Civil War cannon ball

I bought my 8 year old son a civil war cannonball (cannon ball?) at auction as he had a huge love for American wars and their weaponry (specifically the civil war and wwII).
Seriously, some of the questions he throws my way I don't even have a clue where he would have gotten any of the information.

Anyways, I thought it would make a cool Christmas gift that he could start a collection with.

When I told people, they looked at me like I was crazy and told me not to keep it near a fire place as it might explode and not to drop it.

I immediately became paranoid due to the crazy looks they gave me, but I wasnt sure if they thought it was a weird gift for an 8 year old or if they thought I was crazy for giving something so dangerous to an 8 year old.
Obviously it will be display only and I'll explain to him the dangers, but is there really any huge significant danger of having these?

Also, they told me it was a confederate cannonball due to the "seam". There is somewhat of a indented seam, but not ever encountering a cannonball I have never had anything to compare it to.
What sort of seam did they have?

 

The only danger would be if he dropped it on his foot. It is a popular Hollywood fantasy that has cannon balls exploding on battlefields like modern artillery projectiles. Your muzzle loading cannon takes a sold iron ball that merely knocks things apart, but it is tricky to make knocked down and apart people look exciting on screen.

Only mortar shells of the period were filled with gunpowder and fitted a with a fuse that in theory would cause them to explode on landing, but since this was a piece of burning string, basically, some times it failed to work. Mortar projectiles were much larger than the balls used in field artillery. The people you spoke to were probably more ignorant than your son.

Your Civil War cannon ball might simply be a superannuated sports ground shot from the shot putt event. Exact dimensions and weight might allow it to be matched to a common field cannon, or may indicate it was never a warlike projectile at all.

Balls were cast in two half moulds. Any seam should have been ground flat and probably not be visible after a century and a half, but that I can't say.

I expect spring can tell you exactly what to look for. I only posted my non expert answer because your quoted comments from ignorant fools are typical nonsense from the general public.

 

Yeah, they had said only some were filled and I read a couple stories from news sites about a guy who restored them had one explode and kill him.
I wasnt sure

I measured and weighed mine
10" circumference 4.66 lbs

 

I read a couple stories from news sites about a guy who restored them had one explode and kill him.

Unlikely. Unless this was the very first one this guy who restored them had restored, surely he'd know a mortar shell from an artillery ball and in any case, causing a 150 year old gunpowder charge to explode would be quite a trick. Water ingress over the years should have rendered the powder inert by dissolving out the nitre.

At least it sounds too small to be a sports shot.

 

YA.....Go on.....Poke it with a stick....real hard !!

 

Hi Komo,
You kill me with these comments.. I had a cousin from the city and told her to poke this old opossum who was dead with a stick. She did and the dang thing jumped up and snarled at her. She went screaming for her Mom and my Gram tried to whack me but was laughing so hard she missed.
greg

 

I'm still chuckling when I read my own post Greg. ...Now yours too !!!

It's one of those things , y'know...those silly comments that the more you say it out loud ..,. the funnier it gets !!

I just have to think of someone poking that cannon ball with a stick......& the image sets me off !!

( glad I could make you laugh....all the way from here !! )

 

doesn't everyone want to poke something with a stick....?