Lead

Sling as a weapon is relatively not well known although was used effectively by the middle east peoples and Egyptians since the most ancient times. At the beginning projectiles were raw stones, later carved and around the V C. BC some were made of lead. Excellency as a slinger could only be achieved by means of an intensive training since the more early childhood.
Onasandrius wrote the 1st C. BC in his book "Strategy". "Sling is the deadly weapon used by light infantry because lead is of the same color than air and therefore not visible, impact is unexpected and not only hard but the bullet penetrates deeply into the flesh".

Balearic derives from the Punic "Bale Yarch" literally means "Masters in throwing". Most probably they learned this technique from the Phoenicians or Greeks.
They fought in the 1st and 2nd. Punic war in favor of Carthage but after the Roman conquest served under Roman's legions. On the legions battle order they were in charged to start the hostilities from the flanks even before than the longbow men could do it. When enemy contact was imminent both longbow men and slingers retreated between lines to allow the infantry and Calvary to fight.

While a longbow had an effectiveness up to 100 mts. the Balearic slingers launched projectiles to more than 200 meters far.

Since they were a few years old started the training that will last forever. The first notice of an armored ship was due to Balearic slingers. On the 123 BC. Quintus Caecillius Metellus begun the conquest of the island of Majorca. Believed or not the slingers were able to sink the Roman ships from the coast shooting to the ship hull waterline with lead bullets like this one and other of higher calibers. Quintus had to protect his ships with shields. Only after two years Majorca was finally conquered.

They wore three slings. A large one tighten to his waist (to be used in distances of more than 60 mts.), a small one tighten around his forehead (20-25 mts.) and a medium size one always on the hand (up to 60 mts.). They carried the bullets in a goat fur bag hanging from his shoulder. With the large one they could launch 500 grs. stones (like a tennis ball) able to destroy shields and wood defenses. With the small and medium size slings the lead bullets could perforate at short distances (up to 60 mts.) thin armors and helmets. The sling as a weapon was widely used not only by Balearic warriors but by other Iberian warriors and also by Roman auxiliary troops like Greeks, Sicilians, North Africans but after the Roman conquest of the Balearic Islands elite slingers were always Balearic as those fighting in the Julius Caesar legions. Bullets in Spain are usually found on the known battle fields of the Roman conquest. Roman bullets are commonly engraved Iberian never.

Two fine examples of almond shape small caliber war sling lead bullets to be used with the small sling. Have a good ballistic coefficient (C) according to their caliber. With concretions. Ca 150 to 45 BC

From left to right:

Measures: Thick: 16x9 mm. Length: 29 mm. Weight: 18.3 C=117
Thick 14 x10 mm Length: 29 mm Weight: 21.5 C=149

Ballistic coefficient C = P/D**2 Being P weight in Kg. and D diameter in mts. An standard rounded lead bullet of the Napoleonic wars had a C of 104.

Three rounded lead bullets from the Napoleonic wars in Spain 1808 to 1814.

The primary individual firearm during the Napoleonic wars in Spain was the musket but for first time regular army units used the rifle. Some regiments of the expeditionary British army equipped the first models of the Baker rifle. The problem was that after a few shots the barrel had to be cleaned therefore their role was limited to skirmishing and snipering functions. Dragon pistols and pistols were widely used by some Calvary units and the Spanish guerrilla which on top used a variety of all available types of firearms including some of civil use such as carbines, blunderbusses, hunting rifles and shotguns.

Two .625 (16 mm.) cal. bullet from an English Baker rifle type. Weight: 24.2 gr.

One .58 (14.7 mm.) cal. bullet probably from Spanish guerrilla hunting Tulle type rifle Weight: 17 gr.

This is a rare unique item - I'm not totally sure about it as I'm no detective - but on family history a very well established Plumbers in Rochdale Ezra Travis & Son (I think - it may not have been Ezra!) closed in the 1960's and my late Father's friend bought the premises and this glass domed example of "a Six way (branches) piece made of sheet lead" was in the office and left behind it was going to be thrown out and my Father brought it home and put it in his den. With it is a foolscap sheet of old blue paper (see photo) which has the heading "a Six way (branches) piece made of sheet lead" This goes on to tell in great detail how this six way junction was achieved. This must have been made during the time all plumbers used lead - before plastic - and it was a real skill.

It also says "Made at Home in spare time" and amongst items used to create it a "coal hammer" (!)
It also says it was shown to Capt E. Edwards R.N. Eng Overseer (this suggests Royal Navy could it have been an apprentice piece?), and two other RN names and ends "who complimented me and advised to being sent to Exhibition (at the) Technical Institute"

These Raman cells were looked into for the "Star Wars" project. Supposedly an excimer laser zapped through the cell that turned the beam to a deep blue laser pulse with very high power in the megawatt range. The deep blue light could penetrate to abysmal depths and communicate (arming codes etc) to submarines without being intercepted very easily was the idea. The cell is made of high grade quartz and must have been "fun" to make. You can see one reason why the project was scrapped: the intense UV light caused the cell to solarize (small dime size burn) and at the high temperature left pure silicon in the beam path. On earth it would be a simple matter of changing out the cell when it went bad, but in space... Not to mention the power consumption of a megawatt pulse class excimer laser, even bigger size nuclear rtg units would be straining to power the laser, not to mention excimers are notoriously finicky about cooling and gas mixture issues. In all they wasted about $250,000,000 dollars on this part of project or so I have been told.