This is a bit of a lark thread and I haven't done much research. I was watching baseball tonight and the Pirates' batter (Palacios) hit a homer. The broadcast commentator roared, "Clear the deck! ..cannonball coming!". But that was then, two hundred years ago, and this is now. The only ammo that battling armadas had back then was a large ball, made mostly of iron, and it could be propelled at high speed. Then Alfred Nobel came along and whispered to someone with ears, "I can make it so that the cannonball not only smashes and crashes stuff, but actually explodes violently upon landing onto the enemy fortress". I've heard that guilt played a role in Mr. Nobel later bequeathing and establishing the Nobel funds to award prizes to entities/persons that have benefited mankind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
