"Looks too good to be true" at least as far as being quite that old, but who am I to second-guess the experts at H2? We in the US, and perhaps some in UK would use the term "canister" but no one has ever cleanly defined where the dividing line is. The overall construction is much more similar to Western "canister" than grape, canister often having an enclosed cylindrical envelope, and grape often only a skeleton "stool" structure, separating plates, and/or an outer wrapping of painted or tarred canvas, tightly bound with marline or something similar.
One thing which strikes me is that just yesterday I was re-arranging some things in my company's militaria warehouse, and moved around some very modern projectiles made of plastic, constructed almost exactly like that the round pictured in the H2 sale. There are four segments around the periphery with tiny locking tabs at both ends, to ensure aligment. The interior is moulded to form a rectangular solid cavity into which cube or spherical "fragment simulators" can be placed. These are fired from a high-velocity smoothbore gun, usually 20, 25, or 30mm depending on the size payload required. I'll try and get back there soon and take some photos, because it is almost like the modern engineers looked at that old wooden projectile and said "there's what we need to build."
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24th February 2012, 07:27 PM
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