Shrapnel

Shrapnel, artillery fragmentation shell, invented in 1784 by the English artillery officer Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel and today broadly denoting any projectile fragments. His invention was adopted by British artillery 19 years later and named after him. In its original form, the shell was spherically shaped and contained a minimum explosive charge, small lead balls that themselves came to be known as shrapnel, and a fuse to explode it in the air above enemy troops. Shrapnel was later placed into cylindrical shells and used extensively, especially during World War I. The effectiveness of shrapnel discouraged mass battlefield formations and contributed to the trench warfare characteristic of World War I. Fragmentation projectiles in the form of bombs, mortar shells, and grenades proved more effective after World War I, so that the shrapnel shell became obsolete.