Hi, Odd Ball Afficionados,
To MexicoDoug I can only say, "By George,
I think he's got it!"
Frankly, I was thinking of ammunition manufacture
in more modern terms, but the great peak of activity
at Joliet was of course in WWII, 65 years ago. That's
plenty of time for an iron ball in the wet soils of
Illinois to reach the condition of this one. And I
didn't know about the Old Iron Works (1860-1930),
another excellent candidate source. Maybe they
made --- mill balls! There was certainly a market
for them nearby.
The Ball Mill is an old processor. I tried to
Google up the invention horizon for the Ball Mill,
and failed. It was always called "old." I found a
great XIXth century treatise on Ball Mills that talked
about them as "the oldest" processor. As near as
I can tell, it originated in Germany, maybe Silesia,
maybe XVIIth century, but it could be an older
device. Maybe Doug will find a reference to late
Roman ball mills... Molinum Orbis.
From the Federal Register, 2006: "Army records
indicate that there are 10,933 WWII and Cold War Era
Army ammunition production facilities and plants,
including associated buildings, structures, and utilities...
in approximately 30 installations nationwide."
World War Two was busy. By the time World
War II ended, American factories had produced
296,429 airplanes, 102,351 tanks and self-propelled
guns, 372,431 artillery pieces, 47,000,000 tons of
artillery ammunitions, 124,000 ships, including 87,620
warships of which 80,000 were landing craft, 806,073
2-1/2-ton trucks, 12,537,854 rifles and carbines, and
44,000,000,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition, as
well as 36,000,000,000 yards of cotton uniform cloth.
Between 1941 and 1945, this output constituted 44%
of the Gross National Product of the US.
Maybe they lost a mill ball along the way...
Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "MexicoDoug" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 6:13 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite-wrong pics
Sterling wrote:
In 1690, the French explorer Nicholas Perrot visited
those lead mines ... In 1818, the first permanent
structure in what is now Galena, Illinois, was built. In
the peak year of 1845, the mining district, with Galena
as its hub, produced about 85% of the nation's lead.
It was the fourth busiest port on the Mississippi River.
Ball mills were plentiful.
Hello Sterling, Dave, Listees,
Excellent engineering.
http://www.monolithic.com/pres/tree_swing/treeswing.jpg
But, I really think it's local (Have you ever picked up a 110 pound iron
meteorite? - I didn't think so):
The lead mining regions are in the opposite corners of Illinois, and as
you
note - on the Mississippi river, the only reasonable route of mineral
transport in that era (Truckers and Teamster's were still a ways off). Of
course we can't discount that the ball Dave's friend found didn't come
from
the NW corner of Illinois when rural areas near Joliet were unsettled and
isolated farmlands right up to 1940. We can't discount it didn't come
from
Germany with the settler's either...so...back to basics:
After The War Between the States, Joliet blossomed with a gigantic Iron
Works production facility. I would recommend a look around the museum and
tracking down who is the expert there, to research ball possibilities
(815)
727-8700.
http://www.fpdwc.org/ironworks.cfm
Though, really, Wyoming Dave suggested and you agree it could be a ball
from
a "Ball Mill" type pulverizer. Hold that thought.
There we have one of the largest (if not largest) explosive and large
shell
(a favorite were 8"ers) manufacturing facilities in the world right in
that
rural area providing employment to the majority of locals living in the
area
where the ball was found.
And then ... this isn't any army facility. It is the US Army which has a
knack for making the best munitions money can buy. How do you do that?
With very fine powders to increase surface areas for, well, explosive
reactions. And that was the business of this military factory hidden away
from all unfriendly fire in the backwoods of Illinois.
Black powder specifically was made in great quantities there, besides more
TNT than anywhere else in the world. Black powder can only be made well
in
a mill - and a large ball mill is the mill of choice. Here's a sample
munitions ball mill like Joliet's 1500 building complex had:
http://www.aeragon.com/o/me/bp01.html#pic
In the Summer of '42, 48 (mostly) women and men were killed there from an
explosion of powder that shook the windows in Chicago 50 miles (80 km)
away.
That's a lot of powder!
In the words of Dorothy Lefavi who was there:
"The government eventually built Elwood ammunition plant in the cornfields
of Illinois. I worked in the fuse and boosters section until I was asked
to
move into the laboratory where gunpowder was tested for moisture. While
working there, I wore uniforms I changed into at a change house where you
had to make sure you had no metal on you so there couldn't be sparks.
There
were no nails in shoes - used wooden pegs in place of them. Instead of
hairpins, we used little pieces of wood with toothpicks in them. Everyone
was warned if there was an explosion of any kind not to go to the change
house because between where we worked and there was where the black powder
was stored.
One night during the graveyard shift in the summer of '42, the lights
flashed as if it were lightning, and we thought there was possibly an
electrical storm. We heard a loud BOOM! Everyone ran out into the field as
instructed. We found out that there had been an explosion killing a number
of people and breaking windows in Chicago - about fifty miles away. Who
worked there were mostly other women like myself and a few men."
http://www.imao.us/archives/001909.html
With all the black powder ball milling going on where the property owner
and
visitors at that time probably worked (unless it was found on the
munitions
facility itself some of which has been converted to farmland now)...are
you
going to believe that a over a half of a century before there was a
reasonable road to this rural, isolated area in the opposite corner of the
State someone lugged a 110 pound iron ball and dumped it there ... or ...
in
the absence of more information, assume that the local dominant industry
of
an era which employed most everyone for miles around who wasn't sent
elsewhere in the war machine, and which used balls like that in mills like
the one in the image to the link for one of their major production isn't
the
origin of that ball? Hmmmm....:-)
Best wishes, Doug
PS I bet you'll do a thought experiment on how me you think one of the
mill
balls for a lead mining concentrator was ordered from Joilet's Iron Works
for Galena (near Iowa) in 1880 and tossed into the field far enough from
Joliet to be the boonies ...:-)
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