The Big Boom

This story does not pertain to me but does involve my Dad, George E. Kana. He told me this story when I was a child. My Grandfather, Jon Kana, was a hard-working man but he also liked to party and do unusual things. One of these unusual things was to organize parades. Hostyn, a few miles southwest of La Grange, was known for hosting grand parades, especially during harvest time. It was customary to start off the parades with a “bang,” so to speak. Actually, it was started with three loud booms and that’s where my Dad comes in.

The noise needed to produce these three loud booms involved “shooting of the anvils.” This involved placing a blacksmith’s anvil upside down on the ground. The anvil had an indention in the base of it. This void or indention was filled with black powder and a heavy cardboard sheet of paper would be placed on top of the gunpowder to form a gasket. A trail of gunpowder led from the main charge to the outside of the base which formed sort of a fuse. Then another anvil of the same size was placed right side up on the bottom anvil. Then, with a long rod heated red-hot in a nearby fire would be touched to the powder fuse and the charge would explode. The result would be a large boom followed by a ringing sound made by the vibrating anvil, which was thrown up into the air a few feet.

Now my Dad had to go through this sequence three times in a row as fast as possible making the sounds go “boom-boomboom.” After shooting the first one, he hurriedly prepared the second round. Here is the kicker—In Dad’s haste to prepare the next round he used the same piece of cardboard from the previous round. There must have been a burning ember left on that cardboard because after placing in on the black powder, he proceeded to lift the second anvil. While placing it on the bottom anvil it all exploded right in his face. Dad held on to that anvil and proceeded to put it down and prepare for the third round. After the third shot, he checked his face and found powder burns all over.

To his dying day, he carried black powder embedded in his skin on his cheek and chin. In his later years, he complained of having ringing in his ears and was also hard of hearing. I guess it’s easy to see why.

– Present day addition to the story: There is one more item that uses gun powder to produce a bang. I have attached a photo of it. It belonged to my grandfather, Jon Kana. Its been sitting around in our black smith shop forever. I don’t know if it had been used by my dad for any occasion. I only wish I could have asked more about it. I am 82 years old and can honestly say that I have traveled far and wide visiting museums and 100s of antique shops. I never came even close to seeing this kind of “noise maker.”

When my wife and I traveled to the Czech Republic, I visited an antique shop. I walked to the back corner of the shop and spotted the same kind of noise maker except it had four cast iron wheels. I inquired about it. He talked fast in Czech and I did my best to “keep up.” He told me the name of it in Czech. As close as I could decipher, it was a “SALUTE CANNON.” It was used by ships coming into harbors to unload freight. This cannon was also used to summon a crowd before an event. It might have been used to honor a soldier who died in battle or also to start a parade.

Maybe someday I will find someone who can teach me to load this Salute Cannon. I might decide to ring in the 4th of July or Christmas Eve in honor of Jon Kana and George Kana.