MECHANISMS

Iron-cased explosive bomb

1221Dawn of Gunpowder

At the siege of Qizhou the Jin dynasty deployed the "heaven-shaking-thunder" bomb, a cast-iron shell packed with gunpowder whose rigid casing fragmented into shrapnel when it burst. The hard shell marked the shift from incendiary and soft-cased devices to true high-explosive ordnance.

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bombexplosivejinchina

Sources