236 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OF 
" Prussian ” head, for which at one time the Ordnance Select Committee were 
inclined to express some preference, but which subsequent experiments 
appear to shew is not as effective for penetrative purposes as the ogival 
head. The first chilled shot made by Major Palliser, in 1863, had ogival 
heads, struck with a radius equal to one and a quarter diameter of the 
projectile and brought to a point, and no good results have ever been 
obtained with chilled shot having a more obtuse head than one dia¬ 
meter. A number of experiments have, however, been made with more 
pointed ogival heads; and the best results with shells have been obtained 
with pointed ogival heads struck with a radius equal to 1J diameter of the 
projectiles (Pig. 2).* 
There are good reasons for supposing that the forms of head which have 
been adopted for the Palliser projectiles, viz. for shot radius =1 diameter, 
for shell r diameter, are calculated to give a great amount of 
general efficiency, regard being had to range, accuracy, and penetration. 
But if subsequent experiments should suggest further slight modifications, 
it seems improbable that the limits which we have assigned in the two 
directions, viz. 1 diameter and 1J diameter ogival heads will be exceeded.f 
It is at any rate quite certain that an elongated pointed head of some sort 
is necessary to develope the full effects of the chilled iron—that, indeed, with 
bluff or flat heads, projectiles of this material are comparatively useless. 
Prom these remarks it will be evident that Major Palliser's invention 
amounts not merely to a revival of an old practice, nor even merely to the 
extension of a superficial transformation or hardening, to the centre of the 
mass, by the employment of carefully selected irons, nor simply to the 
employment of hard iron, but that it consists in a particular combination of 
form and material, of head and hardness, upon which the character and 
efficiency of the projectile depend. J 
It is only comparatively recently that any attempt has been made to 
employ chilled iron for shell purposes; but the experiments which took place 
in September and October last at Shoeburyness, shewed that this material, 
in combination with the pointed form of head, could be thus used with 
enormous success; and Palliser's chilled shell have now been adopted. 
There now only remain to be noticed the advantages which chilled pro¬ 
jectiles possess over steel for penetrative purposes. They are four, viz.:— 
1. Great saving of expense. 2. Greater uniformity of hardness and structure. 
3. Superior penetrative effects. 4. Greatly increased effects after penetration. 
* This form of head closely resembles that proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia, “ for a 
form of body which would in passing through a fluid, experience less resistance than a body of 
equal magnitude, and of any other shape.”—Major Owen’s Motion of Projectiles, p. 16. 
f A more pointed head than 1^ diameter seems liable to snap off on an inclined plate. 
J In the case of spherical chilled shot, which obviously do not admit of the application of a parti¬ 
cular form, and the effects of which are thus very much more limited, Major Palliser has disclaimed 
any desire that these projectiles should be called by his name, as they cannot embody that combi¬ 
nation upon which his claims in their most complete sense are based. But the merit of spherical 
chilled shot undoubtedly does belong to Major Palliser, as being the first, according to my shewing 
in the former part of this paper, who deliberately proposed and carefully systematized the employ¬ 
ment of chilled iron for penetrative purposes. The brittleness of the spherical chilled shot is 
obviated in a measure by making them somewhat tougher than the elongated shot. 
