英语词汇shrapnel的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

shrapnel. Shrapnel’s shell, or shrapnel’s shot, as it was first called, was the brainchild of Henry Shrapnel, a British artillery officer who held the rank of second lieutenant and had only turned 23 when he began work on his deadly contrivance in 1783. Shrapnel had joined the army at the age of 18 and served in Gibraltar, the West Indies, and Flanders under the duke of York. He devoted all his spare time and money to developing his invention, the shrapnel shell, which consisted of a spherical projectile filled with lead musket balls and a small charge of black powder that was set off by a time fuse, exploding the shell in midair and scattering the shot in an ever-widening circle over a large area. This antipersonnel weapon, which laid low everyone in its path, was finally adopted in 1803 due to Shrap- nel’s persistent efforts and he was promoted to regimental lieu- tenant colonel the following year. Although the shell itself wasn’t used during World War II, the term shrapnel is still ap- plied loosely to shell fragments from any high explosive, whether artillery, bomb, or mine. Henry Shrapnel, who had been promoted to lieutenant general in 1837, died five years later, aged 89. He had never been paid a cent for his important invention and the government refused even to compensate him for the several thousand pounds of his own money that he had spent in developing the weapon.

词汇	shrapnel
词源	shrapnel. Shrapnel’s shell, or shrapnel’s shot, as it was first called, was the brainchild of Henry Shrapnel, a British artillery officer who held the rank of second lieutenant and had only turned 23 when he began work on his deadly contrivance in 1783. Shrapnel had joined the army at the age of 18 and served in Gibraltar, the West Indies, and Flanders under the duke of York. He devoted all his spare time and money to developing his invention, the shrapnel shell, which consisted of a spherical projectile filled with lead musket balls and a small charge of black powder that was set off by a time fuse, exploding the shell in midair and scattering the shot in an ever-widening circle over a large area. This antipersonnel weapon, which laid low everyone in its path, was finally adopted in 1803 due to Shrap- nel’s persistent efforts and he was promoted to regimental lieu- tenant colonel the following year. Although the shell itself wasn’t used during World War II, the term shrapnel is still ap- plied loosely to shell fragments from any high explosive, whether artillery, bomb, or mine. Henry Shrapnel, who had been promoted to lieutenant general in 1837, died five years later, aged 89. He had never been paid a cent for his important invention and the government refused even to compensate him for the several thousand pounds of his own money that he had spent in developing the weapon.
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