Safety: Man Killed by 145 year old cannon ball

[mrtnira]

A man was killed by a 145 year old American Civil War cannon ball. I'm including it as a safety message. He had restored lots of Civil War ordnance, and was a noted expert and author.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1397294

[joffe]

Interesting. I remember a similar case from my whereabouts several years ago where a gun powder-filled 18. Century cannon ball suddenly detonated after it had been opened. According to one of the men investigating the accident, the reason the gun powder exploded was that the salpeter was produced from guano which contains small amounts phosophor which when it came into contact with air didn't react too well with the gun powder. So careful with those 18. and 19. Century cannon balls.

[akinrog]

the salpeter was produced from guano which contains small amounts phosophor which when it came into contact with air didn't react too well with the gun powder. So careful with those 18. and 19. Century cannon balls.

Not to disagree but AFAIK iron sulfide (which may form during a very prolonged storage of powder in an iron shell) are pyrophoric (sp?) too.

Iron sulfide forming in oil refinery facilities causes explosions when the vessel is opened and thereby exposed to air.

Iron sulfide formed in this fashion may also be reason for spontaneous explosion. Regards

[joffe]

Didn't think of that (but he - the expert - should have). But back then I was a junior NCO who wouldn't dare think about questioning authority. But your theory is just as good as his.

[Hirudinea]

Well at least this is a testement to the producers of 19th century ammunition. Anyway do you think that deactivating this type of shell would be safer using a "water drill", to cut through and introduce water to clean out the shell before air in introduced? And remember if you think this is bad there are still around 100 tonnes of explosives buried under a small Belgian town left over from WWI, imagine trying to "defuse" that.

[a3990918]

think that deactivating this type of shell would be safer using a "water drill", to cut through and introduce water to clean out the shell before air in introduced?

I read the story yesterday or the day before. Said the guy was using a grinder and showering sparks all over the shell. Also commented that he may have thought the shell was devoid of its explosive charge, due to a hole in the fuse... Another one of those situations you should never assume anything about...

This could have been much worse, said his wife had been out there with him watching him work...A chunk of the shell perforated the front porch of a house a quarter mile away...Not bad for a ground level explosion of a near 150yr old shell...

[Hirudinea]

I read the story yesterday or the day before. Said the guy was using a grinder and showering sparks all over the shell. Also commented that he may have thought the shell was devoid of its explosive charge, due to a hole in the fuse... Another one of those situations you should never assume anything about...

They say you should always assume a gun is loaded until your positive it isn't, the same should go for anything else that can kill you.

This could have been much worse, said his wife had been out there with him watching him work...A chunk of the shell perforated the front porch of a house a quarter mile away...Not bad for a ground level explosion of a near 150yr old shell...

Made in the good ol' U.S. of A, eh?

[Kaydon]

I've got a couple 8lb cannon balls, but I don't believe they're packed with anything.

'Tis a shame such a thing would happen.

[ChippedHammer]

Another one of those situations you should never assume anything about...


To his defense, the thing was 150 years old. I honestly would have thought anything that had been buried for that amount of time would have been rendered inert - especially black powder munitions.

[Charles Owlen Picket]

Common sense tells you that something that is basically hygroscopic like BP would be exposed to moisture, etc but considering that the container could well be sealed the guy should have approached it with a bit more care. especially since the possibility of a compartmentalization of a sealed ball could have withstood the test of time.

We don't have all the facts in this but if the guy did something like use any tool that is spark producing; he was asking for disaster. Don't quote me on this but I believe that there is no shelf life for any material that is hermetically sealed. That's why they had developed those "time capsules" that are buried with information of previous generations.

The other thing that perplexes me is that in collections of many objects, does not the condition of originality have a bearing on the price & "collect-ability" of the object? Why would the fellow want to spoil it by cutting
& / or grinding on it? There is a great book available on Civil War shells and those who collect them and it has a sizable warning within both the text & preface.

[Hirudinea]

All in all a good saftey lesson, if your not SURE its safe, it isn't, so take the proper precautions.

[megalomania]

Perhaps he wanted to make sure the cannon ball was completely inert, so it needed to be drilled or cut open to remove any residual contents pending transport or museum/reenactment display. This sounds like a prudent safety practice in light of this accident! Perhaps he was intellectually aware of what safety procedures needed to be followed to render the ball inert, but he became complacent in his belief that this thing could not possibly be dangerous.