314 headlam: developments in artillery 



to get as good a platform for his gun as he possibly can, and that 

 probably means much heavy labor in digging deep, and gathering 

 material — rubble, bricks, timber — from a distance. This search 

 for materials sometimes leads to amusing scenes. 



Care of ammunition. But however solidly a gun may be sup- 

 ported it can not be expected to give uniform results unless the 

 ammunition is in good order. Powder and fuses must be pro- 

 tected from the weather, and this entails much labor and constant 

 care. We had, for instance, great trouble when we first adopted 

 nitro-cellulose powder because we did not realize how sensitive 

 it was to damp. 



Protection from the weather is not, however, all that has to be 

 done to insure good shooting from the ammunition. Cartridges 

 and fuses are made in lots, and no ''adjustment" can quite get 

 over the differences between tliese. Every effort is made to keep 

 lots together, and the system of doing so is at this moment being 

 greatly developed, but even with all possible care, lots will in- 

 evitably get mixed in their passage from the factory to the ship, 

 from the ship to the depots, from these to the dumps, and so 

 through the various echelons of supply till they reach the guns. 

 Cartridges and fuses must therefore be sorted in the batteries, 

 and the necessary allowances made when using the different lots. 

 Somewhat the same thing has to be done with the shell, for 

 when a large output of ammunition is to be obtained from all 

 sorts of factories it is out of the question to reject all which are 

 not exactly within the strict limits of weight. They are accepted 

 but with the weight marked upon them, and these again must 

 be sorted and the necessary allowances made. 



Calibration of guns. The next thing the artilleryman has to 

 think of is the age of his gun, or rather how hard it has lived ! As 

 a gun wears, its accuracy and its range fall off. The former can 

 not be calculated, though it must be allowed for; the latter can, 

 and the loss of muzzle velocity in each gun must be found and 

 allowed for. This is what we call ' 'calibration," and it has to be 

 repeated with each propellant, and, in a howitzer, with each 

 charge. It is usually carried out on the front, because we prefer, 

 whenever possible, that every shell should have at any rate a 



