josh@topaz.ARPA (J Storrs Hall) (03/23/85)
>In the old days, there was a kind of loading for cannon called >"grapeshot" ... > Perhaps grapefruit, being about the same size and >possibly visual texture, look to some eyes like "grape"... Grapeshot was dropped (as from a shot tower) like musket balls, rather than sandcast (as cannon balls) so the individual balls did not have the mottled texture of a grapefruit.