Engineered shells replaced the old solid-shot arsenal

The nineteenth-century arsenal moved from solid shot as a major weapon toward explosive shells designed to produce much greater effects on impact. Engineers were making that change while barrels and propellant charges were also growing more powerful, so the new projectiles had to survive harsher firing stresses. Early shell failures accompanied the transformation of a centuries-old cannon system and did not prove that the older technology was inherently better. Projectiles now had to produce a controlled, manufactured effect after reaching the target instead of relying mainly on mass.