content_output-059_2 (Q6348)

being ignited immediately before throwing the bomb. To the Netherlands, however, is due the honour of successfully applying the explosive shell to fire-arms. This nation appears to have greatly improved the cannon and mortars and other fire-arms during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. In the sixteenth century they successfully employed the explosive shell in conjunction with other missiles fired from their mortars. The accompanying illustration represents the mode of firing a mortar and bomb-shell, or, as they were then called, explosive bullets or grenades.