Great Britain

Britten

DIAMETER: 2.86 inches
GUN: 3-inch wrought iron (ordnance) rifle
LENGTH: 5 inches
WEIGHT: 6 pounds 2 ounces
CONSTRUCTION: Segmented shell
SABOT: Lead cup
FUZING: Threaded fuze missing

This is the shell version of the solid shot shown here. Bashley Britten patented this projectile's segmented interior construction dated March 8, 1861, British patent #585. His patent describes the method of manufacturing the interior: "I construct this projectile in the following manner: - I make a core of loam or sand of such form as to fill the interior space. Round this core I place numerous pieces shaped and arranged somewhat like the natural divisions of an orange. Each of these pieces is cast with several cores or plates partially dividing them so as to weaken them at those places, that they may easily break up when the shell explodes. The surfaces of these pieces are dressed over with a coating of loam or such like material, and they are bound round with a wire, or otherwise secured round the inner core of sand ... Round this combined core I cast the external shell, which may be of iron or other suitable metal." A number Britten shells in this caliber have been recovered from Helena, Arkansas.