragment the lead object.

 

[Doubter in MD]

CBG - Aren't seams a no-no on a cannonball?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Doubter in MD wrote:
> CBG - Aren't seams a no-no on a cannonball?

Most of the time, yes, but not always. There is a "complication" involved in the answer.

During the Colonial Era, most cannonballs did show a casting-mold seam. But by the time of the civil war, the art of Metalcasting had improved enough that an "up-to-date" foundry could cast iron balls without a mold-seam showing. Thus, nearly all of the yankee-made cannonballs show no seam. But the Confederacy had to employ even small low-skilled "local" ironfoundries to supply the war effort. Also, the extreme need top produce as many as possible caused some standards to be lowered.

Second part of the answer:
Cannonballs need to fit smoothly down into the cannonbarrel, so they can only have a slight moldseam at most. But many kinds of Civilian-usage metal balls don't need to be made baby-butt smooth, such as the rock/ore-crusher balls used in the Mining & Stonemilling Industry. More than a small amount of time and labor is required to remove the casting-mold seam, so if its presence doesn't matter, why pay somebody to remove it?

Here is my "rule of thumb" (there are always going to be a few exceptions) about an iron ball showing a moldseam. If the ball is clearly a dug/excavated long-buried one, the seam means the ball COULD be a genuine crude Colonia Era cannonball, or a low-quality Confederate cannonball. But if the ball looks non-excavated (like it has not been buried for decades/centuries), the moldseam means it is very highly likely to be a modernday Civilian-usage ball.

In summary... I consider a prominently-visible moldseam to be a warning sign -- but it's not an automatic total disqualifier. The next step for correct identification (as an artillery ball or a Civilian-usage ball) is to check the ball's precisely-measured diameter & weight, and see if there's an EXTREMELY close matchup for those measurements in the civil war Ordnance Manual's "Shot Tables" charts, at the following link. (Bookmark it!) No matchup means the ball is not an artillery ball.
www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

 

[Doubter in MD]

Thanks for the clarification. Educational as always!

 

[fyrffytr1]

I hope the gentleman I talked to has seen this post. I will text him just to make sure. One more question, is it normal for a seam to run like the one I posted?

 

[fyrffytr1]

The measurements for the ball are 10.8125" circumference or 3.44" diameter and it weighs 5 pounds 15.2 ounces. Does the seam look a little too raised for a cannonball? And, please forgive my ignorance but what is meant by historical in reference to the rosette?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The updated measurements exclude this ball from being a cannonball. The "nearest" match-up with an actual cannonball is a civil war era 6-Pounder caliber ball... but at 3.44-inch diameter instead of 3.58" diameter, it is too small. heck the cannonball size-&-weight chart, here:
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

It's worth mentioning that Revolutionary War era cannonballs were a bit smaller than civil war ones. But a RevWar 5-Pounder ball was about 3.50"-diamter, sio at 3.44 this ball is still too small to qualify as a cannonball.

Fyrfytr1 asked:
> And, please forgive my ignorance but what is meant by historical in reference to the rosette?

Ignorance is forgivable. "Ignorance can be cured, by Education, but Stupidity is forever." So, no problemo, my friend. In this case, the term "historical" means pre-20th-Century. For those of us who were born in the mid-20th-Century, anything from the 20th is "modern era," and anything from before then is "historical." ;-)

 

[fyrffytr1]

TCG, thanks for the reply. This ball is so close that I am holding out hope that the measurements given are slightly off. It is less than 2oz shy in weight and 1/4" shy in circumference.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Fyrffytr1 wrote:
> TCG, thanks for the reply. This ball is so close that I am holding out hope that the measurements given are slightly off. It is less than 2oz shy in weight and 1/4" shy in circumference.

First, you're welcome. Second, I too am suspicious/perturbed by it being less than 2 ounces of what a Revolutionary War era 6-Pounder Solid-Shot cannonball should weigh. I do know, from experience, that it's darn difficult to get a sphere's perfectly-correct diameter measurement when you are using a cloth tape-measure. The tape must be held exactly-precisely on the ball's "Equator" or the measurement will be off a bit from the actual diameter.

The seam is "right" for a RevWar cannonball. The thing that's throwing me is how huge the mold-vent-&-fillerhole looks. In the photo, it's a lot bigger than any I've ever seen on a 6-pounder ball. That's a major reason for exluding the ball from being an actual historical cannonball. PERHAPS its "apparent" oversize appearance is due to a trick of camera-lens persepective -- in other words, an optical illusion due to having the camera so close the the ball. Please ask him to precisely measure the diameter of the vent-hole/fillerhole. Also, ask the ball's owner to make another photo, showing the ball from its side, with the vent-hole/fillerhole visible at the North Pole.

It would also be helpful to know where this ball was found. If it was found at a place where no RevWar (or War Of 1812) 6-Pounder cannon was ever present, that would weight against it being a cannonball.

The "gritty" rust-encrustation on it indicates it was dug a long time ago, from sandy soil. Did the owner dig it himself?

 

[fyrffytr1]

The owner told me that the ball and rosette along with a US belt plate and some other small pieces came from Pennsylvania some time ago.

 

[ARC]

Missed this post... CBG is on it.

I will leave yall with this on my way out