[TheForge] Interesting iron object

[Ron Childers]

There are some big brass mortars at the fort at St Augustine, Florida. 

Ron C

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 4:22 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Interesting iron object


A neighbor gave me a pair of rather crappy book-ends he found at a
flea market, made from heavily rusted "found objects" stuck onto bent
pieces of aluminum.  I discarded the pieces of aluminum and rescued
the "objects".

They're both about 6"-long, fractured segments of hollow cast iron
spheres.  The one I'm electro-cleaning in phosphoric acid is part of a
sphere 9-1/2" or 10" in diameter, about 1-3/4" thick.  My best guess
is that this is a fragment of a 17th or 18th century mortar round or a
similar munition.

Of course, I don't know that the original object was a complete
sphere.  It might have been a hemisphere.  The fracture suggests a
pretty violent and uniform event.  No marks of a heavy blow to the
surface, so an exploded sphere seems the simplest explanation.

An interesting feature is that at some point a ca. 3/8" hole was bored
through the cast iron shell and a wrought iron nail or pin driven into
it.  The fractured surface passes through the middle of the wrought
pin so that, after pickling, it is easily distinguishable from the
surrounding cast.

The other "object" is similar but a bit thinner and a bit smaller in
diameter, doesn't have an embedded wrought spike but has what may
prove to be, after I clean it up, part of a larger hole, possibly the
port through which the black powder charge was loaded.

Ten inch diameter seems a bit big for a howitzer but would be, I think,
just about right for a mortar.

I've googled around on the net for detailed info on period mortar
shells but found nothing helpful.  There was a Polish artillery manual
from the raising of the Siege of Vienna, late 178th c., with a lot of
smallish, kinda blurry pics but no text details.

Anybody know a lot about early ammo, can explain what the wrought
pin/plug is all about?  They surely wouldn't have driven an iron pin
into a iron hole after the thing was loaded with powder.

FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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