Homemade Cannon Shoots Cement-Filled Soup Cans

Homemade Cannon Shoots Cement-Filled Soup Cans FARM HOME Novelty Items My dad Tom Mathwig has been making noise in rural Fall Creek Wis ever since he built his own cannon from scratch As our neighbors can testify they really work He is an 85-year-old retired dairy farmer although he still continues to work as a jack-of-all-trades Since he was a boy he has dreamed of owning a cannon “It’s one of those things that carry over from childhood to when you’re a big boy ” he says He modeled the cannon after French weapons of Napoleon’s era His creation is about 3/5 the size of the French boomers The 5-ft long barrel was formed by building up layers of pipe driving one inside the other for a tight fit After the seventh layer he carefully polished the barrel to a steel blue color The 3-ft dia wheels each have 12 spokes and every one is hand carved The rims posed the biggest challenge as he had to bend straight pieces of wood into smooth circular wheels He did so by boiling the wood to make it tender enough to curve Each inch of thickness took at least an hour of boiling to make the wood pliable enough Once the wheels were arched into a circle he placed a metal rim around each one to hold it securely in place Upon completion he had to test his masterpiece for safety He took it to a field behind the house loaded it with 14 oz of gun powder and packed in 2 soup cans filled with cement Each can weighed 2 lbs A 2-ft long dynamite fuse was inserted into the breach Dynamite fuse burns slowly about 1 in per min so it gives dad time to run to the next field There he waits patiently to see if his whole winter’s work will withstand the blast or blow to bits “When it goes off about 6 ft of fire shoots out the front and the cannon jumps back 5 ft ” he recalls Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Emilee Mathwig 1739 Warden St Eau Claire Wis 54703 ph 715 833-1436; emmy40c@netzero net

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