Iron bomb and hand grenade
Bomba de hierro y granada de mano
- Date
- 1221 · confidence medium
- Place
- Qizhou, China (Jin dynasty)
- Credited to
- Jin army
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A cast-iron casing filled with gunpowder (zhen tian lei, 'thunder that shakes heaven') thrown by trebuchet or by hand. The first explosive fragmentation weapon.
What it led to
- Mongol explosive siege artillery used against Japan (1274, 1281)
- the transition from incendiary gunpowder to detonating gunpowder with a higher saltpetre content
- Islamic ceramic grenades and 15th–16th-century European grenades
Built on
- Gunpowderc. 850
- Counterweight trebuchetc. 1187
- Gunpowder
- Chinese cast iron