Improvements in and relating to Shrapnel Shells and Balls therefor,
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Aug., 1899-Accepted, 4th Nov., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Shrapnel Shells and Balls therefor,
I, BEVERLY WYLY DUNN, Captain of Ordnance U.S. Army of Frankford
Arsenal, in the City and County of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania,
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:—–
Present ordnance practice requires that the balls in a shrapnel shell must
not have any relative motion during the flight of the projectile, and they should
not be deformed either by the pressure to which they are subjected in firing or
by the action of the bursting powder charge.
Any relative movement, such as the balls not taking up rotation of the shell,
would prevent accurate flight of the shrapnel; and a deformation of the balls
would make their shape irregular and greatly interfere with, if not wholly
prevent their accurate flight after the bursting of the shrapnel.
The present practice is to pack the balls in cast-iron separators having indi-
vidual sockets therefor, and also to pile them into the shrapnel or shell, and
then support them therein by means of sulphur or resin melted and poured in
and allowed to harden.
As is well known, when the shrapnel bursts, the most destructively useful
pieces are the balls, and the efficiency of a shrapnel of a given weight is well
measured by the number and remaining energy of the halls it contains.
My invention comprises a shrapnel shell having a ball cavity which permits
accurate packing or piling of the balls and assures the balls taking up the rota-
tion of the shell; and also balls for such shrapnel shell provided with jackets
of stiff and hard metal, such as steel, to insure them against deformation; and
also the use of a smoke-producing agent in the shell when the bursting charge
is of smokeless powder.
In the accompanying drawings illustrating my invention, in the several
figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a partial
longitudinal section and Figure 2 is a horizontal cross section of the shrap-
nel shell constructed in accordance with my invention. Figure 3 shows
shows in
a ball in elevation with a jacket blank in vertical section. Figure
vertical section a ball like that of Figure 3 with the jacket applied. Figure 5
is a plan view of a jacketed ball. Figure 6 is a vertical section of another
form of jacket hereinafter referred to as the cupped jacket. Figure 7 is a
mutilated elevation showing a ball in place in a cupped jacket, and Figure 8
is a vertical section of a ball jacketed with the cupped jacket.
The head a, which may be provided with a cavity b for containing the burst-
ing charge, and the base c may be of any approved construction. The body d
is of any approved external configuration, but its ball cavity is polygonal, and
preferably hexagonal, in cross-section, as in Figure 2. That is to say, this ball
cavity is composed of a series of plane or flat walls which, if bounding a solid,
would constitute a prism or prismatic object. The longitudinal meeting edges
of these several walls reduce the thickness of the wall of the shell at these

page_text: points and thus present natural lines of weakness, and the weakness of these
lines may be increased by forming grooves e therein, thereby to facilitate and,
to that extent, assure the bursting of the shell.
As illustrated in the drawings, and especially in Figure 2, the balls of a
shrapnel constructed with such a cavity, may be piled therein in the most
advantageous manner to cause the balls to take up the rotation of the shell; in
other words, to prevent the independent rotation of the balls.
If the balls be made with flattened ends, as shown in the drawings, this
piling or packing thereof will be greatly facilitated, and endwise movement in
the direction of flight will be overcome, and the liability to deformation inci-
dent to such endwise movement, practically removed.
In order to reduce to a minimum the deformation of the balls, I prefer to
jacket them. And if the balls be made of lead, the jacket should be of strong
and stiff material, such as steel. Two forms of such jackets are illustrated in
the balls shown in cross-section in the lower part of. Figure 1, the balls f
having a steel jacket y open at both ends, and the balls h having cupped
jackets ; and both forms of balls having opposite flattened ends.
The details of construction of these forms of balls are as follows:-Each of
the balls and h, comprises a case or body of lead or an alloy of lead, and
substantially spherical in shape, but having diametrically opposite portions
provided with cyndrical projections j, the parallel faces of which are flat, and
a jacket. The jacket g is of metal, preferably steel, and it is applied to the
ball by first producing it in the form of a cylindrical tube, substantially as in
Figure 3, and then bending said tube about the ball and closing its ends around
the cylindrical projections, substantially as shown in Figure 4.
Instead of using a cylindrical tube open at both ends from which to form
the jacket, I may use the cupped jacket i, as shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8, and
in such case, one of the cylindrical projections ; may be omitted, but prefer-
ably that end of the ball from which the projection is omitted is made flat.
This cupped jacket is bent about the ball or core as shown in Figure 8.
Balls constructed as just described, enable me to avail of lead balls without
material decrease in density, and the strong and stiff metal jackets afford great
resistance to deformation by end and other pressure, and also increased pene-
tration after the bursting of the shrapnel. Moreover, this strength of ball
enables me to dispense with the separators heretofore used to protect the balls
from deformation, and to utilize the weight and space thus saved to put more
balls in a shrapnel of given weight, thus increasing the efficiency of the shrap-
nel. The polygonal interior of the ball cavity serves effectively to cause the
balls to take up the rotation of the shrapnel. And finally, as another advan-
tage of my construction, the polygonal section gives a case or shell with natural
longitudinal lines of weakness, which with or without the grooves e make the
case or shell open readily and thoroughly under the action of the bursting
charge to release the balls.
In the drawings the head is shown as containing a cavity for the bursting
charge, but it is evident that this charge could be placed in the base if the
latter were so shaped as to provide a cavity for it. In this form of construction,
the center column of balls would be omitted, and a hollow central tube inserted
in its place to give the necessary communication between fuze and bursting
charge. Such details of construction are independent of the principle of my
invention, as is the method of producing the case with polygonal interior sec-
tion. This can be drawn or cast, or otherwise produced.
The base may be a separate piece, as shown, or it may form one piece with
the case.
Instead of constructing the shell itself with a polygonal interior, the shell
may be provided with a polygonal liner.
In case it be desired to economize weight by using smokeless powder as a
bursting charge and still have smoke produced to mark the point of bursting,

page_text: a light non-explosive and smoke-producing substance, such as dry pulverized
carbon, may be placed in the insterstices between the balls.
I am aware that it is a common practice to jacket the oblong projectiles
which are fired singly from military small arms. The jacketing of these pro-
jectiles is done mainly to secure increased penetration. My invention relates
to spherical, or approximately spherical projectiles, fired in quantity from a
cannon in a single shrapnel, and I supply them with jackets to give them the
protection against deformation in the gun now given by the use of iron separa-
tors or other devices; and, as my jackets weigh a great deal less than the iron
separators or other devices, I am able to greatly increase the number of balls in a
shrapnel of given weight.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
-
1. A shrapnel, having a prismatic ball cavity, preferably hexagonal in cross-
section, and thereby adapted to receive the balls without the intervention of
separators and like supports, substantially as described.
2. A shrapnel, having a prismatic ball cavity, preferably hexagonal in cross-
section, and thereby adapted to receive the balls without separators or a central
support, and lead balls having strong and stiff metal jackets, said balls being
piled in said cavity in parallel columns and in intimate lateral contact, substan-
tially as described.
3. A spherical or approximately spherical missile, for use in shrapnel, com-
prising a ball, core or body, of relatively heavy material, such as lead, and a
jacket of relatively strong and stiff material, such as steel, bent about the
same, substantially as described.
4. A missile for shrapnel, comprising a ball, core or body, and a cupped
jacket of strong and stiff material, having its closed end flattened and its other
end bent about the opposite flattened end of the ball, core or body, substantially
as described.
5. A shrapnel, substantially such as described, having a bursting charge of
smokeless powder and a smoke-producing substance placed within the ball
cavity, as set forth.