On Sun, 28 Jul 1996, Mark M. wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jul 1996, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
but the standards must be pretty low. The reason hand grenades look like pineapples is because it's very difficult to get metal to fragment unless it is scored or otherwise predisposed to come apart in little pieces. What I've been told is that a pipe bomb just peals open at it's weakest place and otherwise stays in one piece. Don't know, but that's what I've heard. Makes sense to me. You're right. A pipe bomb isn't even technically a "bomb". It just has various combustible chemicals within a sealed container. The explosive force is just due to the high pressure released. Nails and screws can be used as shrapnel, but if the container was scored, the explosive force would be weakened. Newer hand grenades have scored wire wrapped around the core so when it explodes, the container is shattered and the wire fragments fly out at very high speeds. I would guess that these are more powerful than the "pineapple" grenades.
I don't know about "more powerful", but they are more effective, and IIRC a little smaller & lighter. Petro, Christopher C. petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff> snow@smoke.suba.com