The article talks about what shrapnel is when this type of shell was used and how it differs from the rest.
War
Mankind has been fighting almost throughout its entire existence. In ancient and modern history there was not a single century that passed without a war. And unlike animals or our humanoid ancestors, people exterminate each other for various reasons, and not just for the sake of banal living space. Religious and political strife, racial hatred and more. With the growth of technological progress, methods of warfare changed greatly, and the bloodiest began after the invention of gunpowder and firearms.
At one time, even the primitive muskets and guns firing shotguns significantly changed the methods of combat clashes and tactics. Simply put, they put an end to the era of chivalry with its armor and long battles. After all, what is the point of carrying heavy armor if it does not protect against a gun bullet or a cannonball?
For a long time, gunsmiths tried to improve the design of guns, but this only happened in the second half of the 19th century, when artillery shells became unitary and the barrels became rifled. But shrapnel made a real technological breakthrough in the field of artillery ammunition. What is it and how are such shells arranged, we will analyze in the article.
Definition
Shrapnel is a special type of cannon shell, which is designed to defeat and destroy enemy manpower. The name he received in honor of his inventor, British officer Henry Shrapnel. The main and distinguishing feature of such an ammunition was that it exploded at a given distance and showered the enemy’s forces not with fragments of the shell, but with a hundred steel balls that were scattered by a cone directed towards the ground with a wide part - this is shrapnel. What is this, we now know, however, we will consider in more detail the design features and the history of the creation of such ammunition.
History
At a time when gunpowder artillery was widespread, one of its shortcomings was very clearly manifested - the core fired at the enemy did not possess sufficient massively damaging factors. It usually killed only one or more people. Partially they tried to correct this by loading the guns with buckshot, but in this case the range of its flight fell sharply. Everything changed when they started using shrapnel. What this is, we already know, but we will consider in more detail the design itself.
Initially, such a projectile was a cylindrical box of wood, cardboard or thin metal, into which steel balls and a powder charge were stacked. Then, a firing tube filled with a slowly burning gunpowder was inserted into a special hole, which was set on fire at the time of the shot. Simply put, it was a primitive fuse-moderator, and by adjusting the length of the tube, it was possible to calculate the height and range at which the projectile would break, and he would throw the damaging elements at the enemy. Thus, we examined the question of what shrapnel means.
This type of projectile very quickly proved its effectiveness. After all, now it was not necessary to fall into anyone at all, the main thing was to calculate the length of the ignition tube and the distance, and there already steel fillets would do their job. The year of the invention of shrapnel is considered to be the 1803rd.
Rifled guns
However, with all the effectiveness of the destruction of manpower by new types of shells, they were far from perfect. The length of the ignition tube must be calculated very accurately, as well as the distance to the enemy; they often misfired due to the different composition of the powder or its defects, sometimes exploded prematurely or did not ignite at all.
Then in 1871, the artilleryman Shklarevich, based on the general principle of shrapnel shells, made a new type of them - unitary and for rifled guns. Simply put, such an artillery shell of the “shrapnel” type was connected to the powder seed by means of a sleeve and charged through the breech of the gun. In addition, there was a fuse of a new type inside it that did not misfire. A special form of the projectile emitted spherical bullets strictly along the axis of flight, and not in all directions, as before.
True, this type of ammunition was not without flaws. The main thing was that the burning time of the fuse could not be regulated, which means that the artillery crew had to carry different types of it for different distances, which was very inconvenient.
Adjustable blasting
This was corrected in 1873 when a blasting tube with a rotary adjusting ring was invented. Its meaning was that the ring was marked with divisions indicating the distance. For example, if a projectile was required to be detonated at a distance of 300 meters, the fuse was turned with a special key to the appropriate division. And this greatly facilitated the conduct of the battle, because the marks coincided with the notches in the artillery scope, and additional instruments for determining the range were not required. And if necessary, setting the projectile at the minimum time of detonation, it was possible to shoot from the cannon, like from a card case. Also present was an explosion from a blow to the ground or another obstacle. What shrapnel looks like can be seen in the photo below.
Using
Such shells were used from the very beginning of their invention until the end of the First World War. Despite their advantages over old solid-cast shells, over time it turned out that shrapnel also has disadvantages. For example, its striking elements were powerless against enemy soldiers who took refuge in trenches, dugouts and generally any shelters. And poorly trained artillerymen often set the fuse response time incorrectly, and such type of shells as shrapnel were also expensive in production. What is it, we sorted out.
Therefore, after the First World War, shrapnel was completely replaced by fragmentation shells with a shock type fuse.
But in some types of weapons it was still used, for example, in the jumping German mine Sprengmine 35, - at the moment of the activation of the bomber, the “glass” filled with spherical bullets pushed to a height of about one and a half meters, and it exploded.