BOMB 



803 



BOMBAY 



houses are municipally owned and are operated 

 at a substantial profit, which is devoted to the 

 reduction of taxation. The most important 

 public buildings are the town hall, the market 

 hall and Saint Peter's Church. There are six 

 free public libraries and four public parks. 

 The city is one of the oldest in England ; it was 

 designated as a market town as early as 1256. 

 Population in 1911, 180,885. 



BOMB, bom or bum, a hollow ball, usually 

 of cast iron or steel, filled with shot and ex- 

 plosive chemicals which are ignited by a fuse, 

 or by a percussion cap when thrown. As 

 applied to a projectile fired from a cannon the 

 word has been entirely superseded by shell. 



A bomb is popularly regarded as the peculiar 

 weapon of anarchists and other dissatisfied 

 classes, and the name has acquired a sinister 

 meaning as that of a dreaded destroyer. An 

 ordinary tube such as a gaspipe may be made 

 into a bomb by filling it with explosives and 

 attaching to it a fuse or percussion cap to 

 explode it. A more ingenious bomb is made 

 with a clock-work attachment which will cause 

 an explosion at a certain time, by completing a 

 circuit between two small electric batteries, or 

 by allowing a weight to fall on a percussion 

 cap. 



In the War of the Nations, bombs to be 

 thrown by hand, .called grenades, were exten- 

 sively used in trench warfare. Others, some- 

 times of primitive manufacture and consisting 

 of tin cans filled with powder ignited by a 

 fuse, were hurled by catapults. Such a bomb 

 is made somewhat on the principle of a shrap- 

 nel shell (see SHRAPNEL). A metal case con- 

 tains the explosive, on the top of which bul- 

 lets, pieces of metal, or even stones are placed. 

 The powder or explosive bursts the metal case, 

 fragments of which, together with the other 

 articles it contains, are scattered powerfully in 

 all directions. 



BOMBARD'MENT, an attack on a fortress, 

 city or field position by the continued and 

 concentrated fire of big guns. Previous to the 

 War of the Nations a bombardment of strongly- 

 fortified positions had usually resulted in favor 

 of the defenders, the guns then employed not 

 doing sufficient damage to warrant the expense 

 and time of the bombardment. The bombard- 

 ment of Port Arthur by the Japanese in the 

 Russo-Japanese War, although doubtless of 

 considerable moral effect on the defenders, 

 entirely failed to win the town until the Japa- 

 nese troops had been pushed forward sufficiently 

 to dominate the interior of all the Russian 



positions. In the South African War the bom- 

 bardment of Ladysmith and Kimberley had 

 only trivial effects. The inhabitants escaped 

 injury by digging underground chambers, to 

 which they retired when necessary. 



An entire change of opinion as to what bom- 

 bardment can accomplish occurred at the very 

 beginning of the War of the Nations in 1914, 

 when the forts of Liege, though considered 

 impregnable and among the most modern in 

 the world, were easily battered down by Ger- 

 man artillery. The forts of Namur, Antwerp, 

 Przemysl and other towns shared the same 

 fate, and it has been convincingly shown that 

 no matter how strong a fort may be made, 

 guns can be produced to reduce it. Bombard- 

 ment of trenches was also more effective than 

 in any previous war, and more than sixty per 

 cent of the wounds inflicted were caused by 

 artillery fire. This is due in a great measure 

 to the fact that in previous wars guns employed 

 were counted by tens, whereas in the gigantic 

 European struggle the fire of hundreds of guns 

 was concentrated on the positions attacked. 

 In the last attack on Przemysl by the Austro- 

 German forces, 240,000 shells were fired at the 

 Russian defenders within twenty-four hours. 



Aerial Bombardment. The War of the Na- 

 tions brought about many alterations in the 

 conduct of war, and none of the new methods 

 of destruction was more dreaded than bombard- 

 ment from the air. The dirigible airships of 

 the Germans and the aeroplanes of other 

 nations hovered over important points and 

 dropped bombs of great power. Cities in Eng- 

 land were repeatedly attacked and great dam- 

 age to buildings and considerable loss of life 

 resulted. This plan of attack being entirely 

 new, it called for new methods of defense. 

 Guns were mounted on hills, on high buildings, 

 and wherever they could be utilized to greatest 

 advantage. Pointing almost directly upward, 

 these guns fired shells into the air in the 

 attempt to destroy or drive away the aerial 

 invaders. The damage done by air raids was 

 considerably less than might have been ex- 

 pected, owing chiefly to the difficulty of ascer- 

 taining when the airship was in proper position 

 above the object at which bombs were to be 

 thrown. See WAR OF THE NATIONS. F.ST.A. 



BOMBAY, bom bay', a presidency, or prov- 

 ince, of British India, extending from Baluchi- 

 stan in a long strip down the western coast, 

 nearly to the southern end of the peninsula. 

 The surface is mountainous, the Western Ghats 

 running parallel to the coast for nearly the en- 



