Loaded Revolutionary War Cannon Discovered in Central Park

[Gammayun]

It makes you wonder how many other old war relics are lying around out in the world ready to blow. Here in georgia you can still find random Civil War artifacts lying around in the wilderness.

Probably more than anyone of us would feel comfortable with. It's kind of like the landmine problem; weapons of war don't surrender once one side wins, they just sit and wait to to kill something.

In this case, I doubt the cannon would have been able to successfully fire the ball, given its deteriorated condition. I imagine if the black powder had been ignited, the cannon itself might have just turned into a giant bomb, which could be even more deadly.

I was thinking the same thing. Kind of like when an antique gun backfires DX

Well land mines don't kill everything, look what happened in the Falklands; http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/25973/how-island-full-landmines-led-thriving-penguin-population

Edit: spelling errors my bad

 

[The Lugz]

Can black powder sit around that long and still be, y'know... boom capable?

no particular reason it shouldn't be although black powder is renowned for being a stubborn and unstable product, and if it gets wet or contaminated with other chemicals it becomes unpredictable but would rarely self ignite
in our cannon here i guess some of the chemicals could have reacted with the charge casing but that would be a minimal loss of reactants my guess is it would still detonate if you used a charge cap on it and probably fragment the cannon tube into some nice shrapnel

most modern explosives, by contrast are very stable and require serious punishment or contamination with harsh corrosives to explode
you literally cannot detonate c4, for example without a detonator cap you can shoot it, set fire to it, hammer it, stamp on it melt it, dissolve it into a goop with acids ect ect, but only a blasting cap will deliver enough shock to set it off

quite fantastic really.

 

[ritchards]

Hey, hey, hey, disabling that is a serious blow to the second amendment. The NRA will be all over them for daring to make a weapon safe!

 

[The_Darkness]

I think this highlights a really important issue that isn't being talked about enough: artillery control legislation.

... Well played sir. Well played.

Have a cookie. (I'm afraid it's an invisible one.)

OT: I know it probably would have exploded like an overly large frag grenade, assuming the gunpowder is still viable (which, as some people have pointed out, could actually be the case), but a part of me wishes they'd tried to fire it.

And, well, huh. There's been a genuine British military presence in New York for 200 years. Does this mean we can claim to have been occupying New York? Maybe just Central Park?

EDIT:

Hey, hey, hey, disabling that is a serious blow to the second amendment. The NRA will be all over them for daring to make a weapon safe!

Nah, it's ours (British), and we don't have a second amendment, so it's cool.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If that thing can still fire I doubt it would be safe to fire it. The whole thing might blow up in your face if you tried.

 

[rcs619]

There's a story ready to write itself.
A comedy about a British cannon accidentally going off into some schmo's apartment in New York sparking a war with the Brits.

Forget about a comedy. That could be the premise for the next Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 - The American Revolution: Part 2 - This time it's personal: FUCK YEAH AMERICA! Edition

Seriously though, I'm so glad they caught this. With the way the cannon had been capped, and as finicky as black powder can be, the thing was basically a bomb waiting to go off.

 

[Radoh]

There's a story ready to write itself.
A comedy about a British cannon accidentally going off into some schmo's apartment in New York sparking a war with the Brits.

Forget about a comedy. That could be the premise for the next Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 - The American Revolution: Part 2 - This time it's personal: FUCK YEAH AMERICA! Edition

Seriously though, I'm so glad they caught this. With the way the cannon had been capped, and as finicky as black powder can be, the thing was basically a bomb waiting to go off.

Yeah, it would definitely fit the current trend of satirising the Modern Warfare series, that's for sure.

 

[weirdee]

Wait wait. It was ready to fire and they DIDN'T fire it? Come on. Point it at the ocean and blast away. Would have been fun.

note: really old firearms are a terrible thing to test when you are standing anywhere near them

 

[Scars Unseen]

EDIT: Wrong thread. Ignore me please.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Wait wait. It was ready to fire and they DIDN'T fire it? Come on. Point it at the ocean and blast away. Would have been fun.

I think the barrel would have blown up... wait a sec.... I stand corrected, It would have been fun to watch the cannon blow up.

From a good distance away, of course.

 

[Scorpid]

AHH We have undeniable proof Alex Jones was right the red coats are trying to launch a new invasion!! GRAB YOUR GUNS CALL THE MINUTEMEN!

 

[Monsterfurby]

So you thought WW3 would start in the Middle East? Or China? Or Russia? Wrong!

British American Revolutionary War cannons are where it's at. Oh yeah.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...Wow. Good thing nobody set it off then. That would have been bad...