Back in the middle 1960's we built cannons in metal shop ..

by JimT, Texas, Wednesday, October 05, 2022, 07:18 (716 days ago) @ E Sisk

My friend Lee built one that was about 3/4" diameter bore. He had made a carriage and it was a nice looking rig. One Saturday night we were all in downtown _____ hanging out at McDonalds when Lee rolled in with his cannon. He was wanting to shoot it and we encouraged him to do so. The cannon was loaded with a hefty charge of black powder, wadded with paper pounded on top of it. It was taken to a fairly empty parking lot and a lit cigarette was placed on the fuse. Then we drove up the street a little ways and parked where we could observe. After we had set there maybe 10 minutes a motorcycle cop drove by and just as he was past the cannon it went off.

This was on one of the main streets of the city and there were businesses up and down the street with large .. huge .. glass windows. We could see some of the windows buckling from the shock wave, though none broke. The motorcycle cop wobbled a bit on his bike but we were impressed that he kept it upright.

In a few moments police cars descended upon the parking lot where the cannon had been placed and the cannon was arrested. We stayed out of sight and after the police departed we decided we all would go home for the rest of the evening.