Posted on 09/01/2015 8:27:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Atlantic City bomb squad was dispatched to a southern New Jersey home over the weekend after a man dug up a live cannonball in his backyard. Police said the Lower Township man was digging behind his West Bates Avenue home when he discovered the explosive Saturday.
The brass-capped cannonball was approximately 5 inches in circumference and was stamped "4k, 85mm," according to police.
The bomb squad took an x-ray of the device and determined it was fully functional, officials said. The cannonball was later detonated in an unpopulated area.
Police said the discovery is not unusual for this part of the state, but residents are advised to never touch or move any found artillery shells. Originally fired as solid projectiles, cannonballs developed over time to include fuses and explosive materials.
Earlier this year, a rusty cannonball was found in a backyard in Madison, New Jersey.
NJ? This sounds like a felony possession crime. Prolly good for 10-15 years.
There are a lot of unanswered questions in that article.
Are they sure that isn’t Algore? I read where he was getting ready to “dive” into the presidential ‘RAT race.
Why is it not unusual to find these? Where did it come from? How old was it? Some history? Would be interesting to know.
That is not the “cannonball” in question.
I really have my doubts when I see 85mm. Just when did American MIL start measuring in metric? It cannot be as old as they’s like us to think, or at best I’d rough guess at WWI era. Beyond that, I don’t think any “balls” existed.
Not unusual between MIL bases and being the Crossroads of the Revolution.
Lots of great RevWar action there.
There were NO “shells” used on NJ during ANY part of the 1776 war, though much fighting through the state.
Very little shrapnel (powder loaded shells) anywhere in the 1812 (it was just invented in 1806 in the Spanish - Napoleonic wars) war - but, little fighting in NJ though.
Perhaps loading practice in NJ in the Civil War, but no fighting there.
Now, about this rusted brass .... 8<)
Probably those damned Hessians.
85 mm is an unusual size anyway.
Napoleon and the French would have “started” the metric system only AFTER their revolution in the 1790’s. So why stamp a round ball with a metric number and ship it to America?
No “round” cannon shells at all used in WWI! (Trench mortar projectiles would not have had that shape - and most of them (if used here for practice) were on arms or extensions behind the shell itself. )
The pix posted is NOT the subject shell, but the earlier find. No pix of the subject shell.
Even a Camp Vrednenburgh existed for the Civil War on or near the grounds encompassed by Monmouth so undoubtedly that could be a possibility. But I cannot believe they would use metric. Hence I think should be even later. Posiibly some of the last.
Unless they titally misnomered it and it is nit a “ball” at all.
Must be aliens.
Nope, there were no exploding shells then!
Has to be 20th cent.
This is only going to be a wild guess, but I think someone owned a cannon before they were federally regulated. Following that theory, they were just having fun shooting their cannon. Before you dismiss this, just go look on YouTube at the cannons that people fire now. Additionally, when I was growing up in the 1960s, we had a neighbor that had a civil war era cannon and he shot it from time to time using real cannon balls. Needless to say, we kids were always there to watch it.
And he hid the evidence for a long time. Circumventing justice.
When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, a farmer plowed up a cannonball in his field.
It was believed to have been lobbed onto Long Island by a British warship in Long Island Sound during the Revolutionary War.
Can an iron cannon ball be x-rayed? I have one in the basement. I have never dropped it. How would I know if there is a charge in it, or that it is just weight?
What more can or should we expect from a dopey friggin liberal source like NBC. Probably nobody on the staff has a clue of the history of the region: Revolutionary War, etc.
Such as:
Police said the discovery is not unusual for this part of the state
Why?
The French developed 85 mm cannons in the 1860’s and used them in the Franco-Prussian War. But how did the ball get to the Mosquito State?
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