Talk:Henri-Joseph Paixhans

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Military history: European / French

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Con"fuzing"

The description of how the shells worked needs clarification.

As written, it states, "The effect of explosive shells hitting wooden hulls and setting them aflame was devastating . . . "

While this sounds spectacular, it glosses over one point. There did not exist a practical impact (or contact) fuze in 1824. Fulminate of mercury was not used as primary explosive in percussion caps until 1830, and it was many years after that before practical impact fuzes were developed for artillery munitions. Prior to fulminate of mercury, there no substances that would act as a primary explosive in impact fuzes. All shell fuzes before that worked on a time fuze principle (a burning powder train) which were notoriously imprecise when engaging a point target - especially in naval warfare where both ships are moving and the range constantly changing. The chance that the time fuze would result in detonation at the exact moment the shell hit the target hull was absurdly small.

So, what was the mechanism that caused these shells to explode against wooden hulls? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.181.60.83 (talk) 18:19, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]