Posted: 8/12/2008 4:35:30 PM EDT
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... and it might just stay potent for 150 years. This is an update on the February incident in Richmond, VA. Apparently it took the JBTATFE six months to conclude that he done blew hisself up. Spark Ignited Powder in Civil War-Era Shell A Civil War relic hunter who was killed in an explosion in February had been cleaning a cannonball when a spark ignited black powder, a federal investigation concluded yesterday. Sam White, 53, was working on the nine-inch naval cannonball in the driveway of his home with a wire-brush grinder, which ignited the internal powder, exploding the shell, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. No other injuries were reported in the Feb. 18 explosion. A four-inch piece of shrapnel dug from the driveway's asphalt contained evidence that the shell had been made inert, either by White or the person who sold him the shell, said Bill Dunham, resident agent in charge of the Richmond ATF office. The explosion sent a one- to two-pound section of the shell hurtling from the Chester subdivision where White lived and through the roof of a house a quarter-mile away. White, a respected, widely known member of the Civil War relic hunting community, was using the grinder to clean residue from the shell, which dated to the 1850s or 1860s. -- Associated Press |
 I'd call that pretty solid evidence that it WAS NOT made inert. |
LOL wut? Maybe he means that since the shell went BOOM!, it is NOW inert. |
I concur with your findings... |
You have to read more closely and literally. Blowing up rendered it inert. Having the piece of shrapnel imbedded in the ground was considered to be proof positive the thing is now inert. It took a highly educated individual to make that declaration, BTW. 
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Dammit TBK, stop messing with my head! 
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