Editing Shell (projectile) (section)

===Percussion fuze===
{{main|Artillery fuze}}
[[File:No 1 DA Percussion Fuze Mk III Diagram.jpg|thumb|Early British "direct action" nose impact fuze of 1900 with no safety or arming mechanism, relying on heavy direct physical impact to detonate]]
Although an early percussion fuze appeared in 1650 that used a flint to create sparks to ignite the powder, the shell had to fall in a particular way for this to work and this did not work with spherical projectiles. An additional problem was finding a suitably stable "percussion powder". Progress was not possible until the discovery of [[Mercury(II) fulminate|mercury fulminate]] in 1800, leading to priming mixtures for small arms patented by the Rev [[Alexander John Forsyth|Alexander Forsyth]], and the copper percussion cap in 1818.

The percussion fuze was adopted by Britain in 1842. Many designs were jointly examined by the army and navy, but were unsatisfactory, probably because of the safety and arming features. However, in 1846 the design by Quartermaster Freeburn of the Royal Artillery was adopted by the army. It was a wooden fuze about 6&nbsp;inches long and used shear wire to hold blocks between the fuze magazine and a burning match. The match was ignited by propellant flash and the shear wire broke on impact. A British naval percussion fuze made of metal did not appear until 1861.<ref>Hogg, pp. 203–203.</ref>

====Types of fuzes====
{{div col}}
* [[Artillery fuze#Percussion fuzes|Percussion fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Direct action fuzes|Direct action fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Graze fuzes|Graze fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Delay fuzes|Delay fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Base fuzes|Base fuzes]]
* [[Artillery fuze#Airburst fuzes|Airburst fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Time fuzes|Time fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Proximity fuzes|Proximity fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Distance measuring fuzes|Distance measuring fuzes]]
** [[Artillery fuze#Electronic time fuzes|Electronic time fuzes]]
{{div col end}}