94 
ARMOUR AND ITS ATTACK BY ORDNANCE. 
Pierie Aeid. 
Lyddit®. 
of ammunition carried on board ship, most Coast Artillery officers 
would be delighted to see their enemy wasting precious ammunition in 
this way. 
It may here be mentioned that Canet has made, for coast defence, 
guns of the extraordinary length of 80 calibres. On August 27th, 
1892, 1 2 Canet fired a 10 cm (3'9-inch) gun, 80 calibres long, with a 
charge of 22'1 lbs. of brown prismatic powder, and a projectile weigh¬ 
ing 13 kg. (28*7 lbs.) The muzzle velocity was 826 metres (2710 feet), 
and on September 20th, with the same projectile and a charge of 
5'6 kg. (12*3 lbs.) of smokeless powder, the extraordinary muzzle 
velocity of 1026 metres (3366 feet) was obtained, and a muzzle energy 
of 2255 foot-tons, with a pressure of 19’55 tons. M. Canet holds that 
such guns are too long for ships to carry, and so far most officers 
would agree with him. He argues then that the fort by this means 
can obtain the power of attackiug a ship at a range at which she could 
not reply. The value of this power practically depends on the chances 
of hitting at this range and the time a vessel would take traversing the 
zone in which she was unable to reply to the forts' fire. 
Several trials of the action of powder and high explosives were made 
with 6-inch projectiles. Picric acid in a Holtzer projectile, fired on Feb¬ 
ruary 27th, 1890 (Min. Ho. 22,308), broke up too early in penetration, 
and in too small fragments to be effective. 
On July 17th, 1890 (Min. Ho. 23,759), a 6-inch Holtzer shot, filled 
with stemmed Lyddite , was fired at an Ellis compound plate, 4 feet x 4 
feet x 9 inches, at a range of 150§ yards, and detonated in the act of 
perforation, bulging and separating the metal. 
On July 24th, 1890, a similar projectile perforated and broke up. 
On and shortly afterwards another charged with deadened Lyddite 
perforated and broke up. 
On January 8th, 1891 (Min. Ho. 25,615), a 6-inch armour-piercing 
St. diamond steel shot, containing 1 lb. of R.L.Gr. and 2^ oz. of R.F.G. 
powder, struck a compound plate, 4 feet X 4 feet X 9 inches, with a 
velocity of 1931 f.s., and an energy of 2585'7 foot-tons, and, breaking 
during perforation, carried all fragments through. On the same day a 
similar projectile acted in the same way. 
In February, 1891, “ Lyddite stemmed" was recommended by the 
Committee for use in armour-piercing projectiles, this form of Lyddite 
being considered more reliable as to keeping qualities than that which 
has been heated and run into the shell. 
Steel Armour-Piercing Common Shell. 
Experiments were made with projectiles thus designated which led 
the Ordnance Committee to report them as effective for the attack of 
armour up to one calibre thick. They contain about % the bursting 
charge of common shell for the same gun. 3 They had been fired at 
various classes of targets, including a i-inch wrought-iron plate, a 
6 -inch wrought-iron and 6-inch compound plates.. 
1 See “ Engineer,” October 7th, 1892. 
2 Common shell (not armour-piercing) of cast-steel contain nearly 50 per cent, and those of 
forged steel over 100 per cent, more powder than cast-iron common shell. 
