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Tree Cannon

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Flint50

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I was flippin thru channels the other day, and came upon an episode of "Myth Busters" They had a log about 6 feet long, 15 or so inches thick. It had metal bands around the "barrel" every foot or so. The bore was tennis ball size, and thats what they were shooting out of it. The charge was 6 ounces of powder. It would shoot a tennis ball one h**l of a distance.
Well they finally loader her up with 5 pounds, plugged the bore and let her rip.
There was literaly only a black spot where the tree cannon had stood. Has anyone ever seen one of these tree cannons?-New one on me
 
I saw that about a year ago when they first ran it. When they loaded it up to blow it sky high. I was doing the oh no its gonna be bigger than that!
They rocked everything in the blast area.
IT really looked like they were over their heads on that one.
 
The old shows about Danail Boon had an epasode with a tree canon to fight off the indians. It didn't blow up but then this was a TV show. With 5 pounds of powder they were trying to blow it up, it's all about ratings.
 
The Indians built a Tree Cannon but it blew up in their face. Ouch. However, both Confederate and Union troops made tree stump mortars with the fancier Union model having iron hoops to reinforce it. They were used to drive out folks from the trenches.
 
I found this information
(http://www.civilwarartillery.com/glossary/glossary.htm) :

"BOMBARD: An ancient piece of ordnance, which was very short, thick, and wide in the bore. It differed from the balista in being worked with gun-powder instead of by mechanical force, and from the mortar in shooting forth stones instead of iron shells. Some of the bombards used in the fifteenth century propelled stones weighing from 200 to 500 pounds. each. The shape of the first cannon used after the invention of gunpowder was conical, internally and externally resembling an apothecary’s mortar. They were called mortars, bombards, and vases; were fired at high angles; and in consequence of the slow burning of the powder of that day and the conical shape of the bore, the stone balls projected by them proceeded with very little velocity and accuracy. Bombards were made first of wood banded with wrought-iron, then of sheet-iron strengthened by hoops and brazing, and later of longitudinal iron bars, connected and hooped, like the staves of a cask. As none of these constructions gave the requisite strength, cannon were subsequently made of wrought-iron, then of cast-iron, and finally of bronze".
 
I think thats a bit of 19th century invention about cannon first being made of wood. Theres no evidence that they were ever made of wood except as an improvised measure by indians, guerillas etc.
When I told the woman from mythbusters who called me to ask me to be a consutant on the show that, they decided to use someone else :)
anyhow, we've discussed this before
 
Wood cannon (or kids, don't try this at home)

Definitely do not try this at home. Taken from the History of Muhlenberg County (pages 295-296). Muhlenberg County is in Kentucky. Some background first. Earlier some (pro-Union) youngsters staged several fake raids as if they were members of (Confederate) Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. They chased "shot" down or captured the fleeing Unionists (their buddies) who previously warned the locals of Forrest's approach. This caused much alarm and left many timid folks shivering. So, along that line, another group of enterprising youths decided to have their share of fun:

There were some youngsters who thought if the bogus cavalry could play "Forrest," they could play "Buckner." When Geneal Buckner passed through the county he had several little brass cannons with him, that were greatly admired by all the young fellows who saw them. These boys concluded that they wanted a cannon to shoot and scare the timid natives. Three or four of the youngsters got together and called on Edward O. Pace, then a blacksmith near the Pisgah neighborhood, and asked him if he could help get up a cannon. He said that he could. Pace was then a young man, and although he had been married a few years he nevertheless enjoyed the fun and prank of boys. So he told the youngsters to go to the woods and cut out a black gum log eight or ten inches in diameter and about three feet long and bring it to his shop, and he would manufacture a cannon for them.

A log was procured, taken to Pace's shop at night, and the work on the cannon was commenced at once. The bark was shaved off nicely. Pace had a two-inch auger with a long shank, and with this he bored a hole in the endo fhte log down to a depth of fifteen or sixteen inches; he then had a half-inch auger with a long shank, and with this he bored a hole through the log to the bottom end of a touch hole. He had a lot of old wagon-tires in his shop, and out of these he made a number of bands and drove them on the wooden cannon as close as he could conveniently get them. He then loaded the big gun with some powder and made a trial shot to test its strength. It stood the test and was pronounced ready for "warfare."

The youngsters carried the cannon to a field near Pisgah Church. They procured all the powder they could get, and one night commenced a regular cannonading. They put in heavy charges of powder and the report fairly shook the earth; the noise rolled and reverberated in the distance like thunder. The whole neighborhood became alarmed. Some of the people were badly scared, for they thought Buckner or some other army was right in their midst. James Jones, of Long Creek, who happened to be visiting the nearby house of W. C. Martin, became so frightened at the first shot that he crawled under the bed and remained there for some time. The whole neighborhood was dumfounded a the loud shooting. The roaring of this cannon was heard in Greenville, over on Pond River, and near the Christian County line. The next day there was a considerable stir among the natives, for most of them inquired about the shooting. No one seemed to know who had kept up such a cannonading. In the meantime the boys were reaping the pleasure of having played "Buckner" so well.

After the cannon had rested a while it was taken over on the upper Hopkinsville Road, where some repairs were made on it at the James Rice blacksmith shop, then run by W. H. and E. Rice. E. Rice did the work for the boys, and a few nights later the cannonading was carried on inthat neighborhood, where it caused considerable alarm.

The cannon was next carried near to the house in which Billy D. Rice then lived. There it was again put into service, but before discharging it, E. Rice loaded it with a shop-hammer for a ball and aimed the barrel at a nearby tree. The cannon went off with a tremendous roar and sent the shop-hammer deep into the trunk of the tree, where I presume it has remained buried ever since.
 
I stole the following from the Mythbuster Fan Forum posted by fans of Hungarian descent:

Well, since my father is 72 I am afraid his history teacher would not be very cooperative (if you know what I mean)... I think I have it somewhere in a book, so as soon as I find some free time I will try and search for it...

However, cherry tree cannons were used in 18th and 19th century in Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, etc so this myth could be placed anywhere in the Balkans or parts of central Europe where people were rebbeling against Turks. These cannons were marked as inefficient but easy to make. I have even found three photos of such cannons on two Bulgarian websites, and one cherry tree cannon found its way on a Macedonian coin...

I KNOW they were... we here in izola have a museum about the ship Rex (that was sunk by Fashist bombers in WW1) and a sideatraction is also a collection of cannon... there are a lot of connon there with a few wooden ones... in other words wooden cannons were deffinitely used atleast by villages...

CP
 
Each quote is a link. More recent wooden artillery pieces:

From the American Civil War, 1860-65:





From the The Russo-Japanese War 1904”“05:



And if you reference a book entitled Round Shot and Rammers you can read about 17th century leather cannons.

 
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