cannon ball ID

[fernando]

I hope you don't mind the hijacking to your thread, Richmond .

I would say that, one reason for this period grenade fuze holes being larger than others was the need for some to be wide enough to introduce shrapnel, namely (lead) bullets ... resuming that thin holes were to fit simple matchcord and respective grenades to be filled with only gunpowder.

The British introduced the shrapnel grenade in Portugal during the Peninsular War, an invention soon adopted by Portuguese. Apparently Wellington had some doubts about the efficiency of such grenades, on grounds that their projectiles impeled by the bomb explosion didn't have enough velocity to penetrate and kill victims, only injuring them. But he appreciated the use of such shrapnel in heavy cannonry (24 pounder), with visible results in Badajoz.

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[adrian]

I have not heard of shrapnel grenades, however there were of course shrapnel shells as invented by Henry Shrapnel. His shells were called Spherical Case Shot until some years after Shrapnel's death when his family petitioned successfully to have the shell officially renamed as Shrapnel shell, in about circa 1850. They were fired from guns (cannons) & howitzers & were designed to burst just above & ahead of the target, usually massed foot or horse troops. The velocity of the shell was given to the bullets within that shell, the bursting charge therefore needed to be as small as possible, just enough to crack open the shell at the right moment in flight & not enough to scatter the balls which would open up their pattern & lessen their effect. Much experimentation was done in the 1850s to perfect the charge size & its placement for best results.

I do not believe that shrapnel shells were used as grenades as they would not have been explosive enough & grenades worked best with fragmentation of their outer layer. The museum photo would more correctly be described by the British as a "Spherical Case Shot" or "Shrapnel Shell".
Also the Shrapnel Sac shown would be known is a "Grapeshot", and nowadays we call this type a quilted grapeshot.

[fernando]

Besides the poor grade of my empirical translations, very often terms are not strictly translatable to the letter.
In portuguese the term 'shell' doesn't apply to the ammunition universe. We either have 'grenade' or 'bomb' for what this issue matters.
Also the attribution of 'sac', admittedly not being the primary term in artillery lexicon, has its origin in the fact that grapeshot was indeed wrapped in a canvas sac, tightened with string to apply solidity to its contents.
Eventually ammunitions involved in this issue have have somehow different names in portuguese, which creates some difficulty in shifting them to english; grapeshot is called 'bunch' (like for grape bunch) and caseshot is called 'lanterneta' (from lantern).
What i infer from Welington's words is that he preferred (sacs of) musket bullets (sic) being shot directly by cannons than shrapnel being bursted by howitzer, call it shells/grenades/bombs.

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[fernando]

Extract of an original list of war material and diverse equipment that was shipped in "English transport Nr. 533", with destination to the brigades of mobile artillery in campaign (Peninsular war).
We can see 5 1/2 inches howitzer ammo called grenades and caseshot called lanternetas.

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