Friday, July 23, 2010

Here's Hoping This Isn't An Omen...

Autopsy planned for Keizer man killed in Seal Rock cannon blast
A 38-year-old Keizer man died Saturday night after a cannon explosion in Seal Rock, the Lincoln County Sheriff's office said.

Eric Rose was helping to load a black powder cannon device when it exploded in the property's back yard and he was struck by a piece of shrapnel.
Black powder may be used in antique firearms, but that doesn't mean that it's not still dangerous. In this case, it appears that someone who didn't have a firm grasp of the pressures involved loaded too much powder into a vessel that was not built to withstand that particular amount of force. I'm certain we've all had analogous - yet not as disasterous - situations in our own lives - whether it be loading too much soap into the washer, or too much water into a coffeemaker, etc. The level of attention one needs to pay to one's task increases exponentially when the substance in question goes boom...

And this is why people who don't know exactly what they're doing shouldn't fabricate cannons...

That is all.

Link sent by brad_in_ma, who was assured that the cannon we might light off at the Bloggershoot was made by someone who certainly knew what he was doing...

5 comments:

Wally said...

Canoneer OJT - that's a steep learning curve !

Not stopping me from trying tho!

Mike W. said...

An Omen?

Are you planning on shooting a cannon this weekend Jay?

TOTWTYTR said...

Seems like a couple of things had to go wrong for this to happen. First, something caused the powder to ignite. Second, seems like the barrel wasn't up to the pressures that developed when powder ignited.

I don't think our cannoneer is likely to make either mistake, let alone both.

doubletrouble said...

My cannon hasn't gone all 'splody... yet.

Reputo said...

Jay, I'll have to post photos and video of the fun we provided to the children at our recent family reunion. It involved the cannon I built and a whole mess load of stuffed animals.

Spoiler alert: The Cat in the Hat had one of his legs blown off!