still , that book too had its little nuggets , such as the information that the word 'bomb ' was common in the eighteenth century , and what they meant by that : in addition to merely meaning 'an explosive device ' , it referred also to a wrapped and tarred parcel of shrapnel shot from a cannon ( though we must be careful not to use the word 'shrapnel ' , as it 's derived from lt henry shrapnel of the royal artillery , who took the original 'bomb ' concept and developed the 'shrapnel shell ' , a debris-filled bomb filled also with gunpowder and designed to explode in mid-air after being fired from a cannon .