Segment Shell
Segment Shell, also known as Ring Shell : This anti-personnel explosive shell originated in British service in 1859 as design by William Armstrong for use with his new breechloading field guns. The projectile was made up of layers of iron rings within a thin cast-iron shell wall, held together with lead between them, with a hollow space in the centre for the bursting charge of gunpowder. The rings broke up into segments on explosion. The explosive charge was typically about half that employed in an equivalent calibre common shell as less explosive was needed to separate and break up the rings than to burst the shell wall of a common shell, hence allowing more iron to be employed for the same weight of shell. It could be employed as shrapnel, case or common shell. It was generally phased out in favour of separate common and shrapnel shells.
Read more about this topic: List Of British Ordnance Terms
Famous quotes containing the word shell:
“I was even more surprised at the power of the waves, exhibited on this shattered fragment, than I had been at the sight of the smaller fragments before. The largest timbers and iron braces were broken superfluously, and I saw that no material could withstand the power of the waves; that iron must go to pieces in such a case, and an iron vessel would be cracked up like an egg- shell on the rocks.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)