394 
7 C ITALIAN FIELD GUN. 
48 cartridges are packed above the projectiles in 4 cartouches; there 
are further 45 percussion fuzes in 3 boxes besides small stores. Total, 
46 rounds. 
Wagon Body . 
48 common and 18 shrapnel shells (fuzed ); 66 cartridges in 6 car- 
touches ; 48 percussion fuzes and small stores. Total, 66 rounds. 
Thus per gun there are with the battery—- 
Common shell. Shrapnel shell. Case. 
2 Limbers . 
64 ' 
24 
4 
1 Wagon body ... 
48 
18 
0 
Total per gun 
112 
42 
4 
or 158 rounds per gun. 
The Shrapnel Shell. 
The vertical section (Fig. 4) will show that this projectile is very 
much like the Boxer shrapnel, only that the ogival head is formed by a 
time fuze on the Bormann principle, and that the burster is situated— 
as in the first Boxer u improved shrapnel”—in the axis of the shell, in 
Jieu of being in a powder-chamber at the base. The bullets are 100 in 
number, 0‘57 in. in diameter, 27J of which weigh 1 lb. 
The accounts of the experiments* mention one fact which, if accurate, 
is well worthy of notice—viz., “the bullets, before being introduced 
into the shell, are immersed in boiling oil ; they are kept in position by 
resin poured upon them. This lubrication of the bullets favours their 
regular dispersion, preventing the resin from binding them together in 
groups at the moment of explosion.” The experiments coincide with 
those made in England in one point—viz., that the mouth of the shell 
proper should be as large as possible. 
The effect of the shrapnel at known distances is as follows :— 
Firing at 50 men in line, at 875 yds., 12 men hit per round, and at 
1750 yds. 9 men hit. The slight difference is said to be due to the 
fact that aim was not taken in the first case at different parts of the 
target, as was done in the second case. 
Firing at 25 men kneeling in line, 3 men for every 2 paces, at the 
above distances, the result was one-half the effect of the above at each 
range. 
Firing at half a squadron in line of 31 men at 875 yds., 8 men hit 
per round, and at 1750 yds. 7 men. 
Firing at 25 men lying down, represented by vertical targets 1*64 ft. 
high xl‘84 ft. wide, and by sloping targets attached to the former 
* By Captain P. Barabino, Royal Italian Artillery. 
