"Old Sacramento" Cannoneers Association

01/29/2020

159 years ago today, when word came that Kansas had been admitted to the Union as a Free State, Old Sacramento was retrieved from Thomas Bickerton's farm where it had been buried for safety, brought to Lawrence, and fired all night to celebrate the victory.

Happy Kansas Day!

12/15/2019

The Mechanical Engineering students from KU have finished the project on Old Sacramento that they have been working on this semester, and they have done a remarkable job in increasing our knowledge about the cannon and have brought the possibility of producing an exact working replica much closer to being a reality. Using the detailed measurements they took earlier in the semester, they produced Computer Aided Designs (CAD) of the remains of the barrel that are ready to be used to produce a mold for casting a new barrel. As an example of what could be done, they used the CAD design and a 3-D printer to produce 2 foot-long miniature models of the barrel, one of which is now in the collection of Watkins Museum.

In conjunction with the investigation performed by the Microscopy and Analytical Imaging Research Resource Core Lab at KU, whose analysis showed that the barrel is cast from arsenical bronze, the students were able to determine that it is almost a certainty that Old Sacramento was originally a bell that was melted down and recast as the cannon. The students even located a foundry that will cast the barrel and have a carriage built.

The students took a not very well developed idea and turned it into a finished design project with all aspects ready to make a new “Old Sacramento”. All that is needed now is to raise the $30,000 to $35,000 that it will cost.

Many thanks to students Nathan Bennett, Hunter James, Toan Le, Sabrea Platz, and Andy Garcia for the outstanding work you did on the project. And thanks too to Professor Tom DeAgostino and Shah Saud Alam for overseeing these remarkable students while they made history and showed the power of an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving that bridges the artificial divide between science and the humanities.

09/30/2019

As part of the ME 501 class project, folks from the Microscopy and Analytical Imaging Research Resource Core Lab at KU were in Watkins Museum this afternoon to take samples of Old Sacramento's bronze for scientific analysis to determine its composition. The results of the analysis may tell us if the cannon has always been a cannon, or if it might have begun its life as a bell what was melted down and recast as a cannon. It might also give clues as to where the copper and tin ore used to make the bronze came from.

09/19/2019

The Mechanical Engineering students who are working on the Old Sacramento project were in Watkins Museum this morning to take detailed measurements of the cannon. It is almost certain that this is the first time anyone has measured the cannon to this extent. Great things can be accomplished when science and history work together instead of being isolated as if they were totally separate and not part of the full spectrum of human knowledge.

08/31/2019

We’ve been waiting until we were 100% sure of something before announcing it, but it’s at least 99% sure now, so here goes.

Junior level students enrolled in ME 501 - Mechanical Engineering Design Process, offered through the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas and taught by Thomas DeAgostino, will work this semester on a project using the remains of Old Sacramento that are on display in Watkins Museum. What they will actually be doing will be decided as their work progresses, and we will be working with them to help direct and learn from their activities. They will at least take detailed measurements of the remains, but they will probably do much more than that. Of course, our ultimate goal is the production of a “New” Old Sacramento, which is not likely to be the outcome of this semester’s work, but the work the students do this semester will provide valuable information that can contribute to achieving that goal and to open the door for further progress in the future.

Our Faculty and Staff Our faculty members have diverse expertise in applied mechanics, biomaterials, biomechanics, computational mechanics and fluid mechanics, energy and transportation systems, as well as combustion and thermal systems. They perform research from the nanoscale through large scale s...

01/29/2019

158 years ago today, when word arrived in Lawrence from back east that Kansas had earlier in the day been admitted to the Union as a Free State, men went to Thomas Bickerton’s farm near Clinton, Kansas, and dug up "Old Sacramento." It had been buried there to keep it safe in case the Bleeding Kansas violence that had subsided were to return and it be needed again. The men brought “Old Sacramento” into Lawrence, where it was fired all night to celebrate the final victory of the Free State cause in Kansas.

01/28/2019

After having lain dormant for some time, the project to get a New “Old Sacramento” built is becoming active again. The project will eventually need:

One or more sources of funding.

A university or private business to scan the remains of the barrel and create a three-dimensional image that will be electronically manipulated to digitally reconstruct the barrel.

A university or private business to use the digital reconstruction to generate a full-sized, three-dimensional model of the barrel.

A university or private business to sample the remains of the original barrel to determine its chemical composition to accurately reproduce the bronze composition for the new barrel.

A foundry experience in replicating cannons to create a mold from the three-dimensional model of the barrel, pour a new barrel using the same composition of the bronze as in the old barrel, drill out the bore, and finish the new barrel.

An experienced woodworker to recreate the carriage using the only known photograph of the original cannon.

Volunteers to help facilitate all phases of the project.

Anyone interested in assisting in the project should contact the “Old Sacramento" Cannoneers Association at [email protected].