THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
171 
Many officers will probably fancy that they have made better trial shot 
practice than this; but as far as my experience has gone, it is very hard to 
get a battery to make any bond fide trial shot practice at all. 
At Aldershot, the precautions taken for safety necessitate practice from 
the same spot, or rather along the same line, and the landmarks there have 
become well known. 
When firing at targets in the sea the range is often unknown, but the range 
party, at all sea practice, invariably put down the shot as striking much 
nearer the target than it really does. 
Almost the only circumstances under which there is bond fide firing at un¬ 
known ranges properly recorded in this country, is when guns go on the 
sands at Shoeburyness; and even there, unless expressly forbidden, the range 
party will give vent to their burning desire to communicate immediately the 
results of the first rounds to the firing party—thus vitiating the whole day's 
work. 
III.— That it is improbable that the distance op an enemy will, 
por Artillery purposes, be more eppectually obtained by 
ANY INSTRUMENT DIFFERING ESSENTIALLY IN CONSTRUCTION 
prom the Range-Finder. 
To prove this point is a difficult task, as the proof of a negative proposi¬ 
tion must always be. It must also be understood that of the hundreds of 
instruments devised for this purpose, there is not one that will not, under 
certain circumstances, give some favourable results, and that most of them 
are superior to the trial shot system. 
I will class all the instruments that are known under three heads, and 
although I acknowledge that this classification is not perfectly exhaustive, it 
will include all worth noticing :— 
1. Telemeters that use the height of a man in the enemy's ranks as their 
base. 
2. Telemeters containing their own base. 
3. Instruments that employ a fixed base of definite length—generally 
100, 50, or 25 yds. 
Class 1.—The best type of this class is Elliott's telescope. A thread fixed 
in the focus of the telescope is pointed at a man's feet; the movement of a 
ring brings a movable thread on the man's head; an arrow then points out his 
distance. A second scale does for horsemen. 
Perfect as is the workmanship of this telescope, it will never suffice for 
artillery— 
(1) Because men vary in height. 
(2) Because their feet are often concealed. 
(3) Because a distance is often required where there is no man present. 
Class 2.-—Instruments containing their own base. 
Adie, Clerk, Guatier, Piazzi Smyth, Otto Struve, have made good instru¬ 
ments of this class. 
