150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

[Cumpston1862]

Gents-

Thought the forum would find this interesting. Especially to those of us that collect Civil War artillery artifacts.

Follow the link below and it will take you to a relic dealer that is disarming Civil War artillery shells and is disposing of the black powder.

http://www.midtenrelics.com/update.htm

[ACo.]

Re: 150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

"I have read articles and heard folks say that black powder in excavated Civil War shells is too contaminated to actually burn."

He is right when he says that, some do get complacent with devastating results, CW artillery shells have been killing the unwary for the last 150 years and will continue to so if care is not taken. At least we don't live along the Western Front in Europe where 4 years of constant bombardment left many, many tons of serious hazards still to be found including poison gas shells. Only a fool handles any of this stuff carelessly.

[Jimmayo]

Re: 150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

It would surprise some to actually see how coarse and crude the powder in the large shells is. Saw a 100 lb Parrott disarmed and the powder that came out of it consisted of large size charcoal sticks and chunks of sulfur . It was hard to light but when it did go it went up in smoke. The smaller shells had smaller grained powder but there was still charcoal sticks present. The condition of the powder depends on the integrity of the container.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: 150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

Jim-

That must have been quite a sight!

Just as point of interest about how much powder was in that 100 lb Parrott shell?

[Jimmayo]

Re: 150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

Didn't measure the pile and probably didn't get all of it out. Seems like it was a pile at least the size a 1lb can would make. It has been at least 20 years ago. The guy that had the shell took some of the powder, cleaned it up and mixed it in with modern black ff to make blank rounds. It worked fine.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: 150 Year Old Civil War Black Powder

Thanks for the info Jim!

I find this whole topic very interesting and personal because I purchased a 6 pound Borman fused cannonball many many years ago when I was in my early teen years. Since I was but a foolish youth the shell served in many capacities over the years including door stop, paper weight and regrettfully an emergency hammer on one or two occasions :o

I did ask at the time when I bought it if the powder in the shell was any good and whether there was any risk of it exploding and the answer I was given was "NO". Many years later when I returned to the Civil War collecting community I discovered that the shell was considered "live" and I needed to get it deactivated!