FIELD RANGE-FINDING. 
207 
officers or N.C. officers—are to handle the instruments, to keep them 
in repair and adjustment, and are to be told off entirely for range¬ 
finding duties, we may and should select from classes I. to Y. But if, 
on the other hand, any soldier is to learn the art, and having learnt it 
not to forget it; if the instruments are to be subjected to rough and 
tumble work, carried anyhow and anywhere, and are not to require 
repairs other than the battery artificers can execute, we have no 
choice but in classes YI. and YII.; or at any rate we must look in 
that quarter for ultimate success by encouraging proposals for the 
solution of the difficulty, and above all by carrying out practical and 
bond fide experiments with them under service conditions. 
Some definite standard of simplicity of gear, &c., must be fixed 
upon, and having secured that, take whatever can be got in the way 
of elasticity, accuracy, and reliability; in fact, carry out the old rule 
for building a cannon—viz., get a hole the size you want, and put 
some brass round it. 
2nd. Having got an instrument, men must be taught how to use 
it, and arrangements must be made to provide for its efficiency when 
entrusted to batteries. This subject may be conveniently considered 
under separate headings. 
(1) The present system, and cause of failure. 
(2) The arrangements necessary to ensure success. 
(1) The present system consists of pitchforking sets of range-finding 
apparatus into batteries in which probably there are neither officers 
nor men who have any knowledge of or taste for the subject, or time 
to devote to it; leaving them to find out for themselves how to work 
it or to leave it alone—of which two courses open to them they probably 
elect the latter. 
This leads to the instruments getting out of order from ignorant 
handling, and to their being ultimately shelved in the battery store as 
useless encumbrances; as both officers and men already have plenty of 
work to do which they do understand, without saddling themselves with 
work which they do not understand, and have no chance of learning to 
master. 
(2) As long as range-finding duties are superadded without any 
corresponding increment of men and horses, the battery establishments 
having been already cut down to the lowest possible working limits, 
without making any allowance for casualties, range-finding is sure 
to be voted an intolerable nuisance. The first step, therefore, before 
any progress can be made, should be to increase each battery by one 
or two men and horses, whose chief duty will be range-finding, 
though they might be available for other work. 
The next point to consider is the machinery for teaching the art of 
range-finding on a systematic principle; and here we shall probably 
encounter opposition at the outset. For, in the first place, it consists 
in the formation of a centre of instruction, on however small a scale; 
otherwise the requisite uniformity will never be obtained, and each 
battery commanding officer will have his own ideas on the subject^ 
which he will endeavour to carry out, whatever they may be, 
