Henry Shrapnel

Henry Shrapnel (June 3rd, 1761 -13 March 1842) was an officer of the British army which invented the Shrapnel, also called “shell with balls”.

It was born with Wiltshire, in England. In 1784, whereas he was lieutenant in British royal artillery ( Royal Artillery ), he improved, on its sums of money, a ammunition which he named “box (with grapeshot) spherical” ( spherical box ). It was about a ball of hollow gun, filled with a load which exploded in the air, of anti-personnel use. When the British army finally adopted it in 1803, it immediately took the name of its inventor. The name of shrapnel is sometimes given wrongly to the Obus with fragmentation which is of a different principle.

After being remained eight years captain, Shrapnel was promoted with the rank of commander ('' Major '') on November 1st, 1803. Less than nine months later, the March 6th 1804, Shrapnel became lieutenant-colonel, the use of his invention to the combat, the April 30th 1804 having been conclusive.

In recognition of its role, the British government granted to him a revenue with life of 1200 pounds per annum. Shrapnel was promoted colonel of the royal artillery body on March 6th, 1827 and reached the rank of lieutenant-general of army ( lieutenant-general ) on January 10th, 1837.

The shells with balls were manufactured according to its original principles until the end of the First World War.

Note

Sources

Information most probably comes from an article of WL Ruffell , 2001 on the site of the Royal New Zealand Artillery Old Comrades Association HTTP: /riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/shrap/

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