COLOR CODE – Black cast iron body, brass fuze plug
STATUS – Obsolete
SERVICE – Australian Imperial Force
This is an Australian-produced hand grenade of the First World War. It is of a generally standard layout, a round hollow iron sphere, filled with explosives and fitted with a simple burning fuse. Almost any available explosive could be used to fill the iron body. The major difference between the Law-Adams grenade and almost all other of the era is that it was segmented internally. This is in comparison to the relatively common externally segmented grenades. External segments were found to do very little to control fragmentation. The deep internal grooves within the Law-Adams would actively aid in breaking up the body of the grenade into over a dozen large, curved triangular segments with sharp points and edges.
The well-defined, triangular segments would start out moving at a very high velocity from the point of explosion, the velocity being explosive-dependent. Their mass would help the fragments carry for a long distance while retaining their velocity, making them very dangerous to exposed personnel. The grenade was considered a Defensive-type and had to be thrown when the operator was behind cover. A large D-ring was set into the brass fuse plug to aid in carrying the grenade
