Dallas Morning News AGAIN! 12/9/05

[jimlongley]

This morning's Dallas Morning News Metro (Collin County) section featured my letter lecturing a Plano Police Bomb Squad member about his terminology. Couldn't find a copy of it online.

The letter was in response to an article about a "Civil War Era Cannon Ball" which McKinney police found in response to a "neighborly tip."

With the assistance of the Plano Bomb Squad the offending piece of ordnance was exploded without causing any harm.

A member of the bomb squad was quoted as saying that the cannon ball was filled with Minie Balls.

My letter went -

"The one thing that really stood out to me in the article about the
civil war
era cannonball in the DMN 12/07/05 Metro section, was the reference to
shrapnel as Minie Balls.

I would expect a bomb squad expert to know the difference.

Minie Balls are projectiles with a special shape to allow them to
engage the rifleing in the muzzle loading small arms of that era, to enhance accuracy.
They were developed by Claude Minie, a French Army officer of the era, and would be eminently impractical for use as shrapnel.

Shrapnel, which the cannonball would, by definition, be expected to
contain, are round (which Minie Balls are not) lead balls packed around a
burster charge in a cannonball, for anti-personnel use. Developed by an
English Army officer, Henry Shrapnel several decades before Minie Balls.

The term shrapnel is commonly misused when describing the fragments
projected by a grenade, when the proper term for them is - fragments,
although common usage has succeeded in changing that, but Minie Balls
are still NOT shrapnel."

Of course now I have gotten an angry email from Bryan Wood, the bomb squad officer in question, taking me to task for implying that he said it wrong when it was the press that misquoted him - he realli said "mini" not Minie.

[Paladin]

good job keeping 'em on their toes!

Somehow I doubt the paper came up with "Minie Balls" on their own, but whatever went wrong, it's good to set the record straight.

[XD_Dan]

Minie Balls are projectiles with a special shape to allow them to
engage the rifleing in the muzzle loading small arms of that era, to enhance accuracy.
They were developed by Claude Minie, a French Army officer of the era, and would be eminently impractical for use as shrapnel.

Shrapnel, which the cannonball would, by definition, be expected to
contain, are round (which Minie Balls are not) lead balls packed around a
burster charge in a cannonball, for anti-personnel use. Developed by an
English Army officer, Henry Shrapnel several decades before Minie Balls.

The term shrapnel is commonly misused when describing the fragments
projected by a grenade, when the proper term for them is - fragments,
although common usage has succeeded in changing that, but Minie Balls
are still NOT shrapnel."

Cool. Thanks for the lesson, Jim.

I never knew the etiology of those terms.

[jimlongley]

good job keeping 'em on their toes!

Somehow I doubt the paper came up with "Minie Balls" on their own, but whatever went wrong, it's good to set the record straight.

The police officer in question wrote me that he said "mini" and was misquoted.

The paper changed my letter a little, the most obvious change being that they included the inventor's full name rather than the truncated version I sent, so someone did some research after I wrote.

[ElGato]

Jim I have a horse pasture that years ago when I would plow or disk we would always turn up what we called grape shot, they were lead balls about 44caliber that had flat spots on all sides that might have been caused by pressure against each other when packed. I'm not sure who first called them grape shot, it's a term I have always heard. We have always thought they were some kind of cannon feed since there was a Confederate camp here and the pirate Campbell also had a home close by.

Do you have a guess about them?

Tomcat

[stevie_d_64]

I didn't think the press could spell Minie, much less be able to discern the differences concerning anything related to firearms guns, or even history for that matter...

I hope you and the Bomb Squad officer cleared up the misunderstanding about the article and his statements...

I hope, at least, he saw your point about all of it...

[jimlongley]

Gato - What you were finding is probably just musket balls, Grape Shot was usually iron balls about 1 inch in diameter. I know there were some uses of lead balls in Grape, but they were rare. Flat spots on one side are usually marks from casting, cutting off the sprue, tightly packed lead balls shot out of a gun would have a lot of deformation all the way around.

Grape and Cannister resembled each other, they both made short cannon into the equivalent of a shotgun.

Grape was a bunch of balls, usually around a spindle with a wooden base, wrapped in canvas. The canvas shed almost immediately as the charge left the muzzle and the effect at short range, against troops, could be devastating.

Cannister was similar except that the balls were contained in a large can, which tended to hold them together for a slightly greater distance.

Neither was particularly useful over longer ranges.

Steve - Not only did the paper get Minie right, but they looked up his whole name and got IT right.

I don't know if the officer and I have settled our differences, he stated that I should have assumed that he was right and the press was wrong, partly because of his vast experience with the press. I pointed out that with his vast experience HE should have expected them to get it wrong and used better terminology. No reply as yet.

I actually would never have expected anyone to refer to the contents of the cannon ball as "mini" balls, unless they didn't know what they were talking about.

[stevie_d_64]

Steve - Not only did the paper get Minie right, but they looked up his whole name and got IT right.

I don't know if the officer and I have settled our differences, he stated that I should have assumed that he was right and the press was wrong, partly because of his vast experience with the press. I pointed out that with his vast experience HE should have expected them to get it wrong and used better terminology. No reply as yet.

I actually would never have expected anyone to refer to the contents of the cannon ball as "mini" balls, unless they didn't know what they were talking about.

Thats what kinda rubbed me wrong as well...They actually termed it correctly but applied it incorrectly...So that tells me that it was a deliberate "negative" editorial effort...

If you get a response out of the officer in question...Invite him to come here on this website to discuss this...

I don't think we are at all accusatory or demeaning of his career or experience...I think he'd enjoy the discussion and interaction on this website...I for one, would welcome his input tremendously...

You can tell him that from me...Not that my opinion matters for a hill of beans...

[OverEasy]

Did you ask them why they destroyed a Historical artifact? I think a Civil War relic would have historical value. I can't imagine that 140 year old black powder could still be dangerous. I think it's terrible they blew it up! I would have put it in a glass case on the coffee table or on my desk. Oh well.

OE

[KBCraig]

"It could have exploded if it was dropped"

[jimlongley]

Did you ask them why they destroyed a Historical artifact? I think a Civil War relic would have historical value. I can't imagine that 140 year old black powder could still be dangerous. I think it's terrible they blew it up! I would have put it in a glass case on the coffee table or on my desk. Oh well.

OE

I didn't ask, but my own ordnance experience, while not as vast as that claimed by the bomb squad officer, tells me that BP even older than that could still be quite potent.

It would be one thing if the BP was stored out where even a little moisture could get to it it would degrade with unpredicatable results. Potassium Nitrate, usually 75% by volume of BP is a salt and is very hygroscopic (that is it likes to absorb water, just like other salts) and charcoal is almost as bad. The problem is not so much that the BP might have absorbed water, but that it might have dried in such a way as to change the chemical balance of the BP, and even introduced other chemicals, such as rust (FeO2) and leachants from the paper and other stuff in the shell.

In the case of that particular shell, or any one for that matter, if it was stored in dry places and the integrity of the fuse channel and powder chamber were not compromised, it's entirely possible that the BP contained within would retain every bit of the potency it had the day it was manufactured.

I, myself, have a couple of cans of 60+ year old BP that I used as recently as 14 years ago with good results, and I wouldn't hesitate to load up one of my front stuffers now with it.

OTOH, I do wish someone had gotten the chance to "disassemble" the shell to see what make and model it was. There were several different designs in the era, and would have been nice to know which this one was.

[jimlongley]

"It could have exploded if it was dropped"

Doubtful, remember that those things were designed to take the shock of firing and design flaws like premature detonation were worked out rather early.

[jimlongley]

Finally found the text of the article online.

McKinney police detonate Civil War-era cannonball

Collector in apartment had bought explosive at gun show

05:53 PM CST on Wednesday, December 7, 2005

By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News

One man's toy became the Police Department's dangerous explosive device.

McKinney police responded Monday to an anonymous tip that a weapons collector was keeping an antique cannonball in his apartment, officials said.

The collector, whom police did not name because of an ongoing investigation, allowed officials to safely detonate the 45-pound, cast-iron cannonball in a nearby field behind McKinney High School on Monday afternoon.

"It was a live cannonball," said Plano police Detective Bryan Wood, a member of the bomb squad, which was called in to assist McKinney police. "This thing was designed to maim and kill people in battle. The whole idea of this thing was you put a fuse in it, shoot it out over troops ... to rain Minié balls over them."

Police said the cannonball contained black powder and small lead projectiles, or Minié balls. The collector told them he bought it from a man who was selling items from the trunk of his car at a Dallas gun show.

"It's fine if you want to collect old memorabilia. But be very careful when collecting munitions. Don't buy them out of the trunks of people's cars," Detective Wood said. "This was a Civil War-era live round. The mere pressure of it hitting the ground would have detonated it."

No one was injured Monday when police used their own explosive device to detonate the cannonball – somewhere between the size of a volleyball and a softball.

A Plano officer wearing a bomb suit carried the cannonball across the street from the Cedar Creek Village Apartment in the 600 block of South Graves Street to a field where officers had dumped sand.

McKinney school officials were notified, and traffic was diverted to keep people out of the area, said McKinney police spokesman Capt. Randy Roland.

Police dug a depression into the sand and put the cannonball in the hole to muffle the explosion. But the loud boom could still be heard in the area.

Neighbor Ellen Bristow said she doubts the man knew the cannonball was dangerous.

"I think the guy was a little ignorant about it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bought it, I'm sure," she said.

Patrice Simmons, another neighbor, said she wasn't too concerned by the cannonball. It was a question of whether he was storing it properly.

"As long as he was treating it with the proper precaution and storage, and there was no danger to him or others, then I don't have a problem with it," said Ms. Simmons, 32.

But, owning such a device is illegal, Capt. Roland said. Possessing a cannonball of solid metal or a formerly explosive one that has been properly disarmed would be OK.

In this case, McKinney police said they are working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to consider possible charges against the collector.

"What he had was an explosive device. We are continuing to investigate to find out if he had an intent, where he got it from, if it was a curio or a paperweight," Capt. Roland said.

Police are happy that no one was injured. But the cannonball could have caused serious damage if it had blown up in an apartment, Detective Wood said.

"The walls aren't that thick. If it had exploded, it could have sent pretty good size chunks of lead 1,000 feet per second through those walls," he said. "Lesson learned, I hope."

[KBCraig]

"It could have exploded if it was dropped"

Doubtful, remember that those things were designed to take the shock of firing and design flaws like premature detonation were worked out rather early.

Yeah, I was responding to this, which I'd read on Fox News:

"It's fine if you want to collect old memorabilia. But be very careful when collecting munitions. Don't buy them out of the trunks of people's cars," Detective Wood said. "This was a Civil War-era live round. The mere pressure of it hitting the ground would have detonated it."

This is the same expert who insists that he said "mini", not "Minie balls".

Kevin

[Renegade]

Don't let it get to you. That was not his worst error. I would expect a bomb squad expert to have the technical means to determine if a cannoball loaded with Black Powder is live or not. Apparently not in Plano.

The Plano bomb squad was also called to the complex and X-rayed the cannonball but still couldn't tell if it was live.