History
Carcasses were used for the first time by the French under Louis XIV in 1672. They were also fired from bomb vessels.
The carcass shell as used by the Royal Navy in the 18th century, most famously in the attack on Fort McHenry, was a hollow cast iron sphere weighing 190 pounds (86 kg). Instead of the single fuse hole found on a conventional mortar shell of the period, the carcass had 3 openings, each 3 inches (76 mm) in diameter. Its filling burned for 11 minutes upon firing. It was especially useful during night bombardments, as the burning projectile assisted in the aiming of the cannon.
Read more about this topic: Carcass (projectile)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)