Original French WWI Model 1847 Ball Hand Grenade with Fuse – Inert Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is totally inert BATF compliant genuine World War One French Model 1847 Ball Hand Grenade, complete with an original deactivated traction fuse. If this grenade looks rather primitive for something used in WWI, that’s because it is. The design remained unchanged for almost 70 years, before being replaced by the model 1914 Ball Grenade, which had a modern fuse system.

Almost as old as the invention of black powder, this grenade design was first patterned in France by Gribeauval in 1777. This model was a 9.5 cm diameter pig iron hollow sphere, drilled with a smooth hole for the insertion of a wood plug with a wick inside (‘fuze’).

In 1847 the size of the sphere was reduced in order to reduce the weapon weight, and 1876 a slightly less rudimentary fuze was introduced, with a traction igniter to replace the direct firing of the wick. Finally in 1886 came a new version, a little bit more waterproofed, however the basic design was still the same, and completely outdated.  It was modernized for the last time 67 years previously, with a antique fuze whose last improvement had been made about 30 years ago. This represents the only official grenade at the disposal of the French soldiers in 1914 : the grenade modèle 1847.

This grenade, equipped with a 5 seconds delay, was launched by hand, the traction igniter wire being attached to a rope linked to the launcher’s wrist. In these conditions, the grenade range was rarely over 20 meters. It was possible to add 50 meters to this range by using a sling.