This is the shell
version of the solid shot shown here. Bashley Britten
patented this projectile's segmented interior construction dated March 8, 1861, British
patent #585. His patent describes the method of manufacturing the interior:
"I construct this projectile in the following manner: - I make a core of loam or sand
of such form as to fill the interior space. Round this core I place numerous pieces
shaped and arranged somewhat like the natural divisions of an orange. Each of these
pieces is cast with several cores or plates partially dividing them so as to weaken them
at those places, that they may easily break up when the shell explodes. The surfaces
of these pieces are dressed over with a coating of loam or such like material, and they
are bound round with a wire, or otherwise secured round the inner core of sand ... Round
this combined core I cast the external shell, which may be of iron or other suitable
metal." A number Britten shells in this caliber have been recovered from Helena,
Arkansas.
