"[The committee] do not take upon themselves to decide upon the policy of introducing it."
British Army's rejection of the shrapnel shell, 1801
In everyday language, the word shrapnel is normally used to describe fragments of metal from an explosion—often those lodged into human flesh. However, the word has a more specific meaning; it is the name of an important artillery weapon invented in 1784 by Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), then a lieutenant in the British Army.
In its original design, the shrapnel shell was a hollow iron sphere filled with gunpowder and about 200 musket balls. Protruding into the shell was a timed explosive fuse. As the sphere flew through the air, the fuse exploded, causing the shell to blast open and release the musket balls. The balls continued to travel in the same direction, at the speed at which the shell had been traveling—fast enough to cause death and destruction on a devastating scale.
Shrapnel’s idea was a combination of two existing battlefield technologies. At close range, soldiers used a metal, canister filled with lead balls, which sprayed out like shot from a shotgun. It was very effective. At longer ranges, they fired hollow iron shells filled with gunpowder. When the gunpowder exploded, it would send fragments of iron in all directions. This type of shell made a loud noise, but it was not very effective.
From 1787 onward, Shrapnel demonstrated his invention to the British Army; eventually, in 1803, it was accepted. The shells were first used, with the desired outcome, in Surinam in 1804, They went on to make an important contribution in many other battles during the nineteenth century. Shrapnel himself called his invention a "spherical case," but artillerymen always referred to it as the shrapnel shell.
