Is this a prison ball..

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Maybe it is a small wrecking ball?

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

While there were in fact manufacturers of restraints that made stock items with balls attached, in many of the older hand forged restraints there was no "regulation" ball size.

Many types of extant iron balls were often culled into this service, i.e. cannon balls, gate weight balls, etc.

Your ball could certainly at one time have found itself hooked up to a chain that led to some type of restraint.

There is no way to know for sure, but also certainly no way to say it was not.

Steve Santini

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Hey Chuck,

Put it up for auction online.

Priority flat rate (USPS) is good for up to 70 pounds anywhere in the US so shipping wont be prohibitive.

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

I'm pretty sure it's pretty old. It came from an Amish auction. Everything there was old and original, a lot of blacksmith tools. I'm not sure if it will fit in a USPS Flat Rate Box. I actually bought to use on my Kubota backhoe to bust up concrete with, but I'm starting to think not.

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

I HAVE 3 PRISON BALLS ALL LOOK DIFFERENT, EASYEST WAY TO SEND IS UNWRAPED IF HANDLE IS STRONG ENOUGH ,IF IT WAS AN AMISH ACTION IT POSSIABLY WAS USED TO TEATHER HORSE HOOKED TO BUGGY WHEN THEY NEEDED TO ,BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN A PRISON BALL, AS TO THE SIZE IN THIS CASE SIZE DOESN'T MATTER PRISONER'S DIDN'T DRAG THE BALL THEY CARRIED IT, IT WAS ONLY TO KEEP THEM FROM RUNNING OFF. WHEN THEY HAD TO STOP BALL WAS SET DOWN AND IF THEY HAD TO WORK TO THE LENGTH OF THE CHAIN AND THEN GO BACK PICK IT UP AND MOVE ON

LK D~D

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

I do know one thing. I sure would hate to carry this thing very far chained to my leg. As far as a horse tether. I'm pretty sure that the Amish did not make this ball for that. They could have used it for that, but most Amish horses would have no trouble dragging it around. When I say Amish auction. It was actually a antique consignment auction the Amish put on. The public is able to bring in items and sell, so I guess I should not insinuated that it is an Amish item. I actually don't know who the owner was or where it came from. I just thought it was pretty cool and thought it would make a nice little wrecking ball for my backhoe so I bid on it and got it. I was told on another forum that it was used for restraining several prisoners as in like a chain gang situation instead of just a single prisoner because of it's size. Right or wrong, I don't know. I sure wish the ball could talk.

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Hi,
I have never heard of a chain gang being tethered together with 1 large and heavy ball.
I can't say that this never happened, but I find it very unlikely.
Besides, if several prisoners were chained together, they would not need a weight to keep them from running away.
mark
O--O

I bought this at a local auction. It stands about 8" tall It is 25" around. It weighs 65 lbs. The eye looks to be cast into it. This seems to heavy for a prison ball, but I was told it could have been used to secure more than one prisoner. Thanks for any info you can provide.

If you watched the civil war movie Andersonville, they had a brief scene where about a dozen prisoners were chained to a VERY large single ball!!! But I question the accuracy of the movie ..........