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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:14 pm
by jimlongley
Renegade wrote:Don't let it get to you. That was not his worst error. I would expect a bomb squad expert to have the technical means to determine if a cannoball loaded with Black Powder is live or not. Apparently not in Plano.

The Plano bomb squad was also called to the complex and X-rayed the cannonball but still couldn't tell if it was live.
Well, there's a place that I have to agree with the bomb squad, at least as far as x-rays are concerned. Merely x-raying it would not give you a clue as to whether it was live or not, lots of innocent things x-ray at the same density as various explosives, I see them every day at the airport.

Now as to whether they should have been equipped with something other than just the x-ray, I would have to agree, but I'll bet they were just taking a shortcut, possibly based on the theory that it might detonate if dropped.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:29 pm
by Renegade
jimlongley wrote: Now as to whether they should have been equipped with something other than just the x-ray, I would have to agree, but I'll bet they were just taking a shortcut, possibly based on the theory that it might detonate if dropped.
That was what I was getting at. I would think if he was concerned about it detonating if dropped, he would not have hand carried it?


EDIT:

Also, isn't more accurately called a shell, as opposed to cannonball?

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:37 pm
by dws1117
Good for you for speaking up.

BTW, Thanks for the history lesson. I may just get a hankerin for a "front stuffer" myself one day. Sounds like fun.