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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
PETTMAN’S PERCUSSION FUZES. 
BY CAPTAIN VIVIAN DERING MAJENDIE, R.A. 
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, ROYAL LABORATORY. 
In preceding papers 1 2 I have described two of the fuzes for rifled 
shells; and I propose hereafter to furnish descriptions of the other rifle 
ordnance fuzes. Having, however, been requested to describe the Pettman 
percussion fuzes used until lately only with smooth-bore ordnance, but now 
with certain of our rifled guns, and my notes upon these fuzes being 
sufficiently complete to enable me to comply with this request without delay, 
I have drawn up the following paper on the subject; prefacing it with a few 
remarks on the distinction between “ Percussion 33 and “ Concussion 33 fuzes, 
-—a point upon which much uncertainty has existed. 
A Percussion or a Concussion fuze is one which is independent of the 
element of time of flight, and which depends wholly upon impact for its 
ultimate action. 
The distinction between Percussion and Concussion fuzes was until 1863 
altogether arbitrary, and the application of the terms depended upon the 
sense in which the inventor of any particular fuze chose to apply them. 
Sometimes the name “ Percussion 33 has been restricted to such fuzes as 
contain a percussive or detonating arrangement, while those fuzes have been 
called “ Concussion 33 which are independent of any such arrangement; 3 * * * * in 
other cases the application of the terms seems to have been rather a 
matter of accident than founded upon any accurate or well considered 
distinction. 8 
1 Vide Vol. IV. pp. 171, 280. 
2 Sir Howard Douglas adopts this distinction. He says, “ A concussion fuze is provided with an 
internal mechanism, so nicely adjusted as to withstand the first shock the shell receives, viz. that 
occasioned by the explosion of the charge, and resist any other that may be occasioned by grazing 
short, while it shall yield to the concussion occasioned by the impact of the shell on the body struck; 
this concussion, by shaking the burning composition of the fuze into the loaded cavity of the shell, 
instantly causes the latter to explode. 
A “percussion” fuze or shell is one fitted or filled with a chemical composition of highly explosive 
character which bursts the shell at the moment of striking, without being previously ignited.”— 
Naval Gunnery, p. 2, note. 
3 A good instance of this is afforded in the naming of two of the Armstrong fuzes, one, the iron 
fuze which was in use until 1862, was called a “ concussion ” fuze ; while the C pattern fuze by which 
it was superseded, and which depended upon identically the same principles of action, was called a 
“ percussion ” fuze j indeed, the C pattern percussion fuze \yas itself on its first introduction called 
a concussion fuze, 
