[mike_vee]

Originally Posted by manchesters

William Mills was certainly involved in the patent for the first Hand Grenade No. 5, see first page of his patent below.

However I believe his company that he set up was the Mills Munitions Company and not William Mills Limited.

regards

William Mills Ltd had a foundry in in Grove Street, on the border of Birmingham and Smethwick.

In the First World War the foundry produced lightweight castings for the newly formed aircraft industry which rapidly grew as part of the war effort. At this time, William Mills invented a terrible weapon, the Mills hand grenade, which was not produced at the foundry, but by the Mills Munitions Factory in Birmingham and by a host of contractors. William Mills opened the munitions factory in 1915, and around 75,000,000 grenades were produced.

In the early 1920s, William Mills Limited was acquired by The British Aluminium Company Limited in order to extend their range of cast aluminium products.

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/arti...bury/Mills.htm


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