Steel Shell
"Steel Shell" (with capitals) was the British term for the Hotchkiss 3 and 6 pounder Common pointed shells and some others such as the QF 1-pounder base-fuzed round. They had attributes of British "Common Pointed" shells as they were filled with gunpowder, had base percussion fuzes and a heavy pointed nose (almost 3 c.r.h.). But the nose was closer in design to British A.P. shells - the solid section was longer than Common Pointed, and the body held proportionately less powder than Common Pointed. It was intended for Naval use.
In common usage, "steel shell" (without capitals) served to differentiate a shell constructed of steel from one constructed of cast iron (C.I.).
Read more about this topic: List Of British Ordnance Terms
Famous quotes containing the words steel and/or shell:
“Through joy and blindness he shall know,
Not caring much to know, that still
Nor lead nor steel shall reach him,”
—Julian Grenfell (1888–1915)
“We want some coat woven of elastic steel, stout as the first, and limber as the second. We want a ship in these billows we inhabit. An angular, dogmatic house would be rent to chips and splinters, in this storm of many elements. No, it must be tight, and fit to the form of man, to live at all; as a shell is the architecture of a house founded on the sea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)