The old exploding head

[The Din]

A race of savages in my WIP have come by some black powder (have yet to think up an uncliched name for it), though are yet to learn the art metal work, where as the rest of the world has discovered metal smelting but not 'exploding dust'.

Thus, it only made sense that they would decapitate their enemies, scoop out their brains, and stuff some 'magic sand' inside with some sort of fuse, effectively making a primitive bomb. Having, oddly enough, not tried this myself, I have some concerns with the effectiveness of such a weapon. Ie: it's not a sealed chamber. Would it be possible with an older skull with the eye sockets and empty nose or would they need to somehow be sealed?

Any thoughts from someone with gunpowder knowledge would be much appreciated, as would any better names for the stuff.

Thanks in advance.

 

[CupofJoe]

Older dry skulls are remarkable fragile and loose fitting, there are dozens if not hundreds of fissures, holes and cracks. I think the whole inner surface would have to be sealed with wax or fats, and they would surely screw up the black powder.
Not as poetic but a hollowed out coconut or similar would work better.
Now fresh skulls with the skin on the outside would be a great terror weapon! you see the face of an old friend smiling back at you just before it goes BANG!!!

 

[Ankari]

Why not pottery or wood? Makes more sense, and you don't need to go on a killing spree to get containers.

 

[The Din]

I'm trying for a 'savage' race, in a very stereotypical sense of the word. Pottery or wood just don't send the same message, and would take quite a bit of preparation. I'm thinking more: Brief respite in battle, time to cut off a few heads and shove inside some powder sacks, then fling them back to their friends. Plus, I imagine skull fragments would do more damage.

 

[Chilari]

I wouldn't discount pottery so quickly. It has existed since Neolithic times, far longer than metal working. It need not be refined - thumb worked wares are very simple to make, and firing need take no longer than two to four hours on a bonfire or in a small pit. Ceramics were used by a lot of cultures for basic storage including transportable storage.

 

[Shockley]

I think that if there's a tribe that's inquisitive enough to set random pieces of powder on fire and then see the use of that as a weapon, they'd be advanced enough to understand the very basics of pottery, wood working, etc.

 

[The Din]

Enough with the bloody pottery!!! Capable as my savages might be at throwing vases at each other, it's just not their thing. They're in the middle of a desperate war against their oppressors and there are plenty of heads lying around to stick in their catapults or fling from their ballista. I merely wish to know if such a strategy is possible.

Thanks for all the answers, by the way. Don't mean to sound ungrateful.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Enough with the bloody pottery!!! Capable as my savages might be at throwing vases at each other, it's just not their thing. They're in the middle of a desperate war against their oppressors and there are plenty of heads lying around to stick in their catapults or fling from their ballista. I merely wish to know if such a strategy is possible.

It's highly impractical; stuffing a human head full of gunpowder requires you to first evacuate the head; otherwise there's no room for enough powder. You have to crack it open to get the brains out, which is time-consuming and super messy. Then you have to stuff it full of powder, seal up all the holes (which are many) somehow, and put in a fuse. And you also have to not blow yourself up.

It's not really plausible that any civilization, no matter how "savage," would be able to take the time to use heads as grenades, especially if (as you say) they're in the middle of a "desparate war". It's funny, but it's not really practical.

EDIT: I forgot, you also need to dry the inside of the skull completely, otherwise the residual brain goo and blood will soak the powder and render it useless or at least less effective.

 

[Ireth]

It's highly impractical; stuffing a human head full of gunpowder requires you to first evacuate the head; otherwise there's no room for enough powder. You have to crack it open to get the brains out, which is time-consuming and super messy. Then you have to stuff it full of powder, seal up all the holes (which are many) somehow, and put in a fuse. And you also have to not blow yourself up.

It's not really plausible that any civilization, no matter how "savage," would be able to take the time to use heads as grenades, especially if (as you say) they're in the middle of a "desparate war". It's funny, but it's not really practical.

EDIT: I forgot, you also need to dry the inside of the skull completely, otherwise the residual brain goo and blood will soak the powder and render it useless or at least less effective.

Re: brain removal -- couldn't they do as the Egyptians did during the embalming process? Warning, squick: Shove a red-hot hook up the nose to the brain, wiggle it around to get everything gooey, then drain it through the nostrils. Then they could pour the powder through the nostrils before plugging them again with something.

 

[Ankari]

Yes, but then you still have the residual blood, eye fluid, and brain matter. Also, as Ben mentioned, you have to plug up a lot of holes. It would take less time making an (unmentionable) than to convert a skull into a grenade. Also consider that force will flow from the path of least resistence. When using a human head, and other materials to plug up a hole, you're not creating a consistent force on the powder. This will lead to inconsistent discharge.

 

[Feo Takahari]

If you can't get this to work out, but you want to keep some of the imagery, there's another use for rotting severed heads. (It could work as a sign these folks aren't so dumb after all--they understand germ theory, at least!)

 

[camradio]

Just a thought but what if the savages just punctured the head with whatever and crammed a bag/container in the hole. You get the same effect of the exploding head without having to worry about powder spilling everywhere.

 

[The Din]

Guess the savages will have to rethink their barbaric ways... Just to be clear, such a bomb would not explode without being 100% sealed?

Camradio, that was my way of thinking. I was planning for these savages to get all Egyptian via the spinal column hole after wrenching the skull free, then stuffing in an oilskin sack and filling it with powder, finishing it off with a wooden cork and incorporated fuse. Perhaps it is more trouble than it's worth though...

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Regardless of what I said before, as long as you don't go into the details of how they make them, you actually can do this in your story without worrying too much. "They use the skulls of their defeated enemies as bombs! Ick!" The bombs don't actually even have to be particularly effective as explosives -- having your comrades' heads hurled back at you to explode is an effective psychological weapon, even if the explosions themselves aren't that damaging.

Honestly, I think it's a funny idea, even though it's not especially practical.

 

[Chime85]

If exploding heads seems less practical, why not some sort of macabre dynamite made from the cured skins of animals they have hunted? They could place a stone of some sort for a base and wrap a skin into a cylinder shape (like what's left from loo rolls!) and fasten it with whatever they use for string. Of course, they would have to pack it with the ingredients, maybe using something like the handle of a knife to pack it tightly?