Dummy Hand Grenade

This kind of grenade was first used by British Soldiers in 1915.  This particular example is a dummy and would have been used for practice.  The side has been cut away in order to show the workings inside.  The grenade would be detonated by removing the pin by the hoop however, the mechanism could be kept in place whilst it remained in the soldiers hand by holding down the handle which runs down the side of the device.  When the grenade was thrown, the handle would slowly release and the explosion would occur as it reached its target.  The metal casing is segmented into squares so that it would fragment evenly as it exploded.