Bill Land's Cannon

I made the cannon in about 1984-85.  Barrel was turned out of a piece of 1 ½” brass round stock about 24in long.  The finished length is 19 ½”.  Bore is .625 dia.  The length of barrel (bore) is 18.25.  The carriage is made of black walnut.  The axle is ½” square steel turned on ends to ½  round for the 6 ½” cast aluminum wheels.

It had been sitting on the shelf in Nebraska until last Fall when I brought it back with us to Alabama to clean it up and polish the brass.  The cannon was used on many July 4th family celebrations.  It was fired as a noise maker and a large cloud of white smoke.  Barrel has a 1/8” hole for cannon fuse, which gives you enough time to get away.  Many of the early cannons used flash powder instead of time fuse and was ignited with a torch on the end of a long stick.

The load is about 100 grains of 3F black powder and news paper.  Packed in with a ram rod to create a wad 3 to 4 inches long.

It comes out like confetti when fired.