Grenade (so called from being filled with grains of powder, as a pomegranate is with kernels), is, in war, a hollow ball or shell of iron or other metal, of about Granard two inches and a half diameter, which being filled with fine powder, is set on fire by means of a small fuse made of Granary well-seasoned beech-wood driven into the fuse-hole, and is thrown by the grenadiers into places where men stand thick, particularly into the trenches and other lodgments effected by the enemy. As soon as the composition within the fuse gets to the powder in the grenade, it bursts into pieces, greatly to the damage of all who happen to be in its way. Grenades were first made about the time when shells were invented, and first used in 1594. They have now unaccountably sunk into disuse; but, in the opinion of some, there is nothing more proper than to have grenades to throw amongst the enemy who have jumped into the ditch. During the siege of Cassel under the Count de la Lippe, in the campaign of 1762, a young engineer undertook to carry one of the outworks with a smaller detachment than that which had been repulsed, and succeeded with ease from the use of grenades; which is a proof that they should not be neglected, either in the attack or defense of posts. There are two sorts of grenades, viz., grenades de rempart and grenades à main. Grenades de rempart are those which are rolled from the top of the parapet into the ditch, and which in calibre are equal to an eighteen, and sometimes to a thirty-two pounder. Grenades à main are thrown by the hand into the covered-way and trenches; their calibre is that of a four-pounder, and they weigh about two pounds. The ordinary thickness of grenades is four lines, or one third of an inch, throughout. There is also a sort of grenade which is thrown out of a mortar, and which is used for the purpose of annoying the besieging enemy.