![]() A 1044 military book, Wujing Zongyao ( Compilation of Military Classics), described various gunpowder recipes in which one can find, according to Joseph Needham, the prototype of the modern hand grenade. In Song China (960–1279), weapons known as thunder crash bombs ( 震天雷 were created when soldiers packed gunpowder into ceramic or metal containers fitted with fuses. See also: History of gunpowder An illustration of a fragmentation bomb known as the 'divine bone dissolving fire oil bomb' ( lan gu huo you shen pao) from the Huolongjing. History Hand grenades filled with Greek fire surrounded by caltrops (10th–12th centuries National Historical Museum, Athens, Greece) Pre-gunpowder Its first use in English dates from the 1590s. The word grenade is likely derived from the French word spelled exactly the same, meaning pomegranate, as the bomb is reminiscent of the many-seeded fruit in size and shape. A friction igniter inside the handle or on the top of the grenade head was used to initiate the fuse. The stick design provides leverage for throwing longer distances, but at the cost of additional weight and length, and has been considered obsolete by western countries since the Second World War and Cold War periods. Some grenades are mounted at the end of a handle and known as "stick grenades". Grenades are often spherical, cylindrical, ovoid or truncated ovoid in shape, and of a size that fits the hand of an average-sized adult. Most anti-personnel (AP) grenades are designed to detonate either after a time delay or on impact. In modern grenades, a pre-formed fragmentation matrix inside the grenade is commonly used, which may be spherical, cuboid, wire or notched wire. Their outer casings, generally made of a hard synthetic material or steel, are designed to rupture and fragment on detonation, sending out numerous fragments ( shards and splinters) as fast-flying projectiles. Fragmentation grenades ("frags") are probably the most common in modern armies, and when the word grenade is used in everyday speech, it is generally assumed to refer to a fragmentation grenade. ![]() Grenades work by dispersing fragments ( fragmentation grenades), shockwaves ( high-explosive, anti-tank and stun grenades), chemical aerosols ( smoke and gas grenades) or fire ( incendiary grenades). The user removes the safety pin before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the safety lever gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze (sometimes called the delay element), which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, and a safety lever secured by a cotter pin. Hand grenades on display in Hamm, Germany Demonstration of a German stielhandgranate (shaft hand grenade), a high explosive grenade with time fuze, Netherlands, 1946Ī grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher.
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