“Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.” ~ Psalm 34:14
The little cannon ball made quite the stir yesterday. My friend Dan Kibler, antiquarian extraordinaire, shared some valuable information about Civil War relic authenticity. Here’s what I’ve learned with his help. The solid shot weighs 10.2 lbs. I used Stacy’s home scales to weigh it. This is likely wrong as home scales aren’t designed to weigh such objects. Still, let’s assume we’re close. There was no 10lb solid shot for Civil War era cannons. Strike one. Then, using an ordinary measuring tape, the sphere measured roughly 4″ in diameter. According to the munitions chart Dan shared, this most closely matches a 9lb shot. But because my ordinary tape measure is the wrong tool to measure exact diameter, it could actually be a 12lb shot. It could also be neither. Strike two. Yet, these factors don’t disqualify it as authentic Civil War shot, and here’s why. If it is lead, one could expect loss of weight due to air formation within the lead itself. This could make a 12lb shot less that 12lbs. It could not make a 9lb shot heavier, however. Only steel would do that. It’s definitely lead, but it’s unclear that air could cause a near-two-pound loss. On the other hand, the cannon ball has the tell-tell equator seam, but most importantly, it does not have a stamp of any kind. When we first found this object it didn’t have a stamp. It’s extremely rare for Civil War shot to have a stamp of any kind, whereas an athletic shot put or machine part (think large machine ball bearing) do often have a stamp of some sort. Conclusion: someone with proper tools would have to take accurate measurements to definitively disqualify this cannon ball as authentic. There is enough right about it to assume that it is. So, until I learn otherwise, this is a Civil War cannon ball. I love learning.
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