Thread: Find Inside Garage

Yesterday's inspection had a detached garage. On the floor of the garage was a manhole cover. It seemed kind of odd so I pried it open. The interior appears to look like an old well but that would not make much sense since oil and gas spills in the garage could end up down there. In any event, I saw this rather conspicuous looking torpedo shaped object at the bottom. Any guesses or thoughts?

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Torpedo shaped thingy looks like an artillery round, maybe, without the casing. Odd. I found an old well in the crawlspace of a 100 year old home here in TX once. It looked kind of like your picture. Turns out it had been abandoned and filled long before.

Bumper ornament off an old Buick?
The other thing looks like a car horn.
Is that a chunk of concrete or a cow skull?

Looks like a cistern but could be a septic tank, root cellar, sump pit, crypt, etc.
Any bones?

I was expecting to see a skull or a femur bone in there.

Looks like a stainless steel band around it.
Other than that, I have no idea.

Also looks like possibly a fender mounted siren, from the 50s.

Garage Cisterns such as this were often used for garage wastes... both dry and liquid. One I inspected here in Mn had many used oil filters and other car parts along with old oily rags... all from the 1920's-1970's. Often debris was thrown in and then some soil thrown in (to keep petro smell down?) and then another layer of debris and then soil, etc... Our state environmental laws are pretty tough on these things should the homeowner want to tear out garage/slab to build new. Could be considered a haz. waste site depending on contents. From a practical standpoint, these things often leak like sieves cause simply mortar/brick but the garage roof eliminates the effect of rain pushing the contents towards the water table.

55 Cadillac it looks like.
Cadillac photos 1955

Nick
That torpedo shaped object is a steel cannon shell. The ring around it is a soft metal gas check which engages the lands and grooves in the cannon barrel to provide spin. Each is quite visible and indicates that this projectile was fired from a cannon at some point.

Rap on the tip with a very large hammer....
but be safe and wear ear plugs

Seriously I would call the proper authorities. "Wiley" pegged it as an artillery round with the rifling still showing on the gas check! I just read about some lady in England using a live round as a door stop since WWII

Originally Posted by Wiley Lavigne

Nick
That torpedo shaped object is a steel cannon shell. The ring around it is a soft metal gas check which engages the lands and grooves in the cannon barrel to provide spin. Each is quite visible and indicates that this projectile was fired from a cannon at some point.

Wiley, I was thinking it looked more like a torpedo/artillery round when I looked closer at the ring/band. It looks like rifling grooves, similar to the rifling grooves on a foster slug that is designed for shooting out of a smooth barreled shotgun.

Could be extremely dangerous, my Mom used a small cannon cartridge as a flower vase, for many years it stood on the mantel, we discovered years later that the percussion cap was still live, dismantled, explosive removed and destroyed (large bang), resealed the cap with pipe compound and it went back as a vase, I still have it.

looks like an artillery round. The nose is a little blunt for a 175 gun, but has a profile similar to an 8 inch. simply measure the diameter and you will have a good chance of identifying it. Duds were common in Korea & Vietnam era. someone retrieved it as a souvenier?

After 23 years wearing green, looks like an artillery round to me. I would call the Police department and let EOD take care of it. If it is live, it could be very unstable after sitting in water/mud?