Want this question answered?
The main cannon of the Civil War was the 10-pound muzzle loading Parrot Rifle. However, there were many older types of cannon still in use at the beginning of the Civil War. These ranged from Revolutionary-era "grasshoppers" (small 3-pounders made of brass) up to cast iron mortars and cannon.
Some were hollow iron projectiles and filled with black powder. The same powder used to fire cannons and muskets. Time delay fuses were attached. These were ignited by the canon firing, burned a predetermined time, and exploded the powder.
pig snout
Ships that were plated with iron. Famous ones are the Merrimack and the Monitor. The invention of the ironclad scared Europe, seeing they did not have that technology. Cannon balls just bounced off of the ships. The south came up with these first, but then the North made a better version with 40+ patented items, including the rotating turret.
The primary cannon used was the French made M1857 12 Pounder "Napoleon"
Cannon balls are made of iron, which is a high-stress material. A high-stress material resists breaking. Because the cannon has an open end, and the iron ball resists being torn apart, the cannon ball is shot out instead.
The majority of the cannon balls would have been made of cast iron. Some might have been some made with steel. Hollow ones where filled with gunpowder and had a fuze that would make it explode at some point.
Usually by pouring hot lead or iron into a spherical mold, although some stone cannonballs were hand carved
The main cannon of the Civil War was the 10-pound muzzle loading Parrot Rifle. However, there were many older types of cannon still in use at the beginning of the Civil War. These ranged from Revolutionary-era "grasshoppers" (small 3-pounders made of brass) up to cast iron mortars and cannon.
Stone cannonballs have been used for centuries - very common after gun powder made its way to Europe in the 1300s. They became more common during the 1400s through the 1700s.During the US Civil War, cast iron was sometimes used for cannonballs but "gunstone" was cheaper and very effective, depending on the target and type of cannon.
Some were hollow iron projectiles and filled with black powder. The same powder used to fire cannons and muskets. Time delay fuses were attached. These were ignited by the canon firing, burned a predetermined time, and exploded the powder.
pig snout
"Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron." - Wikipedia article on 'Round Shot' . Related link below .
Cannon balls would not blow up. The newspaper must have gotten something wrong - maybe they meant to say a mine blew up. Cannon balls are solid metal - they do damage when the cannon blows them out at high speed like a bullet. Cannon balls can explode, during the civil war era cannon balls were in use that were just a hallow shell of metal and had gun powder and pieces of metal on the inside an di fuse was placed in the cannon ball and when fired the fuse would ignite and then would burn the fuse and ignite the gun powder inside the cannon ball. There were also some cannon balls that would explode on impact using friction strips on the inside that would create a spark and ignite the gun powder on the inside. So yes cannon balls can explode, the type of cannon ball the person above me is referring to is called solid shot, there are a lot other types out there like cannister, and grape shot, and connical shaped rounds and even hexagonal shaped rounds just to name a few, but yes cannon balls can explode
he has no balls
Ships that were plated with iron. Famous ones are the Merrimack and the Monitor. The invention of the ironclad scared Europe, seeing they did not have that technology. Cannon balls just bounced off of the ships. The south came up with these first, but then the North made a better version with 40+ patented items, including the rotating turret.
They can have several different appearances. The first cannonballs were round balls of stone. Later they wear made of iron. They came in different sizes, from as small as 2 inches up to about 36 inches. Later the cannon ball (shot) was replaced by cannon shell, which looked a bit large a large can of food with a pointy end. While cannon balls (or shot) wwere usually solid, shells were hollow, filled with gunpowder, and exploded after being fired.