Worm (artillery)

A worm is a device used to remove unspent powder bag remnants from a cannon or other piece of muzzle-loading field artillery.

[1] It usually took the form of a double or triple [2] corkscrew-shaped piece of iron on the end of a long pole that could be twisted down the barrel to pick up any debris left over from the previous firing of the weapon [3][2] or used to extract a misfired charge.

[3] The worm during the civil war was either on its own pole hanging from the artillery carriage or attached to the end of the sponge.

[2] This article relating to artillery is a stub.

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