- List of cannon projectiles
A
cannon is any large tubularfirearm designed to fire a heavyprojectile over a long distance. They were first used inEurope andChina , and were the archetypical form ofartillery .Round shot andgrapeshot were the early projectiles used in cannon.Projectiles fired from cannon
;
Round shot : A solid projectile made, in early times, from dressed stone but, by the 17th century, from iron. The most accurate projectile that could be fired by a smooth-bore cannon, used to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, forts, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon.;Chain shot or bar shot : Two sub-calibre round shot (a good deal smaller than the bore of the barrel) linked by a length of chain or a solid bar, and used to slash through therigging and sails of an enemy ship so that it could no longer manoeuver. It was inaccurate and only used at close range. Two-headed bullets (angels) were similar but made of two halves of a ball rather than two balls.cite book
title=Encyclopedia Britannica
year=1771
location=London
chapter=Gunnery] ;Canister shot : An anti-personnel projectile which included many small iron round shot orlead musket ball s in a metal can, which broke up when fired, scattering the shot throughout the enemy personnel, like a largeshotgun .;Shrapnel or spherical case shot : An iron anti-personnel projectile containing an interior cavity packed with lead or iron round balls around a small bursting charge of just enough force to break open the thin-walled iron projectile. A powder train in a thin iron sleeve led to a time fuse inserted into a holder at the outer edge or the projectile. The fuse was designed to be ignited by flame from the propellant charge. Ideally the case shot fuse would detonate the central bursting charge when the projectile was six to ten feet above the heads of enemy infantry thereby showering them with the iron balls and fragments of the casing. (Invented 1784 by Lt.Henry Shrapnel , Royal Artillery, Great Britain).; Shell : An explosive anti-material and counter-battery projectile, of iron with a cavity packed with a high explosive bursting charge of powder used to destroy enemy wagons, breastworks, or opposing artillery. Two types of fuses were used—impact fuses that detonated the bursting charge by percussion, and time fuse cut to length measured in seconds and ignited by flame from the propellant charge. ["Ordnance & Gunnery", J.G. Benton, 1859, U.S. Military Academy] ;Grapeshot : An anti-personnel weapon, similar to canister shot, but with the shot being contained in acanvas bag, and generally of a larger calibre. So called because of the resemblance of the clustered shot in the bag to a cluster of grapes on the vine. In one variation of this, the shot was held together by a coiled bar, and was spread by a fused charge in the same way as a shell. It was very effective against infantry, but its main shortcomings included very short range and ineffectiveness towards infantry taking cover. Grapeshot was the starting point for the creation ofshrapnel . [cite book |author=Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt |title=The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=New York |year=1990 |pages=219 |isbn=0-306-80384-4 |oclc= |doi=] ; Carcass : An incendiary/antipersonnel projectile designed to burn fiercely and produce poisonous fumes. It was constructed of an iron frame bound withsack cloth and filled with various ingredients such as pitch,antimony ,sulfur , saltpeter,tallow and venetianturpentine . It was ignited by the cannon's propellant charge, bursting on impact with the target and releasing noxious fumes while setting fire to its surroundings. It was effectively an earlychemical weapon as well as anincendiary andarea denial weapon . The name is possibly a reference to the medieval practice of hurling dead animals fromtrebuchet as a form ofbiological warfare [Illustration of trebuchet by Kolderer, c1507, as reproduced at [http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/ant/S00/ANT154-01/vick/treb.html Medeival Siege Technology and Countertechnology by Andrew Vick] ] , or to the projectile's superficial resemblance to a human carcass.1728] ; Heated (or hot) shot : A process where a solid iron cannonball is heated red hot in a specially-designed wood- or coal-fired furnace and then is loaded in a muzzle-loading cannon, cushioned by a substantial thickness of wet wads, and is then fired while still red hot, at flammable targets with the intention of setting them onfire . This was a much advocated tactic (and many times a very successful one) for shore based forts defending against attacks by wooden warships. Examples of these small brick furnaces may still be seen at permanently constructed pre-1860 forts inEurope and theUnited States . The adoption by most navies of iron hulled ships generally made these obsolete. The shot was carried on a specially-designed iron barrow or 2-man litter and, in the era of blackpowder cannon charges contained in cloth bags, occasioned much fanfare and notice as it was conveyed to the cannon muzzle as the red-hot projectile would easily ignite any carelessly handled loose powder. Any reckless or somewhat dangerous individual who seemed to draw trouble to themselves and those around them was referred to as a "Hot Shot", giving rise to the term in common use to this day.; Spider Shot:Spider shot is a chain shot, but it has many chains instead of just one. It was not often used, despite its effectiveness against small ships and morale.Notes and references
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.