524 
ON THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES OF TIME FUZES AND 
PERCUSSION FUZES IN SHRAPNEL SHELL, AS SHOWN 
BY THE EXPERIMENTS AT OKEHAMPTON, AUGUST AND 
SEPTEMBER 1875. 
DY 
MAJOR R. LYON, R.A. 
(Assistant Superintendent "Royal Laboratory.) 
The Report of the Special Committee upon their experiments at 
Okehampton gives information upon the relative effects of the different 
projectiles employed, viz :— 
Common shell, with percussion fuzes, 
Abel’s water shell, „ „ 
Boxer shrapnel shell, u « 
« u with time fuzes. 
In making the comparison, it has been necessary to consider only 
those shell which were “ effective **—an epithet which is applied (see 
p. 6 para. 12) to a shell “ which bursts in a target, or within a reason¬ 
able distance in front of it/* &c. 
The following information has been extracted from the records of the 
practice, with the view of making a direct comparison between the 
value of time fuzes and percussion fuzes with shrapnel. Not merely 
the “ effective ** shell, but every round has been taken into con¬ 
sideration ; for in such a comparison it would not be right to disregard 
a round because the time fuze happened to be bored too long, for the 
same shell with a percussion fuze might have been effective; nor 
should a percussion shell which has grazed too far be omitted, because 
the same shell with a time fuze, bored correctly, might perhaps have 
hit the object. 
Table A shows the trials made with deliberate firing at ascertained 
ranges. The column headed “ effects ** gives the number of “ dummies/* 
“ troopers/* &c., disabled—not the number of “ hits.** 
