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« on: April 29, 2006, 03:03:10 pm »
Okay, no guns... Next thing... Grenades or bombs, whatever you want to call them. They were used in the late middleages, and well.. I'll quote wiki...
"Early grenades were usually made of paper, ceramics, or primitive glass and could contain any sort of dangerous or unpleasant substance, ranging from botanical or animal toxins, skin irritants, lye, acids, flammable naptha, petroleum and unstable gunpowder, diseased matter, or parasite eggs (such as locusts, lice, fleas).
The use of the word 'grenade' in the English language apparently originated in the Glorious Revolution (1688), where cricket ball-sized iron spheres packed with gunpowder and fitted with slow-burning wicks were first used against the Jacobites in the battles of Killiecrankie and Glen Shiel.
These grenades were not very effective (probably because a direct hit would be necessary for the grenade to have any effect,) and, as a result, they saw little use."