Canon blanks?

[Storm_front]

After studying the civil war, i have a question that i hope someone in this forum can answer, though it might be a bit beside the point.

What did they use as blanks during the war, in general? And more specificilly i would like to know what they usede at fort Sumter during the salut to the flag?

[TB1861]

Black powder, no cannon ball, it goes boom and a lot of smoke comes out. You can see this at reenactments everywhere.

[Storm_front]

Black powder, no cannon ball, it goes boom and a lot of smoke comes out. You can see this at reenactments everywhere.


is this really true, im thinking that with no "canonball" of some kind on top of the gunpowder would give a highly uncontroled burn of the powder?

Sounds pretty dangerously to me, but im just guessing here, never really saw an old time canon being fired

[cannonsam]

Storm. The blanks we use in our artillery unit are made as follows.
1. Roll out about 2 ft of aluminum foil and fold in half.
2. Center on wooden dowel of slightly smaller size than cannon bore.
3. Roll foil around dowel untill all foil is used. Fold one end of resulting tube to close it off.
4. Insert foil tube into form with closed end down.
5. Fill with desired amount of powder.
6. Use wooden dowel to packe powder in foil tube. Then close upper end of tube.

Done correctly this results in a round that will easily fit in the cannon bore and if packed well will give a big boom. This is what we use at our reenactments. Some people use flour or other fillers in one end of the round to make a bigger cloud of smoke and to use less powder. In my honest opinion this results in less bang for your shot. Just my 2cents worth. Hope it helps.

[daveproc26]

During the War, the powder charge was in a bag, you rammed the charge and then the shot, and some rounds had the bag attached to the shot. To fire blanks they just rammed the charge i.e powder in a bag minus the shot and fired it.

[TB1861]

is this really true, im thinking that with no "canonball" of some kind on top of the gunpowder would give a highly uncontroled burn of the powder?

Sounds pretty dangerously to me, but im just guessing here, never really saw an old time canon being fired

A very rapid burn as well, this displaces air as the solid powder rapidly turns into a large volume of gas, in an enclosed space such as a cannon tube the expansion of gas produces a lot of pressure, enough to push a heavy iron ball quite some distance. Without the ball in place the only thing being pushed is air and the noise you hear is the result of this sudden displacement of air. In space it wouldn't make much noise and of course you couldn't hear it anyway in a vacuum. If you burn loose powder on the ground you get little more than flash and smoke with hardy any noise but once you contain it then it gets interesting. If you were to try this in a closed container it would explode, a cannon (or any other gun) depends upon the barrel being strong enough to hold together while the projectile moves away, in the case of a blank the "projectile" is air. Even the limited back pressure caused by air a poorly constructed or otherwise weak barrel can burst.
You can find videos on the web of reenactors firing cannons.

[FloridaHoosier]

Black powder, no cannon ball, it goes boom and a lot of smoke comes out. You can see this at reenactments everywhere.

Yes indeedy, this is what happens