Henry Shrapnel

1761-1842

 

Shrapnel shell

Common logic seems to suggest some eponymous names were inspired by their products, not vice versa. One that comes immediately to mind is Crapper. Surely Thomas Crapper’s name must have been derived from second-hand allusion? Perhaps he was a lavatory cleaner or attendant? Not a bit of it. The unfortunate fellow is forever down among the ordure as a result of his own ‘full-flush’ inventive mind! The same would seem to hold true for another Englishman, Henry Shrapnel. So well-known are the shards of shells called shrapnel, that his family surely acquired its name from them. Not at all. Shrapnel, an active-service army officer, was the inventor. His original design, a spherical cannon shell, exploded in mid-air, showering the enemy with lethal metal. It was the birth of a concept which ultimately led to the infamous cluster-bomb. The system became used early-on to counter the deployment of aircraft in wartime. Allied pilots of WW1 call it ‘Archie’. German shell-smoke was black, allied white. We used to hear A.A. shrapnel showering down on our roof during the Nazi blitz raids of the 1940s, and as small boys would collect the fascinatingly-shaped shiny stuff from the streets next morning. Shrapnel himself was one of the luckier inventors. He received a princely annual award of over $125,000 (today’s equivalent) for life from a grateful British Government.