(AK) Police Blow Up Cannonball, Owner Objects

[chopinbloc]

interesting. i know full well how dangerous high explosives can be, even very old charges, but i never would have guessed that black powder could remain potent for so long.

oh, well, i was wrong once before. twice in 27 years ain't bad right?

 

[keyhole]

Every now and then someone would call, finding some old ordinance that Grandpa had brought home. I remember picking up some motar rounds, and thinking that I needed to be a long was away. Long time ago, and lots smarter now!

 

[Azrael256]

but i never would have guessed that black powder could remain potent for so long.

There really isn't anything in a sealed shell that will cause the nitrates to degrade. Black powder is pretty much 100% forever unless it gets good and wet.

Migoi, in your case, water had seeped in and destroyed the powder, so there was really no chance of it going off. As Jim Keenan said, projectiles may fail to explode for a variety of reasons. Some have bad fuses, which will render the explosive pretty much inert without another ignition source, but sometimes other factors keep it from exploding. Try messing with rusty old grenades, and you'll find out that "safe" explosives, with the pin still inserted and everything, can go off. Corrosion can cause a grenade's (or other projectile's) firing mechanism to activate at the slightest touch. Sometimes you can play baseball with them and never see an explosion. Sometimes you can fart loud and touch off a conflagration.

Basically, EOD work is best left to the guys with the training and equipment necessary to no blow themselves up.

 

[280PLUS]

Sometimes you can fart loud and touch off a conflagration.

I do THAT regularly...

 

[walking arsenal]

No body needed to know that.

Anway.


When they started building the new movie theatre down at th DECC the construction crews kept finding old mortars from wwII. The media made a big deal about it. i think they found 5 or so of the things. It got to be old after the first 2. i would be sitting in my house and hear kABOOOMMmmmm the house would shake and i'd look out my window and see a clowd of dust going out from the construction sight. The bomb squad got lots of practice blowing those things up.

 

[280PLUS]

No body needed to know that.

Pardon me for trying to get a laugh

There's just no sense of humor around here anymore..."sigh"

 

[walking arsenal]

sorry i guess i deleted the in that sentance on accident.

 

[280PLUS]

OHHH, it was a JOKE!!

 

[goon]

My dad knew a guy who found an old cannon ball. The guy was scoring a mark around the middle of it with a chisel. He was planning to cut it in half and make "knobs" to put at the foot of the railing up his porch steps. Upon striking said cannon ball with a hammer and a chisel, it blew up. The guy was seriously injured.
The lesson?
If you want a cannon ball, find someone to cast a solid lead one for you.

 

[Ky Larry]

I spent some time in England and W.Germany in the 1970's. Old bombs and shells from WW II were constantly turning up in fields and construction sites. The Royal Navy was still finding floating mines from the war. The problem is, nobody told the ordinance that the war is over.