SHELLS, in Gunnery, are hollow iron balls to throw
out of mortars, or howitzers, with a fuse-hole of about
an inch diameter, to load them with powder, and to
receive the fuse. The bottom, or part opposite to the
fuse, is made thicker than the rest, that the fuse may
fall uppermost. But in small elevations this does not
always happen, nor indeed is it necessary; for, let the
shell fall as it will, the fuse sets fire to the powder with-
in, which bursts the shell, and causes great devastation.
The shells had much better be of an equal thickness;
for then they burst into more pieces.