318 headlam: developments in artillery 



be accurately recorded by the intersections of three widely 

 separated observers, and instantaneously transmitted to the 

 plotting stations. There too will be registered the position of 

 any gun that is foolish enough to open fire from an insufficiently 

 masked position when the clouds are dark behind it. 



Then the ' 'sound ranger" too plays his part, as with his delicate 

 instruments he registers the discharge of the enemy's gun, — also, 

 often enough, the burst of the enemy's shells. Their work must 

 be done far to the front, and often with little or no protection, and 

 I would like to bear witness to the gallantry of the distinguished 

 savants who have let no consideration of personal safety or com- 

 fort interfere with the accuracy of their observations. 



Gentlemen, I commenced by making one confession — that I 

 had no information to give you about the new German gun, and 

 I must conclude on the same note, for I am not going to attempt 

 to say anything about what is by far the most interesting scientific 

 development of artillery during the war — I mean anti-aircraft 

 gunnery. The study of the ballistics of shell fired at such angles, 

 the effect of high altitudes on the burning of the fuses, the inven- 

 tion of the wonderful instruments in the way of height-finders and 

 so forth required for the direction of the fire, have opened up 

 entirely new fields of scientific research. I have just had the 

 pleasure of handing to your experts the results of a series of very 

 exhaustive experiments which have been conducted in England. 

 But it is wise to recognize one's own limitations; I very soon dis- 

 covered that anti-aircraft gunnery had reached an atmosphere 

 too rarified for me. You must therefore find younger and more 

 scientific brains to tell you the wonders of the new science still in 

 its infancy, but progressing by leaps and bounds. If you think 

 that the results attained have been small, that with all the ex- 

 penditure of talent and material devoted to it the proportion of 

 aeroplanes brought to bag is insignificant, you must remember 

 the difficulties of the task. An aeroplane covers more than half 

 a mile while the shell is in the air, and I leave it to the sportsmen 

 among you to say how many ducks they would pick up under such 

 conditions. 



Gas shell, the other great real novelty in artillery, has already 

 been ably dealt with by my friend Major Auld, with whom ' *oVer 



