THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
387 
should never forget that war is not “ a game of chess,” but an affair in which 
divers causes are in continual operation to thwart the desires of the com¬ 
mander. And yet experience proves, that well trained men are obedient, 
calm, and steady, even in times of great excitement. 
In an enquiry of this nature, it is but just to go bach to the period when 
long-range case or grape was first thought of, to trace the progress of the 
projectile as far as possible, and shew what it has been the means of 
effecting. 
That it failed occasionally to realize the somewhat sanguine views of the 
inventor is evident, but the failures bear on the whole a very small propor¬ 
tion to the successes, notwithstanding the unpractised hands into which the 
new projectile very often fell. 
A small memorandum of Shrapnel's is the first indication we have of the 
great idea, the carrying out of which occupied the best years of his life :— 
“ Exhibited to General O'Hara, then commander at Gibraltar in the 
year 1787, a new method of extending the use of grape shot, or case shot, 
to the utmost range of ordnance. When General O'Hara publicly proved 
the garrison of Gibraltar secure from the attack of gun boats, as they were 
undaunted by the fire of round shot.'' 
In the archives of the Royal Military Repository, an account was subse¬ 
quently discovered, by Captain Strange, R.A., of the very experiment referred 
to above,'— 
“An experiment made at Gibraltar, the 21st December, 1787, before 
His Excellency Major-General O'Hara, with an 8-inch land service mortar; 
having its shell loaded with 200 musket balls, and powder only sufficient 
to open it: fired upon the sea, from an eminence 600 feet above its surface. 
Weight of shell 58 lbs., weight of powder in the chamber of the mortar. 
Order of fire. 
Diameter of circles 
the balls spread. 
Weight of powder 
in the shells. 
Distance the 
balls were thrown- 
ft. 
o z. 
yds. 
1 
19 
In a flannel 
1100 
2 
26 
cartridge. 3 
3 
29 
Loose . 9 
4 
27 
Total. 12 
“ The shells opened half a second before they would have reached the 
surface of the water. 
“ When the shell opens, the balls proceed in its path, not having any 
other motion communicated to them, for the flame which separates the 
shell, acting in all possible directions with equal force, presses upon the 
whole surface of each shell. 
“ Supposing A one of the balls, mn a diameter, and z the 
centre. The force of the flame upon the two points m and 
n, in the surface, will be in the direction mz, nz , towards 
the centre z, which being equal and contrary is destroyed; 
and as the number of points in one hemisphere are equal 
and opposite to those in the other, the ball must consequently 
remain at rest. 
