Mills bomb Mills bomb "Mills bomb" is the popular name for a series of prominent British hand grenades. They were the first modern fragmentation grenades used by the British Army and saw widespread use in World War I. William Mills, a hand grenade designer from Sunderland, patented, developed and manufactured the "Mills bomb" at the Mills Munition Factory in Birmingham, England, in 1915. The Mills bomb was inspired by an earlier design by Belgian captain Leon Roland. Roland and Mills were later engaged in a patent lawsuit. Col. Arthur Morrow, a New Zealand Wars officer, also believed aspects of his patent were
History of trade and industry in Birmingham area of the manor of Birmingham to the west of the town, is more suited to pastoral than arable agriculture and excavated animal bones indicate that cattle are the dominant livestock, with some sheep but very few pigs. Trade through Birmingham diversifies as a merchant class arises. While most manufactured goods in Birmingham are produced for a local market, there is some evidence that the town is already a specialised and widely-recognised centre of the jewellery trade during the medieval period. An inventory of the personal possessions of the Master of the Knights Templar in England at the time of