172 PEACE ESTABLISHMENTS 



were abrogated through the substitution of a quiet con- 

 tinuous for a percussive jerking force. Nevertheless, hap- 

 pening to call at shed No. 50, where Mr. Hale was at work 

 charging his rockets, a certain inquisitive outsider saw gun- 

 metal rammers bent and warped lying about : the result of 

 unavailing efforts to make them withstand the application 

 of a force to which the cohesion between their particles was 

 altogether inefficient. Here was a case in which the mis- 

 chievous tendency to do something countervailed what should 

 have been the sole responsibility of the inventor ; who should 

 have been admitted to know more about the conditions relative 

 to the manufacture of his own rockets than anybody else. 



It may have been thought desirable, at a certain epoch 

 of British military-store manufacture, to beget and foster the 

 impression that the preparation of war-appliances was a secret 

 held exclusively by the government. This may be thought 

 desirable even now ; but, be this as it may, to give effect to 

 the desire is impossible. Notwithstanding all the special edu- 

 cation which military and naval men receive, it is on record, 

 beyond the chance or power of contradiction, that since the 

 time of Shrapnell, no war -invention of much purport or 

 consequence is traceable to an individual of either naval or 

 military service. One may be reminded, perhaps, of the 

 Moorson concussion spherical shell, a projectile not to be 

 forgotten. Its sphere of efficiency, subsequent to the intro- 

 duction of rifled heavy ordnance, has been much restricted ; 

 and, measured as to relative importance with the molten iron- 

 charged shell of Mr. Martin, a civilian, it ranks low indeed 

 as a triumph of inventive skill. As to ordnance and small- 

 arms, in their respective mutations during the past twenty 

 years, that individual must have followed contemporary re- 

 cords bearing upon these matters to their issues with small 

 effect indeed, if he still need to be informed that nearly all 

 improvements in this career, if not absolutely all, are refer- 

 able to civilian labours. 



