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Another "Casualty" of the Civil War, a few years......later :unsure:
- Thread starter vlad
- Start date
You never know . Although that was an old article , the dangers are still real . I think this was just this year . In NC a family was at a beach and found an shell encrusted item . They took it home a put it on the shelf , later on the item started emitting white smoke . They called police who called bomb disposal . It turned out to be some type of military white phosphorus ordinance . Luckily , no one was hurt.
Confetrit
Well-known member
I remember when this collector was killed in his driveway while trying to defuse the CW artillery shell. This sent a piece of shell grab through a door of a house close to a half mile away. So sad. I put the newspaper article on our bulletin board at work. Still deadly after all these years. This gentleman was experienced in this defusing process, only something went terribly wrong this one time. It was said that he had done this a number of times. One can't be too careful.
vlad
Well-known member
I have recovered 32 pounder shells and case-shot from a salt marsh at roughly 1400 yards inland from the beach, Ft Manhassett, Sabine Pass, Texas.
They were over 4+ feet deep, and at 2 feet we hit water. (In the process of cleaning and deactivating a shell, I dried out some of the powder-touching a cigar to it....boom.)
I have been told the flashpoint of black power is a little over 220 ° F, so when drying one out I am 50 ° {est} below that, because the thermostats for electric ovens are notoriously faulty.
Stephen Sylvia the publisher/editor of The North South Trader Magazine has been hunting, and recovering relics and projectiles for 40+ years. He deactivated and cleaned a 12 pounder Bormann
and went up to the kitchen, and turned on the oven to dry it out before coating it with polyurethane. A few minutes later the whole house shook; he went back up yo the kitchen to find his "wife's'" electric range
with the door blown off, and top, sides, and back bulged, but he had all the pieces to a detonated Bormann shell.
He's still married, wife got a new range.....and he is forbidden its use for shells. (I do not know if he can dry 'bolts' in it.)
Black Powder is the only powder classified as a "low explosive." You can lay a firecracker on concrete and hit it with a hammer and it goes off-that occurs because its so unstable that when compressed
it ignites. (Bags of nitro powder for battleship guns have a small packet of black powder on the ends to aid ignition. It is believed that when the number 2 turret of the Iowa blew up it was from the compression of those small bags--and to "ram" the large nitro bags in, the breeches......were open.)
Black power is easy to ignite and dangerous in most all circumstances. BE CAREFUL!
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/09/19/02/17/world-1679462__340.png
HH
They were over 4+ feet deep, and at 2 feet we hit water. (In the process of cleaning and deactivating a shell, I dried out some of the powder-touching a cigar to it....boom.)
I have been told the flashpoint of black power is a little over 220 ° F, so when drying one out I am 50 ° {est} below that, because the thermostats for electric ovens are notoriously faulty.
Stephen Sylvia the publisher/editor of The North South Trader Magazine has been hunting, and recovering relics and projectiles for 40+ years. He deactivated and cleaned a 12 pounder Bormann
and went up to the kitchen, and turned on the oven to dry it out before coating it with polyurethane. A few minutes later the whole house shook; he went back up yo the kitchen to find his "wife's'" electric range
with the door blown off, and top, sides, and back bulged, but he had all the pieces to a detonated Bormann shell.
He's still married, wife got a new range.....and he is forbidden its use for shells. (I do not know if he can dry 'bolts' in it.)
Black Powder is the only powder classified as a "low explosive." You can lay a firecracker on concrete and hit it with a hammer and it goes off-that occurs because its so unstable that when compressed
it ignites. (Bags of nitro powder for battleship guns have a small packet of black powder on the ends to aid ignition. It is believed that when the number 2 turret of the Iowa blew up it was from the compression of those small bags--and to "ram" the large nitro bags in, the breeches......were open.)
Black power is easy to ignite and dangerous in most all circumstances. BE CAREFUL!
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/09/19/02/17/world-1679462__340.png
HH
Cajuncoinhunter
Moderator
We've deactivated a few projectiles over the years. Did most of them with the shell actually underwater. I witnessed one guy do 17 shells in one day. Larry (IL) you've got one of them. Some others, I can say as a witness, the powder still burned and ignited like it was 1863. Wowwwwwwww. !
Be careful guys.... CCH
Be careful guys.... CCH