What is shrapnel made of

What can shrapnel cause? Shrapnel from a bomb can cause life-changing injuries or even kill as fragments hit a person. Shrapnel has the ability to slice through flesh and cause awful wounds like a bullet fired from a gun and if shrapnel hits bone it has the ability to break and shatter it.

Shrapnel is a general term used to describe the fragments thrown off by a bomb or other explosive device. Usually comprised of nails, ball bearings, needles or other small metal objects, these shards are the leading cause of death and injury following the explosion of a shrapnel bomb.

To ensure maximum destruction, grenades are designed to fire omnidirectional to increase the killing radius. Throwing almost 2, metal shards hundreds of feet per second, grenades are designed to seriously maim or kill anyone in their path.

Shrapnel refers to the pieces of a bomb, shell, or bullet that has exploded. During wars, many soldiers are treated for shrapnel wounds. When people are injured or killed by bombs, many of them are hurt by flying shrapnel — sharp, dangerous shards of metal. The noun shrapnel can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be shrapnel. However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be shrapnels e.

The mm shrapnel packed a lethal load of balls. Each projectile was practically a shotgun which was fired, by means of the time fuze, ideally at the height which would produce the maximum effect on the enemy. At the moment of burst, the bullets shot forward with increased velocity, normally without fracturing the case.

The result was a cone of bullets which swept an area generally much larger than the area made dangerous by the burst of a high explosive shell of the same caliber. Even for the relatively small 75mm gun, the effective area at a range of 4, yards was about 35 yards wide and 50 yards long.

In addition, some balls with equally effective velocity were scattered less densely over a zone roughly twice as wide and several times as long. The height of burst had to be adjusted by observation of the smoke puff produced at the moment of explosion, and by proper changes in the setting of the time fuze It was not very effective in trench warfare of the World War I type, and that fact influenced our decision to abandon it.

But shrapnel was abandoned primarily because it was difficult to get the height of burst adjusted properly even under conditions of good visibility, and impossible to do this in darkness or bad weather.

It also added to the complications of ammunition manufacture and supply. Most of these injuries are significantly greater when a bomb explodes within a confined area, like a bus or a closed building, according to a report in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. The Boston Marathon bombs were detonated outdoors, which may have diminished their impact. Original article on Live Science.

Live Science. Marc Lallanilla. Shrapnel was largely ignored. However, by he was a captain and was allowed to demonstrate his invention for the British Army. Shrapnel's invention was instantly recognized to be one of the super weapons of the day, evidenced by the speed with which the British Army put it into production—only two months after Shrapnel first demonstrated it. The Shrapnel shell was first used in combat in in Surinam on the north coast of South America against Dutch settlers.

The Dutch surrendered after receiving their second round of Shrapnel shells. Shrapnel was promoted to lieutenant colonel in , less than a year after making major. There were numerous improvements made in the Shrapnel shell between the final defeat of Napoleon and the phasing out of Shrapnel shells during World War I. Shrapnel's round ball evolved into an artillery shell that looked very much like a modern shell and was manufactured in much the same way.

It also performed the same function: the delivery of lead balls over long distances in large quantities at high velocities. The shell was made out of forged carbon steel. The purpose of the shell was simply to contain the lead balls and funnel them downward toward the target.

The shell was not intended to explode into fragments. Cartridge cases were almost always made out of brass. Brass was used because it expands during firing.

As the cartridge case expanded, it sealed the gun barrel in a process called obturation. Obturation provides greater thrust to the projectile and also protects the artillerymen against backfire.

The Shrapnel balls were made out of lead. Lead was also used in bullets, as it is both heavy and soft. Because lead is soft, it gives up more of its energy to the target flesh rather than passing through the target and expending its energy against the landscape. The rotating band provided forward obturation so that none of the propelling charge would blast by the shell in the gun barrel and be wasted and also imparted a spin on the shell as it moved up the barrel. Spin was induced in the shell by the barrel's rifling—the spiral ridges cut in the barrels of many types of guns.