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FIELD RANGE-FINDING. 
BX 
LIEUT. E. G. EDWARDS, K.A. 
Few practical artillerymen will deny tliat tlie important question of 
field range-finding is still on a very unsatisfactory footing, tliougli 
numerous committees and individuals nave tried tlieir hands at its 
solution. 
The subject seems to require consideration under two heads :— 
1st. The conditions to be kept in view in the selection of a system 
of range-finding with regard to the nature of the apparatus, 
and the powers of the men who are to use it. 
2nd. The system of teaching, and the objects to be aimed at in 
teaching, the practical use of the same, so as to ensure 
efficiency. Also the organisation necessary to attain the 
same end. 
The Committee on Range-finders was appointed for the elucidation 
of the former, and the Okehampton experiments in 1875 drew forth 
some remarks on the latter in the official report of the Committee. 
On the recommendation of the Range-finding Committee, two 
systems of field range-finding have been adopted into the service, 
neither of which is satisfactory ; and though the suggestions of the 
Okehampton Committee with regard to necessary modifications of 
battery establishments by an increase of men and horses have not 
been carried out, some attempts have been made to supply batteries 
with range-finders of the approved patterns, and to exercise the men 
in their use; but hitherto these efforts have only led to a general 
condemnation of the instruments, and have served to show how neces¬ 
sary it is to have some definite system of instruction, and to make 
certain modifications in the present battery establishments. 
It would appear, then, that we have neither fully recognised the 
conditions to be fulfilled in the choice of a system, nor adopted proper 
means for teaching the art of range-finding. 
1st* With regard to the selection of the system. A range-finder 
must be one of two things—either a more or less complicated machine, 
involving more or less calculation and adjustments, which can only be 
put into the hands of an expert; or it may be a perfectly simple affair, 
