Tell me more! Can you Identify???

fitzgerc

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Dec 31, 2016
I am researching a man who was a Civil War veteran. He was firing off a Fourth of July salute in his home town when something went terribly wrong. I finally found an old newspaper article about the incident and it says he was "loading an anvil when the weapon exploded". Tried googling "anvil" and only got blacksmithing equipment. What was an "anvil"?
 
Believe it's shooting the anvil into the air from on top of another anvil or similar base.
I believe that Stone in the Wall is correct, I've heard of it being done; though the reasons behind it are rather murkey. I saw it being done in the movie Sweet Home Alabama and when I questioned it, I was told that it was a real thing. An anvil is also part of a fuse, but I doubt that this would apply here. :help:
 
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Anvil shoots have been a whacky form of entertainment going back centuries. The hollow space cast into the base of an anvil is filled with black powder. A second anvil is place atop the other. Alternatively, the face of one anvil has an even layer of black powder laid on it. A second anvil, upside down, is placed atop the powder. From a (hopefully) safe distance the powder is ignited & ka-boom! An anvil weighting 100 pounds sails 100 or more feet into the air. This form of entertainment is still common today. Yes, it is wildly, absurdly, absolutely, insanely dangerous. The blacksmith forge I belong to raised money for a comrade who suffered traumatic amputation of some body parts in a premature detonation. I know this sounds crazy (my wife is rolling her eyes behind me as I type this). There really is something wildly entertaining about the improbable sight of an explosion & anvil shooting up out of a cloud of white black powder smoke. ('For some people, maybe.' says my sweetie.) Added to the thrill, of course, is that the ballistic qualities of an anvil make its eventual resting place a matter of conjecture only.
 
No doubt insanely dangerous. But the way this was worded in the newspaper coverage he was inserting powder into a closed space...or that was the impression.
"Mr. Fuller had been loading and firing an anvil. He was loading for another shot, when the weapon discharged with a tremendous report knocking him senseless. .....The theory of the accident is, that Mr. Fuller was loading and firing too fast, not giving the anvil time to cool, and the untimely explosion caused by putting the powder into the hot weapon."
He lost both his arms!
 
..."Mr. Fuller had been loading and firing an anvil....was loading and firing too fast,...the untimely explosion caused...He lost both his arms!

a case of "natural selection," but my heart and a prayer goes out to him and his family.
 
Yes, you might say 19th century celebrations could be a trifle dangerous:
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Vermont "4th of July casualties" 1891

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Election day, November 1882

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Iowa, 4th of July 1897

There are scores (possibly hundreds) of such newspaper reports from the period. The impression I get from most of them is of a single anvil, the opening in its base being used as a 'cannon-like' noisemaker with a wooden "cannonball, "but not necessarily 'shooting' another anvil into the air.
 
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Yes, you might say 19th century celebrations could be a trifle dangerous:
View attachment 341993
Vermont "4th of July casualties" 1891

View attachment 341992
Election day, November 1882

View attachment 341994
Iowa, 4th of July 1897

There are scores (possibly hundreds) of such newspaper reports from the period. The impression I get from most of them is of a single anvil, the opening in its base being used as a 'cannon-like' noisemaker with a wooden "cannonball, "but not necessarily 'shooting' another anvil into the air.
I haven't a clue what a wooden plug or a metal one, for that matter, could be when shooting an anvil. I thought that I had seen or heard of just about every goofy way to dismember ones self with black. powder, but goes to show what I know.
 
No doubt insanely dangerous. But the way this was worded in the newspaper coverage he was inserting powder into a closed space...or that was the impression.
"Mr. Fuller had been loading and firing an anvil. He was loading for another shot, when the weapon discharged with a tremendous report knocking him senseless. .....The theory of the accident is, that Mr. Fuller was loading and firing too fast, not giving the anvil time to cool, and the untimely explosion caused by putting the powder into the hot weapon."
He lost both his arms!
I am not sure that "like" is exactly what I mean.
 
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I haven't a clue what a wooden plug or a metal one, for that matter, could be when shooting an anvil. I thought that I had seen or heard of just about every goofy way to dismember ones self with black. powder, but goes to show what I know.
I suspect it was a 'plug' put in the 'barrel' mouth to contain the explosion, making it louder. The metal one must have been jammed in too hard.
 
There is an annual long range rifle shoot in North Idaho (Boomershoot) that used to feature an anvil shoot. I haven't been up there in many years so not sure if they still do it. Quite a sight, especially the first time you see it in person.
 
I am researching a man who was a Civil War veteran. He was firing off a Fourth of July salute in his home town when something went terribly wrong. I finally found an old newspaper article about the incident and it says he was "loading an anvil when the weapon exploded". Tried googling "anvil" and only got blacksmithing equipment. What was an "anvil"?
If you get a chance, watch the PBS special "Frontier House". A group of modern day people move into a recreated ranch house circa 1870-80 and try to live as our ancestors did. They raise cattle, crops etc. In one episode they have a party and they "fire an anvil" as part of the entertainment. This is part of the "house" series from some 10-20 years ago. Kind of a "reality show"
 
I am researching a man who was a Civil War veteran. He was firing off a Fourth of July salute in his home town when something went terribly wrong. I finally found an old newspaper article about the incident and it says he was "loading an anvil when the weapon exploded". Tried googling "anvil" and only got blacksmithing equipment. What was an "anvil"?

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Package 4; where do you research to find this? I have multiple ancestors on my mother's side of the family who served in Confederate forces that I need to perform more research on myself.
 
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