Greetings from Alaska!
Several museums up here have old explosives of various kinds in their
collections. Where might we find expertise in assessing the risk of
these items and possibly de-fusing them without losing the historic
artifact? Anyone have a story to tell about their own artifacts?
Soon after I was hired as Curator of Collections at another museum, I made an unguided walk thru of the collections area.
Looking across several aisles of shelving I saw something that caught my eye: a round ball. Even at a maybe forty foot distance, I said to myself, "I know what that is."
I went over and looked at it. The tag read, "stone ball."
"Hah!" I said.
I went to look at the accession records. It was from an old, ca 1900, accession, which had only been fully described in the 1970s. Specifically, it was described as a "stone ball with brass ring."
I asked if there was a magnet around.
The magnet stuck.
'Tweren't no "stone" ball.
I looked down the .5 in center hole in that brass ring. "Something's in there," I said.
I measured the diameter: ca. 6.2 inches.
hmmm; just as I thought.
What we had there was a Civil War era 12 pdr [pounder] shell or case shot.
[A ca. 6 inch diameter solid iron sphere, like a shot put, weights 12 lbs. Even when they were cast hollow and filled with plain gun powder (shell) or powder and other stuff ('case' or 'shrapnel') and thus weighed somewhat different than 12 lbs, they were still called 12 pdr.)]
But I also knew from 30 years dealing with black powder (and CW artillery) that, unless it was exposed to a direct spark, it was safe.
Despite what others on this list have said, black powder does not disintegrate into some highly explosive compund as does nitroglicerine. Black powder is a *mechanical* mixture - not a chemical mixture - of carbon, sulphur, and saltpetre. Depending upon whatever bonding agent is used, over time, those elements will separate out, disengage, and indeed become less, rather than more, problematic over time.
I know that the standard response of most fire departments and other hazardous materials people is to "neutralize" such ordnance: i.e. blow it up. This does, however, destroy its historical value.
Like the live Confederate Shenkel shell I bought at an Albuquerque flea market in 1985 for my own collection, both shells remain whole.
My advice: isolate them. Know where they are. If a fire emergency should happen, have them on the top of your list for evacuation.
But don't let those guys blow 'em up. They like to do that.
tk
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