# The Cartoon Black Round Bomb **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795 "2007-11-09T16:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/1 "2007-11-09T16:34:41Z")
As depicted [here](http://fxhome.com/alamdv2/plugins/view/95/comic-bombs). Does this “style” of bomb have any basis in reality? Where did it come from? ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/2 "2007-11-09T16:45:15Z")
It was originally called a “grenade” and as such was used by “grenadiers” in the XVIII[sup]th[/sup] century and after. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/3 "2007-11-09T16:46:42Z")
It’s a big iron ball filled with gunpowder. When it explodes, you get shrapnel. IIRC, they used bombs like this in mortars about 200 years ago. You light the fuse, drop the bomb into your mortar, shoot it, and it explodes when it gets where it;'s going. It’s a very different kind of damage than you get from the simple kinetic energy of a rapidly-moving cannonball. C.S. Forester describes such bombs in a couple of his Horatio Hornblower novels, in particular in **Commodore Hornblower**. They came in various sizes, many of them too large to be carried by a cloaked spy with a handlebar moustasche. I don’t know if these were ever used as hand-carried devices. I rather doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/4 "2007-11-09T16:54:19Z")
[http://www.nomanslandmilitaria.com/1004%20egg%20grenade0001.jpg](http://www.nomanslandmilitaria.com/1004%20egg%20grenade0001.jpg) [![](http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/ImagesPrincipal/GrenadeD4.jpg) ](http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/ImagesPrincipal/GrenadeD4.jpg) Visuals of early grenades. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/5 "2007-11-09T17:31:15Z")
But those early grenades didnt’t have fuses, did they? At lest the ones in those pictures don’t seem to. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/6 "2007-11-09T18:13:21Z")
Those early 20th century grenades did have fuses, but the fuse (called a _powder train_) was lit mechanically, by pulling the safety pin, rather than lighting the fuse by hand. [Visual explanation](http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/grenades.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/7 "2007-11-09T18:19:31Z")
The canonical cartoon version is considerably bigger than a grenade, and often has the word [BOMB](http://www.h4x3d.com/feat/themes/bomb.jpg) on it in large white letters. It also possesses the strange property of being able to be pulled from a bag or coat pocket with the fuse already lit. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/8 "2007-11-09T18:22:37Z")
There were grenades that looked like that in the 18th century. [This page](http://freespace.virgin.net/gerald.hughes/indexa.htm?http://freespace.virgin.net/gerald.hughes/drill/grdrill.htm&content) shows some pictures of a replica. [This one](http://www.big-ordnance.com/grenades/grenades1.htm) shows real ones but without the fuse, but there are holes where the fuse would go ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/9 "2007-11-09T18:28:20Z")
I want to know why bombs are being singled out. Lotsa stuff depicted in cartoons takes on shapes more in line with icons. Trees don’t look like trees, hands don’t look like hands and shoes don’t look like shoes. Cannonballs were round, early grenades were round and had fuses sticking out the top, with the little ‘nub’ where the fuse enters being consistent with cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/10 "2007-11-09T18:53:42Z")
At one time, the movie version of the spherical grenade was virtually identical to the real thing. In 1919, Hollywood actor Harold Lloyd was posing for publicity photos. One was to feature Lloyd as a devil-may-care lighting his cigarette from the lit fuse of a spherical grenade-type bomb, using a replica. But a real bomb, one of several acquired for an explosion scene in a movie, got mixed in with the others in the prop box. The lit fuse caused too much smoke for a photo, and as Lloyd put the grenade down to get another, it exploded, sending shrapnel into his face, and severing the thumb and forefinger from his right hand. [More here](http://www.haroldlloyd.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=14). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/11 "2007-11-09T20:15:59Z")
It’s called a **petard**. If you make the fuse too short, it explodes too soon, and you are hoisted by your own petard. [http://www.roennebech.dk/www\_fredericiashistorie/html/fredericia/lex/billeder/Petard.gif](http://www.roennebech.dk/www_fredericiashistorie/html/fredericia/lex/billeder/Petard.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/12 "2007-11-09T20:36:50Z")
[QUOTE=Philster] I want to know why bombs are being singled out. Lotsa stuff depicted in cartoons takes on shapes more in line with icons. Trees don’t look like trees, hands don’t look like hands and shoes don’t look like shoes. [/QUOTE] Because we’re familiar with the real-life antecedents of cartoon trees, hands, and shoes. The real-life antecedent of a cartoon bomb is no longer part of our popular culture. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/13 "2007-11-09T20:47:56Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] At one time, the movie version of the spherical grenade was virtually identical to the real thing. In 1919, Hollywood actor Harold Lloyd was posing for publicity photos. One was to feature Lloyd as a devil-may-care lighting his cigarette from the lit fuse of a spherical grenade-type bomb, using a replica. But a real bomb, one of several acquired for an explosion scene in a movie, got mixed in with the others in the prop box. The lit fuse caused too much smoke for a photo, and as Lloyd put the grenade down to get another, it exploded, sending shrapnel into his face, and severing the thumb and forefinger from his right hand. [More here](http://www.haroldlloyd.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=14). [/QUOTE] That guy was a comedy genius. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/14 "2007-11-09T21:11:39Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] It’s called a **petard**. If you make the fuse too short, it explodes too soon, and you are hoisted by your own petard. [http://www.roennebech.dk/www\_fredericiashistorie/html/fredericia/lex/billeder/Petard.gif](http://www.roennebech.dk/www_fredericiashistorie/html/fredericia/lex/billeder/Petard.gif) [/QUOTE] Petards weren’t generally spherical like grenades, though. They served a different purpose - shaped charges to blow doors in. ---
**Author:** ![adirondack\_mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/15 "2007-11-09T22:32:47Z")
The US Army Ordnance Corps’ branch isignia is such a device: [link](http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/branches/Ordnance.htm) ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/16 "2007-11-09T23:00:04Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] It’s called a **petard**. If you make the fuse too short, it explodes too soon, and you are hoisted by your own petard.1 [/QUOTE] Bless you, you are among the few in the entire Universe who knows what petard is and what the phrase actually means. Most people think it is some kind of a lance or hook or something. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/17 "2007-11-09T23:10:49Z")
Cecil did this one: [What’s a petard, as in " hoist by his own …"?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_295b.html) So… the thing was basically called a “farter”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/18 "2007-11-10T00:02:48Z")
[QUOTE=KlondikeGeoff] Bless you, you are among the few in the entire Universe who knows what petard is and what the phrase actually means. Most people think it is some kind of a lance or hook or something. [/QUOTE] Uhm. That’s what I thought it was. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/19 "2007-11-10T01:56:54Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] C.S. Forester describes such bombs in a couple of his Horatio Hornblower novels, in particular in **Commodore Hornblower**. [/QUOTE] See also **Hornblower and the Hotspur**. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795/20 "2007-11-10T02:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] Petards weren’t generally spherical like grenades, though. They served a different purpose - shaped charges to blow doors in. [/QUOTE] See the diagram I linked to. It’s round on one side, and flat on the other. And it’s got the burning fuse. Seen from the right angle, it looks exactly like the classic cartoon bomb. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cartoon-black-round-bomb/425795.md?page=2)