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Details
LOT 1093
Early Georgian Incendiary Iron Cannon Ball
EARLY 19TH CENTURY A.D.
4 3/8 in. (3.9 kg, 11 cm diameter).
Featuring a circular opening to receive fuse and plug to one face; hollow-formed. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired after 2000.
Property of a Buckinghamshire, UK, gentleman.
Literature
See McConnell, D., British Smooth-Bore Artillery: A Technological Study to Support Identification, Acquisition, Restoration, Reproduction and Interpretation of Artillery at National Historic Parks in Canada, 1988; see Blackmore, H.L., The Armouries of the Tower of London. I. Ordnance, London, 1976.
Footnotes
The shrapnel shell is named after Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), a British officer who devised the hollow, gunpowder-filled ball that was fused to explode either in the air or on the ground with the resulting ball fragments proving to be an effective anti-personnel weapon; later types were filled with lead musket balls and powder to make the weapon even more effective against troops; such projectiles were used both with field artillery cannon and with mortars.
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