I always thought that a cannonball was simply a big, round piece of metal. But in “Gangs of New York” and other movies, they always seem to explode upon impact. Why? What causes them to explode??
Ive never seen one explode in any movie, but I can say from my experience working as a historical re-enactor, and the resaearch done for that, that some cannon balls were bored and filled with gun powder, and then se with a fuse, looking similar to the Rocjy and Bullwinkle bombs.
Some cannonballs were made to shatter and with the kinetic energy they deliver the heat generated could make those types explode, which is the intention.
Lots of stuff was shoved into cannon, so a movie image of a projectile exploding could be anything from canister shot, to shells, but you would not know the actual shape of the projectile since you don’t have long enough to see it, methinks that you expect that the projectile was a round cannonball, but it ain’t necassarily so.
The Patriot was a good example of what an “au naturel” cannonball would act like. Including the head view! :eek:
Actually, one of the most effective of the exploding cannonballs was called “spherical case shot” and was invented by one Henry Shrapnel, a British general. These came into use at the beginning of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic wars. As I understand it, the idea was to trim the fuse on the shot to just the right length so it would go off just over the heads of the enemy, resulting in the optimal dispersal of the shot contained inside the shell. Older exploding shells were simply black powder inside a cannonball, and resulted in “only” a few largish chunks of flying debris. Unless they went off right next to someone’s ammo pouch, I suppose.
I asked a similar question two years ago, and got lots of good answers:
Do cannonballs explode?