From: reb@amc.com (Bob Brunjes)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Top Man Stoppers??
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:07:01 GMT
Organization: Applied Microsystems, Redmond, WA

In article <1992Aug18.140803.17224@CERIS.Purdue.EDU> jheath@fieldofdreams.npirs.purdue.edu (Jim Heath) writes:
##From article <1992Aug17.102402.1@geovax.ed.ac.uk>, by msc9203@geovax.edinburgh.ac.uk (C.A.Anderson):
## Sometime last year I received a flyer for some strange ammo, some of it was the
## type you are referring to some had cloth bags of very fine shot to destroy door
## hinges while not having any secondary projectile damage to 'hostages' inside
## the room.  They had other strange things like two halves of a slug that were
## connected by a segment of piano wire.  Theoretically they would make a bolo
## while in flight (actually these were used to be used in the days of wooden
## ships and cannons, made a mess of the other guys rigging).
#
#I believe that was what they called chain shot.  It made an
#excellent anti-personnel round on the battlefield as well.  
#
#
#  One other thing
## they had for sale was a round that would spray burning magnesium out when fired
## which would subsequently burn for around 3 seconds.  The ad recommended sun
## glasses as protection when fired at night because of the brightness and claimed
## it would not hurt the firearm in any way when fired (oh really???).  The
## company was under the name of "Blammo Ammo" strangely enough I didn't want to
## try any of this stuff on my model 12.
## 
## For real man stoppers things other than cannon balls  have been used in times
## of lack of standard ammunition, things that come to mind are kegs of nails and
## crobars.  Be interesting to see what a mess these rounds mad, from behind the
## cannon of course :-) .
##
#
#There is a modern equivalent for the keg of nails.  It is a 105mm
#(or other I suppose) round loaded with fletchettes.  It is
#commonly called a bee hive round because of the sound the
#fletchettes make after they are fired.
#
#Could the crowbar you're thinking of be bar-shot?  I think it was
#primarily used against ships' rigging, but it probably was at
#least adequate as an anti-personnel round.
#
#Then there were the glass cannon balls which were outlawed by the
#Geneva convention.
#
#BTW, does anyone know how explosive cannon balls (or modern
#cannon shells for that matter) worked?  It doesn't seem like they
#could have run the fuse throught the touch hole and achieved any
#speed.  Did they load the fuse against the powder charge and hope
#for the best? 

I'm not sure how exploding shot was handled before the American
civil war, but during that conflict hollow cast-iron balls were
employed.  The ball was filled with black powder, and a wooden
fuze was driven in (with a wooden mallet) to plug the hole.

The fuze was shaped a bit like a champagne cork, and had some 
sort of fuse material leading up from the end next to the ball's
interior.  At the outer part of the fuze (like the mushroom-shaped
part of the cork) this fuse material was arranged in a spiral, 
which was covered by some metallic foil.

The foil was cut with a special fuze knife such that the time for
the fuse to burn from the cut exposing the spiralled fuse to the
powder charge roughly equalled the time for the ball to travel
to the target.

The ball was loaded into the gun, over the propellant charge, 
with the fuze facing the muzzle.  When the gun was fired, blow-
by filled the barrel ahead of the ball with low-pressure burning
gasses, which ignited the fuse in the fuze at the cut in the foil.

Evidently, in a night-time bombardment, you could see little
twinkling, twirling fuses (or fuzes) coming at you. 
#-- 
#"Land of song, said the warrior bard,           Jim Heath
#Though all the world betrays thee.
#One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, (The Minstrel Boy)
#One faithful harp will praise thee."         (Thomas Moore)
#

Bob Brunjes		Applied Microsystems Corp
			Redmond, WA
			reb@amc.com