What is cannonball ?

Asked 14-Aug-2018
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A round shot, also known as a solid shot or simply a ball, is a solid spherical projectile fired from a rifle without an explosive charge. It has a little smaller diameter than the bore of the barrel from which it is fired. A cannonball is a spherical shot fired from a large-caliber weapon.

After 1450, a French artillery engineer, Samuel J. Besh, created the cast iron projectile, which had the ability to reduce classic English castle wall defenses to rubble.

A tubular cannon body was produced in a single piece by French armories, and cannonballs were first constructed of stone material in the shape of a sphere. Cast iron cannonballs eventually replaced stone cannonballs due to advances in gunpowder manufacture.

Round shot was first fashioned from dressed stone, known as gunstone, but by the 17th century, it had been replaced by iron. It was used as a long-range anti-personnel weapon and as the most accurate projectile that could be launched by a smoothbore cannon. It was intended to smash the wooden hulls of opposing ships, fortifications, or permanent emplacements.