Specifically, those from the Civil War. I’m copyediting a Civil War-era western, and the author has a cannonball hitting the ground and exploding, sending shrapnel flying. Normally I defer to the author’s expertise, but I’ve never heard of an exploding cannonball – I thought they were just big solid-metal bowling-ball-type things that did their damage by crashing into things. I haven’t found anything helpful in my Web searching, and I can usually kill questions like this pretty easily that way. All I need is a simple confirmation that it’s possible.
Am I a victim of watching too many circuses and Roadrunner cartoons? Help me, O artilleryheads!
I was always under the impression that most cannonballs encased gunpowder or some other such explosive that was ignited somehow by the force of impact. But then again, some are known to explode mid-flight, hence “the bombs bursting in air.”
I believe you’re correct, though it would be possible
for a cannonball to disintegrate on impact with another
solid object, thus sending shrapnel at high velocity in
all directions. Alternatively, the cannonball could strike something like a stone foundation for a house or a horse-drawn wagon, and the splinter damage from that would certainly shred plenty of Union or Confederate soldiers.
But cannonballs weren’t high explosive like modern
artillery shells, which are designed to go kablooey as soon
as they strike something solid and cause a lot of trouble for the surrounding area.
Of course, I’ve only posted seven times, so WTF do I know?
There are different kinds of ammo that can be shot from a cannon. We’re mostly used to seeing a cannonball. Cannonballs can range from bocce ball size to bowling ball size. They usually contain a small hollow in the center, so that they may shatter upon impact and spray outwards into very large shrapnel.
There is also cannister shot. It looks like a large juice can packed with very large (1/2" to 1") shot, called grape shot. When the cannister hits the target, the cannister shatters and sprays grape shot in all direction. If it hits in the middle of a group of soldiers, we’re talking Raw Meat City.
Then there’s chain shot, which is two small cannonballs attached by a length of chain. Fired out of a cannon, the two balls sort of spread out to the length of the chain. It was made to take out a whole row of advancing soldiers; the chain would act like a weedwhacker and chop them up.
Back to the explosion. Don’t take Hollywood’s word for it. The cannonball impacting into the ground doesn’t explode like a grenade, but the force of impact is still enough to plow a lot of dirt, stone, and shattered cannonball into a wide direction.
Cannons were originally invented to knock down walls of castles and forts, sort of like a high-powered catapult. It’s only later that they were turned into anti-personnel weapons.
Jumblemind–the “bombs bursting in air” from the Star Spangled Banner are more closely related to skyrockets, not cannonballs.
Actually, I just found a site/cite that says “it was not till the Napoleonic Wars (1800-1815) that Henry Shrapnel, a British artillery-man, invented the exploding cannonball (the fuse for which too had to be hand-lit).” Apparently, they were just firing hunks of metal at each other for 400 years until Mr. Shrapnel invented, er, shrapnel.
Wow, thanks! You guys are fast, and for such a dumb question, too.
I had called Mr. Scarlett, the sometime history buff, at work to ask him this question, and he mentioned how you see the explosion from a cannonball in pirate and Civil War movies. I said, “Well, yeah, but that’s just the movies.” He said that that was about the only experience we could have – “I mean, nobody’s ever fired a cannonball at me personally.” Which thought just cracked me up.
The cannonballs were hollow, much like an egg, but with a small hole leading to the outside of the ball. The inside was filled with explosives and the whole thing was loaded with the hole facing the primary charge. The primary charge forced the ball out the muzzle and simultaneously ignited the ‘fuse’ for the cannonball. The distance traveled before the ball exploded could be controlled by the burn rate of the fuse. Go to http://www.civilwarartillery.com then select ‘Projectiles and Fuses’ - should have all the info you could need to make your decision.
As the first users of “chain shot” discovered, both cannons must fire with a very high degree of synchronization. Even a slight difference in the time of firing leads to a trajectory that is just as likely to take out you and your buds as it is the bad guys. So, it saw limited use to say the least.
I actually have a cannonball. My dad bought it from an antique dealer in the 1970’s, and gave it to me about 10 years ago.
I really don’t know anything about it, except:
It’s black.
It’s about the size of a bowling ball.
It weighs about 80 lbs.
I don’t know how old it is, who made it, it or whether or not it has ever been fired. I also don’t know if it’s the “exploding” type. (Geeze, I hope not!)
The rockets were packed with shrapnel, and would spray it outwards after exploding. They also caused fires. Compared to cannons, they were lightweight and inaccurate, but also kind of scary.
On the old courthouse square in Athens, Georgia sits the world’s only double-barreled cannon. It was intended to launch two cannon balls connected by a long chain, but it wound up being fired only once, for the reason you mention. It was impossible to synchronize the firing of the two barrels. Except for that one firing of that one cannon, I’m not aware of any other attempt to use two cannon balls connected by a chain. Is that the instance you were thinking of? Or was this tried on other occasions?
Ammunition for (smoothbore/early rifled)artillery pieces:-
Field pieces:
Round Shot (cannon balls)- Solid iron balls (usually cast iron and therefore brittle) used at longer distances to knock over files of men or horses or to batter solid object (buildings, ships etc). The range can be extended by bouncing the ball along the surface or skipping over the water.
Early roundshot (pre-Marlburian in Europe/Americas, but noted in India as late ad the 1850s and China in the 1860s) was of stone.
Grape Shot - A sabot (wooden plate about the size of the bore of the gun)with a cylindrical cloth bag (smaller than the bore)filled with musket balls or iron equivalent, this is used at very short range and turns the gun into, effectively, a large bore shot-gun.
Case Shot - A cylindrical tin cannister of musket balls (or similar), smaller in diameter than the bore of the gun, which split under the force of being fired the effect was similar to that of grape shot, but the range slightly longer.
“Spherical Case” Shot (Shrapnel)- A Light, hollow iron ball, packed around the walls with musket balls or similar and fitted with a small bursting charge of black powder and a fuse (usually loaded so that the fuse is lit by the firing charge of the gun). The aim was to achieve the effect of case shot at aproaching round-shot range.
For Howitzers (High Angle field pieces) and Mortars add
“Common Shell” (or “bomb shell”) - Hollow cast iron balls filled with gunpowder and a fuse (“Common Shell” is a burst effect anti-materiel weapon as opposed to “Spherical Case” which is an anti-personnel weapon).
Siege pieces are a law unto themselves, but basically the high angle weapons would fire shell while the “direct fire battering” guns would use round shot.
The situation changes when there is a move to streamlined projectiles for the later muzzle loaded rifled pieces.
I wonder why but all this cannonball talk makes me wonder how bowling was invented. Here’s my theory. The soldiers were thinking of ways to pass time and they started throwing cannonballs at beer bottles or something and voila bowling was invented… Just my theory.
They have both kinds, although the exploding cannonballs were pretty dangerous. You lit them before lighting the cannon. If the cannon doesn’t fire run like hell. There is an amazing amount of projectiles from cannons. Here is a list I recall from reading and when I was in the Army. (Yes they actually demonstrated muzzle loading cannons to us. It seemed like bowling to me. You could actually see the ball flying, then rolling on the ground.):
Plain cannonball
Shot (basically ball bearings)
Cannonball rigged to explode with a fuse. (I don’t recall when impact / timer fuses became available.) Sometimes the fuse was lit by the firing of the cannon, and others were lit before firing.
Two cannonballs linked by a chain fired from separate cannons. I would not want to be one of the gun bunnies doing that. (Timing is everything. Imagine one cannon not firing.)
Chains, nails and anything else hard lying around. Effective at close range. (But usually only one shot before the rampaging infantry, cavalry will get the piece. This is particulary effective in fixed fortification that the forces have to come in a fixed field of fire.)
As far as modern artillery goes you have:
DPICM (dual-purpose conventional munitions) This is currently the shell of choice. It basically contains a bunch of shaped charges that when they land explode with a plasma jet firing down. There is a variation of this for personal that bounces then explodes that is effective against those pesky grunts in foxholes. Never ever shoot this into trees you might want to go through.
Copperhead: This a laser guided munition that is guided by forward observers. This is a one shot one kill round that is very expensive.
Scatterable landmines: Essentially same design as DPICM except they are land mines. These self explode after a set time, up to three days IIRC.
Nuclear: This is a one shot wonder for the piece. It is destroyed when fired. Not from the explosion but from the amount of powder used.
5)HE: High Explosive. This can be set with a number of fuses. Timers (from when shot is fired…not used much any more) Altitude sensors that are adjustable. Impact (or a slight delay to go into your target.
Beehive: No longer used. Basically shot molded into a shell that breaks up when fired and yes it does look like a Beehive. (Like a shotgun) This has been replaced by setting the timers to very short. In Vietnam several batteries were in direct fire mode using these types of shell. (I mean by direct fire is by shooting your attacker at close range. Indirect fire is shot at an angle. Gun batteries do not want to be in a direct fire mode. This is a job for tanks…
BTW artillery uses powder bags and tanks use a sealed shell. This allows tanks to shoot at a high rate of speed, but the range is lower and uses a much smaller shell.
Then there’s chain shot, which is two small cannonballs attached by a length of chain. Fired out of a cannon, the two balls sort of spread out to the length of the chain. It was made to take out a whole row of advancing soldiers; the chain would act like a weedwhacker and chop them up.
As the first users of “chain shot” discovered, both cannons must fire with a very high degree of synchronization. Even a slight difference in the time of firing leads to a trajectory that is just as likely to take out you and your buds as it is the bad guys. So, it saw limited use to say the least.
Gentlemen,
Chain Shot was used extensively by many navies during the Napoleonic period to damage the rigging of ships and there was no major sychronisation problem.
The chained balls were both loaded into the same barrel and fired, the irregularities of ball(s) and barrel and windage caused the chained pair to twist and swing in flight.
The practice of “double-shotting” guns was a common practice, often carried out with dissimilar ammunition.
At Trafalgar, Victory raked one opponent with a 64lb carronade loaded with grape over ball.
Chain shot was not fired from two cannon, nor was it an experimental type of cannon round. Both balls (and the attached chain) were loaded into a single cannon bore. When fired, the balls would tend to take different trajectories, but the chain would prevent them from spreading more than it’s length apart. The result was a spinning chain with a heavy ball on each end. You’d think this would be a fairly effective antipersonnel weapon, but it wasn’t intended for this use. Grapeshot, cannister, and spherical case shot were much more cost-effective. Chain shot was used to damage rigging in naval battles. I can’t imagine it would be effective at much more than point-blank range.
An early type of incendiary shell was called “red hot shot”. A round ball would be heated in a small forge until it was red hot. The interior would be molten, and when it struck it’s target, it broke apart, showering red-hot fragments of solid and molten iron all over. I’ve heard of these rounds being used in naval battles, but am not certain if this was a “standard” procedure. It seems to me that this type of round would pose nearly as much hazard to those firing it as to their targets. The possibility that the red-hot shot might set the cannon off while someone was still ramming it home would be sobering. Were I the captain of a (presumably flammable) wooden ship with canvas sails, I would hesitate to employ a weapon that would pose such a risk of setting fire to my own vessel.