Common Shell
"Common shell" designated early British explosive shells filled with "low explosives" such as "P Mixture" (gunpowder) and usually with fuzes in the nose. Common shells on bursting (they did not "detonate") tended to break into relatively large fragments which continued along the shell's trajectory rather than laterally. They had some incendiary effect.
In the late 19th century "Double common shells" were developed, lengthened so as to approach twice the standard shell weight, to carry more powder and hence increase explosive effect. They suffered from instability in flight and low velocity and were not widely used.
As at 1914, Common shells 6 inch and up were of cast steel, smaller shells were of forged steel for service and cast iron for practice. They were replaced by "Common Lyddite" shells in the late 1890s but some stocks remained as late as 1914.
In British service Common shells were typically painted black with a red band behind the nose to indicate the shell is filled.
Read more about this topic: List Of British Ordnance Terms
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or shell:
“Yours are no common feet.
The lawyer don’t know what it is he’s buying:
So many miles you might have walked you won’t walk.
You haven’t run your forty orchids down.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“How then can we account for the persistence of the myth that inside the empty nest lives a shattered and depressed shell of a woman—a woman in constant pain because her children no longer live under her roof? Is it possible that a notion so pervasive is, in fact, just a myth?”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)