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Henry Shrapnel was born at Midway Manor in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England, the ninth child of Zachariah Shrapnel and his wife Lydia. [1]In 1784, while a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, he perfected, with his own resources, an invention of what he called "spherical case" ammunition: a hollow cannonball filled with lead shot that burst in mid-air.
Henry Shrapnel was the youngest of nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Zachariah Shrapnel on June 3, 1761 at Midnay Manor House, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England. Apparently his brothers died childless, so what little money existed passed on down to him. With this he was able, by living carefully, to have just enough to finance the numerous ...
Shrapnel was less hazardous to the assaulting British infantry than high-explosives – as long as their own shrapnel burst above or ahead of them, attackers were safe from its effects, whereas high-explosive shells bursting short are potentially lethal within 100 yards or more in any direction. Shrapnel was also useful against counter-attacks, working parties and any other troops in the open.
shrapnel. Henry Shrapnel (born June 3, 1761, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, Eng.—died March 13, 1842, Southampton, Hampshire) was an artillery officer and inventor of a form of artillery case shot. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1779, he served in Newfoundland, Gibraltar, and the West Indies and was wounded in Flanders in the Duke of ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
ammunition. shrapnel, originally a type of antipersonnel projectile named for its inventor, Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), an English artillery officer. Shrapnel projectiles contained small shot or spherical bullets, usually of lead, along with an explosive charge to scatter the shot as well as fragments of the shell casing.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 19, 2018 · Developed at the end of the 18th century by Henry Shrapnel, a serving officer of the Royal Artillery, it combined features of the three garden-variety munitions of the day. Like round shot, it was a means of inflicting casualties at distances between 500 yards and 1,500 yards. Like common shell, it carried both a gunpowder charge and a simple ...
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Sep 9, 2015 · The British military adopted Shrapnel’s shell in 1803 and was immediately put into use as Great Britian fought on the European continent and around the globe. At the Battle of Surinam, in South America on May 5, 1804 the British used Shrapnel’s invention against the Dutch, whom promptly surrendered when these projectiles wreaked havoc on their battalions.
