Chain shot

[1][citation needed] When fired, after leaving the muzzle, the shot's components tumble in the air, and the connecting chain fully extends.

It was used by the defenders of Magdeburg in May 1631 as an anti-personnel load, which, according to counselor Otto von Guericke, was one reason for the extreme violence of the victorious attackers.

[3] It was also used against Parliamentarians in the first English Civil War,[4] and against Cromwell in Ireland at the siege of Clonmel in 1650, against the 76th Regiment of Foot in India in 1803,[5] and by the French against the Dutch at the Battle of Waterloo.

[6] The military usefulness of chain shot died out as wooden sail-powered ships were replaced with armored steam ships—first among navies, and then among commercial fleets—which do not have rigging to serve as proper targets for chain-shot.

In modern times, the effect is replicated in shotguns with the use of bolo shells, a pair of slugs connected by a strong wire.