Fig. 1

Assembled bomb lance fragment (from whale 07B8 captured at Barrow, AK, in May, 2007) shown with a complete and quite similar Ebenezer Pierce 1885 patent bomb lance (New Bedford Whaling Museum accession number 1988.10). The bomb fragment is an example of model made according to a patent issued to Ebenezer Pierce in 1879 (photo unavailable). That model became obsolete in 1885, when Pierce received a patent for an improved ignition apparatus, which included small holes or gas vents (which cannot be seen in this photograph) in the bomb’s head to allow the ignition gases to escape