[3] The low number of surviving specimens of this firearm indicate that it was not a popular weapon, possibly due to the safety issues.

[6] In 1872, a work titled Life-boats, Projectiles and Other Means for Saving Life gave an account of a sailor using a hand mortar.

[4] Another account refers to a hand mortar as a coehorn, and attributes its invention to a Dutch engineer, Menno Van Coehoorn, who lived from 1641 to 1704.

The first references to the type of grenade used in a hand mortar occur in a 1472 work titled Valturius, where an incendiary prototype may have been produced.

[13] Explosive grenades were made from brass, glass, and possibly clay, and incendiary projectiles were made from canvas, however, Nathanael Nye, Master Gunner of the City of Worcester in a work titled Art of Gunnery published in 1647, remarks that the soldiers of his day were not fond of handling the grenades because they were too dangerous.