Dum Dum Arsenal
Encyclopedia
Dum-Dum Arsenal
was a British military facility located near the town of Dum Dum
(near Calcutta) in modern West Bengal
, India
.
The arsenal was at the center of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
regarding suspicion that cartridges distributed at the arsenal were greased with pig and cow fat.
It was at this arsenal that Captain Neville Bertie-Clay
developed the so-called "Dum-dum
bullet" (Mark IV cartridge), a exposed-nose bullet designed to mushroom in flesh. This was the first expanding bullet for military use, later banned from use in warfare by the Hague Convention
.
On the 7th of December 1908 a serious explosion occurred by accident at the Dum-Dum arsenal, resulting in death or serious injury to about 50 native workmen.
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
was a British military facility located near the town of Dum Dum
Dum Dum
Dum Dum is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is a neighbourhood in North-west Kolkata and the location of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, formerly Dum Dum Airport.Dum Dum is a well known place in greater Kolkata...
(near Calcutta) in modern West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
The arsenal was at the center of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
regarding suspicion that cartridges distributed at the arsenal were greased with pig and cow fat.
It was at this arsenal that Captain Neville Bertie-Clay
Neville Bertie-Clay
Lieutenant-Colonel Neville Sneyd Bertie-Clay was a British army officer. He served in the Royal Artillery and in the Royal Garrison Artillery, but spent much of his career on secondment to the Indian Ordnance Department of the Indian Army...
developed the so-called "Dum-dum
Dum-dum
An expanding bullet is a bullet designed to expand on impact, increasing in diameter to limit penetration and/or produce a larger diameter wound. They are informally known as a Dum-dum or dumdum bullets...
bullet" (Mark IV cartridge), a exposed-nose bullet designed to mushroom in flesh. This was the first expanding bullet for military use, later banned from use in warfare by the Hague Convention
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...
.
On the 7th of December 1908 a serious explosion occurred by accident at the Dum-Dum arsenal, resulting in death or serious injury to about 50 native workmen.