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.
"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 .
Usually by pouring hot lead or iron into a spherical mold, although some stone cannonballs were hand carved
the cannon balls are underneath the cannon
Stone cannonballs did not contain gunpowder; they were solid projectiles made of stone or iron that were fired from cannons. The purpose of these balls was to cause damage through kinetic energy upon impact. Gunpowder was used separately in the cannon's chamber to propel the cannonball out of the barrel. However, some later types of projectiles, like explosive shells, did contain gunpowder or other explosive materials.
Stone canon balls, or shot, were made by hand by an experienced stonemason. The process was, and still is (can be made for living history demos but not fired ), a time consuming job. Material would have been any hard natural stone that was available, usually sand stone but sometimes granite. The stone would be hand worked to small radius sections and then rubbed up with a stone block. A reverse section template would be used for accuracy.
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.
Ancient Egyptians made their bowling balls by carving stone.
Chinese monks made stone cannon balls and put them in a bamboo shoot. They would then light gunpowder at one end of the bamboo shoot to fire the stone cannon ball. Hope this helps.
the cannon balls are right under the cannon in poptropica. the cannon is in the room right off of the great hall to the left you fire the cannon by taking the candles and setting them on fire and putting the candle by the rope of the cannon.
Collectors want to see the written provenance associated with your antique cannon balls. This can make or break their collectibility.
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.
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