BOMB

a large, hollow iron ball or shell, formerly often made of cannon-metal, and sometimes of an oval form, with a hole in which a wooden fuse is cemented, mid with two little handles. Bombs are throT^n from G33 BOMBAY. mortars. They are filled with powder and combustible matter (which consists of equal parts of sulphur and nitre, mixed with some mealed powder), and are used for setting fire to houses, blowing up magazines,; . The charge in bombs of 74 lbs. contains from 5 to 8 lbs. of powder, and 1 lb. of the other competition above mentioned. In bombs of 10 lbs. it amounts to 1 lb. of powder and from 2 to 3 oz. of the mixture. The fuse, which is hollow, and filled with powder and other inflammable ingredients, sets fire to the charge. The length and the composition of the fuse must be calculated in such a way that the bomb shall burst the moment it arrives at the destined place. Instead of the proper bomb-shell, conical shells shot from rifled cannon are now frequently used. The use of rifled cannon permits of the shells being discharged at a greater range, and at the same time secures greater precision, while the conical shell, such as the set/ment sJuJl, invented by Sir William shelL Armstrong, is more effective than the ordinary bomb- As early as the seventh century, balls filled with burning matter were thrown from ve els of clay, then from machines called Uydes or manges^ or with hand-slings made of a small net of iron wire. In 1328 James I., king of Arragon, used at the siege of Valencia a kind of large rockets made of four parchment skins, which burst in falling. Afterwards, large iron balls, heated red hot, came into use. In the middle of the fifteenth century Prince Rimini Sigismund Pandulf Mala test a invented mortars and bombs. They consisted, at first, of two hollow hemispheres of metal, filled with powder, and held together by chains. By degrees they received their present shape. An English engineer, Malthus, whom Louis XIII. took into his service, introduced them into France, and used them first (1634) at the siege of Lamotte, in Lorraine. The ffrenadet, which are thrown from howitzers, are easily distinguished from the bombs, which are cast from mortars. The first are used only in the field, the latter in sieges. So-called bomb-proof waUs are made 3} feet thick; but the strongest waUs; would offer no protection against the inunense shells (36-39 inches) which have recently been constructed.