Scientists Trying To Preserve Cannon From The Alamo

Every once in a while we run gun refurb stories here at TFB—but what about a cannon refurb? That’s exactly what scientists at Texas A&M are up to right now, trying to restore a cannon that was used at the Alamo.

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Four-pounder firepower

A write-up in Texas A&M Today says this field piece has seen action in several notable conflicts. The most recognizable, of course, is the Battle of the Alamo, in which rebel Texans held off the Mexican army for 13 days before finally being overrun.

Now, almost 200 years later, the cannon has seen mysterious deterioration on its surface:

“The cannon in question, a bronze four-pounder cast in Mexico, was used in several key battles during its lifetime — including the Battle of Medina in 1813 and the Battle of Concepción in 1835 — and ultimately saw action during the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. However, this artifact has recently faced a unique challenge: a white, chalky substance growing on its surface, a phenomenon that had not been observed in other bronze cannons.”

What to do? Kolby Lanham, Senior Researcher and Historian at the Alamo reached out to Dr. Christopher Dostal, an assistant professor at Texas A&M’s Nautical Archaeology program, as well as Kimberly Breyfogle, a Ph.D student in the program. Because their program often deals with cannons retrieved from sunken ships, they were perfectly suited to deal with the cannon clean-up.

Dostal said it took “the better part of a year and a half” to figure out just why the cannon was growing its unusual coating. The restorers think it is possibly a chemical reaction resulting from the substances used to conserve the cannon in 2008 and 2019. They think the chalky coating may be the precipitate of those chemicals working to the outside of the cannon. Whatever the cause, it is a rarely seen phenomenon, and Dostal and Breyfogle had to first start their work by trying to recreate the growth in a lab, using bronze blocks.

Eventually, they figured out a solution. As per Texas A&M Today’s write-up:

“The breakthrough came courtesy of a dilute solution of formic acid, which effectively removed the chalky deposits that formed on the cannon’s surface without damaging the underlying metal. The team applied this solution to the cannon, using a tennis ball on a stick as their weapon of choice and watching as the white substance essentially vanished on contact.”