ENGINEERING BEFORE AND AFTER WAR 43 



manufactures of the country have been largely diverted 

 to munitions of war; the home railways, tramways, roads, 

 buildings and constructions, and material of all kinds have 

 been allowed to depreciate. The amount of depreciation 

 in roads and railways alone has been estimated at 400 

 millions per annum at present prices. Upon the com- 

 munity at home a very great and abnormal strain has been 

 thrown, notwithstanding the increased output per head of 

 the workers derived from modern methods and improved 

 machinery. In short, we have seen for the first time in 

 history nearly the whole populations of the principal con- 

 tending nations enlisted in intense personal and collective 

 effort in the contest, resulting in unprecedented loss of 

 life and destruction of capital. 



A few figures will assist us to realize the great differ- 

 ence between this war and all preceding wars. At Water- 

 loo, in 1815, 9,044 artillery rounds were fired, having a 

 total weight of 37.3 tons, while on one day during the last 

 offensive in France, on the British Front alone, 943,837 

 artillery rounds were fired, weighing 18,080 tons over 

 100 times the number of rounds, and 485 times the weight 

 of projectiles. Again, in the whole of the South African 

 War, 273,000 artillery rounds were fired, weighing ap- 

 proximately 2,800 tons; while during the whole war in 

 France, on the British Front alone, over 170 million 

 artillery rounds were fired, weighing nearly 3^2 million 

 tons 622 times the number of rounds, and about 1,250 

 times the weight of projectiles. 



However great these figures in connection with modern 

 land artillery may be, they become almost insignificant 

 when compared with those in respect of a modern naval 

 battle squadron. The Queen Elisabeth when firing all 

 her guns discharges 18 tons of metal and develops 1,870,- 

 ooo foot-tons of energy. She is capable of repeating this 

 discharge once every minute, and when doing so develops 

 by her guns an average of 127,000 effective horse-power, 

 or more than one-and-a-half times the power of her pro- 



