✅ SOLVED Large bronze covered iron ball - Any ideas?

[mangum]

This one has been bugging me for years. I got it from a family member years ago along with a real Civil War cannonball. He said they both were found in a creek (in NC). He told me it was a cannonball but I'm thinking it isn't. Someone suggested something off a ship's compass? That could explain the bronze coating... I have no clue, but it's definitely a neat piece. I'd love to nail down what it is! Any help would be great! HH!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[uglymailman]

It's a "globe",left by future aliens, of Earth after Dec. this yr? The ridge that goes all around indicates the Equator? I don't know but that's gotta be a GREAT conversation piece. Very cool. Hope you get it I.D.'ed. Good luck.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Possibly from a ship's binnacle containing a compass. One was mounted on each side to "adjust" the effects of a compass inside an iron ship. Brass coated as iron rusts in salty air.

There should be obvious mounting or fastening arrangement on the globe is that is what it was from.

 

[mangum]

Possibly from a ship's binnacle containing a compass. One was mounted on each side to "adjust" the effects of a compass inside an iron ship. Brass coated as iron rusts in salty air.

There should be obvious mounting or fastening arrangement on the globe is that is what it was from.

View attachment 693065

View attachment 693066

There are no obvious mounting or fastening spots on this, so I guess it's still a mystery!

 

[mangum]

Surprised nobody else has chimed in...

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Definitely not a cannonball. It is a water well-pump counterweight ball. The purpose of the bronze (or copper) sheetmetal cover on it is to protect the iron ball (underneath the cover) from rust-corrosion, which can "gum up the works."

I said "or copper" because I own one which has a copper sheetmetal cover.

 

[mangum]

Definitely not a cannonball. It is a water well-pump counterweight ball. The purpose of the bronze (or copper) sheetmetal cover on it is to protect the iron ball (underneath the cover) from rust-corrosion, which can "gum up the works."

I said "or copper" because I own one which has a copper sheetmetal cover.

Thanks cannonball guy. Any idea of age?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Such things are very difficult to accurately date. I doubt it goes back as far as the 1800s (or earlier), because that kind -- with the crimped-on copper/brass sheetmetal jacket -- doesn't seem to get found at civil war era (and older) house-sites. So I would guess that it's from sometime in the first half of the 20th-Century.

 

[mangum]

Such things are very difficult to accurately date. I doubt it goes back as far as the 1800s (or earlier), because that kind -- with the crimped-on copper/brass sheetmetal jacket -- doesn't seem to get found at civil war era (and older) house-sites. So I would guess that it's from sometime in the first half of the 20th-Century.

Thanks CannonballGuy for the info, much appreciated. HH!