Also known as: spherical shell, common shell.
| Class | Explosive smoothbore projectile |
|---|---|
| Construction | Hollow iron sphere, bursting charge, and a fuze |
| Fired from | Guns, howitzers, and mortars |
| Fuze | Time or, at close range, percussion arrangements |
The smoothbore shell
The spherical shell was the explosive projectile of the smoothbore guns, howitzers, and mortars: a hollow iron sphere filled with a black-powder bursting charge and closed with a fuze at the fuze hole. When the fuze fired the charge, the shell broke into fragments.
Its wall thickness, diameter, and fuze seat identify a recovered spherical shell, and the fuze most often used with it was a time fuze such as the Bormann or a paper time fuze set to burst the shell over or among the target.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- United States Army, Ordnance Department. The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862.
- Gibbon, John. The Artillerist's Manual. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1860.