When did bombs actually look like this?
score:73
Early hand grenades looked like that:
The word "grenade" originated in the Glorious Revolution (1688), where cricket ball-sized iron spheres packed with gunpowder and fitted with slow-burning wicks were first used against the Jacobites in the battles of Killiecrankie and Glen Shiel
(Specimen made from glass, French, ca. 1740)
Upvote:10
Smoothbore cannon (of the type used at Waterloo, or in Pirates of the Caribbean) were capable of firing solid shot (a spherical lump of iron or similar) or explosive shells, as well as canister, chain-shot, etc..
The explosive shell was originally a spherical shell, filled with explosive, and with a fuse. The fuse was intended to be lit when the shell was propelled -- by the explosion of gunpowder -- out of the cannon.
Thus, you'd have exactly what you describe: a spherical bomb, with a burning fuse sticking out of it.
You can read more on Wikipedia: Shell (projectile) and Artillery fuse.
Upvote:18
The grenades in Michael Borgwardt's answer are probably the earliest European examples, but in China they go much further back.
Fireworks based on a bamboo, clay or paper shell filled with an explosive mixture (a precursor of gunpowder) came into use as far back as around 600-700 BC (Tang Dynasty).
The Chinese kept improving fireworks and also developed bombs (in this shape) and rockets which culminated in the invention of classic gunpowder (black powder) around 1100 AD.
Eventually the stuff ended up in Europe through the Silk Road trade. That happened with early fireworks already in Roman times as archeological digs (the Pompeii museum displays some) have shown.
Also: The ancient Greeks already used a substance called "Greek fire" which was a highly flammable (to the point of being a weak explosive) pitch, resin and oil based mixture. Most likely it also had magnesium salts in it.
They would put it in jars which were thrown at enemy ships during combat. Fire-arrows would ignite the stuff.
They didn't use fuses. The stuff was dangerous enough without them if a sailor dropped a jar near his own brazier which he used for lighting the arrows.
Although not quite the same thing they are a bit similar to the classic cartoon-bomb.
More post
- 📝 What was clothing in ancient Palmyra like?
- 📝 What is the "bag on a stick" Hercules is holding in this picture?
- 📝 What are the contributions of Professor Hans List?
- 📝 What is the earliest archaeological evidence of silk presence in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 How many aircraft participated in each of the three waves against the Yamato?
- 📝 What did the Catholic Church do to promote human rights of non-christians from 1500s to mid 1900s?
- 📝 Who first in human history has promoted equality rights of all people?
- 📝 Did India turn down a permanent seat in the UN in 1955?
- 📝 How were the Greek city-states "unified"?
- 📝 Why wasn't there more resistance to the French revolution by the army?
- 📝 Drug abuse in the Holy Land?
- 📝 Why did France support the Confederacy in the Civil War?
- 📝 Who was arrested at El Cojo with Eliot de Castro?
- 📝 Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
- 📝 Did Mesopotamia have coins to represent Gerahs & Minas?
- 📝 Did the US government ever burn corn?
- 📝 The Great Compromise, is there analysis on the outcome?
- 📝 Why are the capitals of central Asian countries right against the borders?
- 📝 Were blue-tinted glasses prevalent in Victorian England and, if so, why?
- 📝 What was this slender hooked rod thing that John Wilkes Booth posed with?
- 📝 What are some Chinese sources testifying the extreme weather events of 535-536 CE?
- 📝 How do new countries legally and without bloodshed declare themselves independent?
- 📝 Is Josephus account of destruction of Temple considered reliable?
- 📝 Do we know who graduated from the University of Mexico in the 1700s?
- 📝 How did galleys battle?
- 📝 Why did Hitler's order to give SS members German Citizen remain in force until the 1960s?
- 📝 Was Heinrich Himmler's death a suicide?
- 📝 Do we know the situation in Britain before Sealion (summer 1940)?
- 📝 Where and when is this dragon watermark from?
- 📝 Did Thomas Paine really give up book royalties?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When did bombs actually look like this?
- 📝 Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?
- 📝 How did pilots know when to release bombs on airplanes during World War2?
- 📝 Did this "sledge rigged like a sloop" vehicle ever exist, or was it an invention of Jules Verne?
- 📝 When did the American War of 1812 actually end?
- 📝 What did education look like in occupied countries during WW2?
- 📝 Why did Nepal and Bhutan not become a part of India like other princely states when colonial rule ended?
- 📝 Did France actually intend to colonise West Australia and were any resources assigned to this objective prior to 1829?
- 📝 What did the end of the western front look like at the Swiss Border?
- 📝 When did enscribing messages on bombs first happen?
- 📝 What did Japanese architecture look like with heavy materials such as stone, mortar and clay?
- 📝 What did anti-Greek stereotyping look like in the United States in the early 20th century?
- 📝 Did the chronicler William of Malmesbury write that William Adelin threatened to make Anglo-Saxons 'draw a plow like cattle' when he became king?
- 📝 Why did Vice President Bush hide when a reporter asked this question?
- 📝 What did the Edo samurai bureaucracy actually look like?
- 📝 What did whistling bombs actually sound like?
- 📝 What did typical mid-18th century housing look like in English villages?
- 📝 When did this shipment of Babylonian painted tiles for the Louvre sink?
- 📝 Is there a global foot race among religions on the most beautiful churches and when did this start historically?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 When did worshipping of ancient Greek gods come to an end?
- 📝 Did it take 3 minutes to reload a musket when the second amendment to the US constitution was ratified?
- 📝 When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?
- 📝 Why did Britain not purchase Alaska when Russia had it up for sale?
- 📝 Did Albert Einstein really receive this rejection letter from the University of Bern?