An howitzer shell

[adrian]

If it had those features, rivet holes or threaded fuze hole, then it would post date the 1850s. So it is earlier than that but therefore very difficult to date as shells followed a simple design for very many decades. Likewise it is difficult to state what type of ordnance it was for, as guns, howitzers, carronades & mortars all fired shells. Though British mortars were not 6 inch so that one could be ruled out. It would have been strapped to a wood bottom to keep it properly orientated in the bore - fuze up.

[Matchlock]

Hi Adrian,


As this item of yours seems to consist of iron I define it as an 18th c. grenade.

Please refer to my thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ndiary+grenade

Attached find images of a perfectly preserved, and quite heavy, specimen in
The Michael Trömner Collection.


Best,
Michael

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Hi Adrian,

As this item of yours ...

???

[adrian]

The item is of course Fernando's, though I would indeed be very happy if it was mine as I do not have one like it in that size. The term "grenade" during the period in which this item was most likely made, lets say 1790 to 1840, (though it could be argued to extend beyond these) was generally used to describe an explosive shell that was thrown by hand. The largest diameter hand grenade that I am aware of is the British Sea Service 6pr which is about 3 inches (75mm) in diameter. Therefore I would term the projectile, generally, as a Common Shell, there being nothing to distinguish it as a particular type of shell, such as for example Spherical Case Shot (later called Shrapnel). There were of course many different types of Common Shell.

[fernando]

Thank you for your input, Adrian.
This item was also a good addition to my litlle collection ... which includes an example that came all the way from Austrália .
I tend to forget that my emprical conversation in english is sometimes a bit unorthodox.
Having learnt the language outside school (self taught), i favour terms that are idiomaticaly valid in both languages; which sometimes doesn't work.
Apparently the attribution of the term grenade differs between languages.
The term shell, meaning originaly the hard outside covering (cuirasse) of an animal, had its idiomatic attribution extended to military lexicon in the english language , but not to others, i would say.
Over here, and not only, howitzers and mortars throw explosive projectiles which, in period military terminology, were called bombs, later called grenades, a term still used nowadays. Mortar greanades and hand grenades are terms dealt separately.
And a shell remains the cover of a clam, a crustacean, a mollusc, etc.
On the other hand, a solid shot is called here bala (bullit) a term derived from ball (french balle, italian palla).
In a way that an artillery force doesn't shell a position but, instead, bombards it.
I hope i have made myself understood .

.

[Matchlock]

.