How a hand grenade works

How a hand grenade works

A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, an arming safety secured by a transport safety. The user removes the transport safety before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the arming safety gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze (sometimes called the delay element), which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge.

grenade, small explosive, chemical, or gas bomb that is used at short range. The word grenade probably derived from the French word for pomegranate, because the bulbous shapes of early grenades resembled that fruit. Grenades came into use around the 15th century and were found to be particularly effective when exploded among enemy troops in the ditch of a fortress during an assault. They eventually became so important that specially selected soldiers in 17th-century European armies were trained as grenade throwers, or grenadiers (see grenadier). After about 1750, grenades were virtually abandoned because the range and accuracy of firearms had increased, lessening the opportunities for close combat. Grenades did not come back into use on an important scale until the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). The grenade’s effectiveness in attacking enemy positions during the trench warfare of World War I led to its becoming a standard part of the combat infantryman’s equipment, which it has continued to be. More than 50,000,000 fragmentation grenades alone were manufactured by the United States for use in World War II.
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