2o4- ARTILLERY 



holding 40 Ibe. of powder. The French, when they occupied Alters in 1830, found' 

 numbera of old shells of nearly 900 Ibs. in weight; and in almost every arsenal and 

 fortress in Europe one or two old 16-inch and 18-inch shells are to btvfound. No 

 attempt was made in modern days to realise the vast accession of power that such 

 hirge shells confer, until the year 1832, when tho ' monster mortar, as it was then 

 called, of 24 inches calibre, designed by Colonel Paixhans (tho author of the Paix-; 

 hans gun), was constructed by order of Baron Evain, the Belgian Minister of War,' 

 and attempted to bo used by the French at the siege of tho citadel at Antwerp, but 

 with the worst possible success. The mortar, a crude cylindrical mass of cast-iron; 

 sunk in a bod of timber -weighing about 8 ions, and provided neither -with adequate' 

 moans for 'laying' it, nor for Charging it the heavy shells weighing, when filled 

 with 99 Ibs. of powder, 1,015 Ibs. each-r-could with difficulty be firfld three rounds in 

 two hours, while tho shells themselves were very badly proportioned. 



One of those shells fell nearly close to tho powder-magazine, but did not explode ; 

 ha'd it fallen upon tho presumed bomb-proof arch of the magazine, containing 300,000 

 Ibs. of powder, it would have pierced it, according to tho opinion of all the military 

 engineers present at the siego, and so closed the enterprise at a blow. The ill- 

 success of this mortar prevented for several years any attempt to develop bombs 

 into their legitimate office as the means of suddenly transferring mines into tho 

 body of fortified places of a power adequate to act with decisive effect upon their 

 works ; although some years afterwards a 20-inch mortar was made in England for 

 the Pacha of Egypt, and proved at Woolwich. 



But another circumstance still more tended to the neglect of large shells thrown 

 by vertical fire. After repeated trials and many failures, it was found practicable to 

 throw 10-inch (and since that even 13-inch) shells from cannon, or 'shell-guns,' by 

 projecting them nearly horizontally, or at such low angles that they should 'rico- 

 chet ' and roll along the ground before they burst ; and, thus fired, it was soon seen 

 that their destructive power as against troops was greater than if fired at angles 

 approaching 45 of elevation from mortars. Paixhans and his school had pushed a 

 good and useful invention beyond its proper limits, and had lost sight wholly of tho 

 Jill-important fact that horizontal shell-fire, powerful as it is against troops or shipping, 

 is all but useless as an instrument of destruction to the works (the earthwork and 

 masonry, &c.) of fortified places; for this end, weight and the penetrative power due 

 Jx> the velocity of descent in falling from a great height are indispensable. 



A 13-inch shell, weighing about 180 Ibs., is thrown, by a charge of 30 Ibs.. of 

 powder, barely 4,700 yards. While, with not much more than double this amount of 

 powder, the 36-inch shell, of more than 14 times its weight, can be thrown 2,650 yards, 

 or much more than half the distance. 



The explosive power, it is obvious, is approximately proportionate to the weight of 

 powder ; but, by calculations, of which the result only can here be given, Mr. Mallet 

 hag shown that the total power of demolition that is to say, the absolute amount of 

 damage done in throwing down buildings, walls, &c. &c. by one 39-inch shell, is 

 1,600 times that possible to be done by one 13-inch shell; and that an object which 

 a 13-inch shell could just overturn at one yard from its centre, will be overthrown by 

 the 36-inch shell at 40 yards' distance. 



A 13-inch shell penetrates, on falling upon compact earth, about 2^ feet. The 

 .Antwerp shell penetrated 7 feet. .The 36-inch shell penetrated 16 to 18 feet. The 

 funnel-shaped cavity, or ' crater,' of earth blown out by tho explosion of a buried 

 .shell, is always a similar figure, called a ' paraboloid ; ' its diameter at tho surface, 

 produced by the 13-inch shell, is about 7 feet, and by the 36-inch shell about 40 feet. 

 No bomb-proof arch (so called) now exists in Europe capable of resisting the 

 tremendous fall of such masses, and the terrible powers of their explosion when 480 

 Ibs. of powder, fired to tho very best advantage, puts in motion the fragments of more 

 than a ton of iron. No precautions are possible in a fortress, no splinter-proof, 

 no ordinary vaulting, perhaps no casement, exists capable of resisting their fall and 

 explosion. Such a shell would sink the largest ship or floating battery. 



A single 36-inch shell in flight costs 251., and a single 13-inch 11. 2s., yet tho 

 former is tho cheaper projectile ; for, according to Mr. Mallet's calculations, to transfer 

 to the point of effect the same weight of bursting powder, we must give 



55 shells of 13 inches, at 21. 2s. ... . . 115 10 



Against 1 shell of 36 inches ... . . . 25 



Showing a saving in favour of the largo shell of . 90 10 



In 1871 we have tho following return of Cannon and Mortars exported :v 



