Shrapnel

A type of ammunition, consisting, as originally constructed, of a spherical iron shell containing a large number of bullets, sufficient powder being mixed with the bullets to burst the shell when the fuse ignited the charge. It was at first called spherical case-shot, and was designed to attain a longer range than grape-shop or common case-shot. The bursting charge was of just sufficient strength to open the shell and enable the bullets to be propelled forward in a cone-shaped shower covering a large front. The later kind of shrapnel had its bursting charge in a cylinder in the middle of the elongated projectile used with rifled guns. It was invented in 1784 by Henry Shrapnel (1761-1852), an officer of the Royal Artillery, adopted by the British army in 1803, but not used in action until 1808.

Shrapnel ammunition was increasingly used throughout the 19th century, being valued for the 'searching' effect of overhead bursts against entrenched infantry. In the First World War it led to the invention of the 'shrapnel helmet'. Early anti-aircraft guns used shrapnel almost exclusively, but by 1939 the fragmentation effect of high-explosive ammunition had so far improved as almost to render shrapnel obsolete, and though the term was still loosely used, mainly by journalists, to signify splinters from high-explosive shells, the use of shrapnel proper was mainly confined to anti-personnel mines.

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