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FIELD EANGE-FINDING. 
Tlie School of Kange-finding should be organised on the same 
principle as the School of Army Signalling already in existence, and 
might be either for artillery alone or for the army. 
The first and most vital point to be considered is the locality, which 
leads us at once to condemn such places as Woolwich or Shoeburyness, 
and to recognise the incomparable superiority of such a place as 
Aldershot, where there is a great extent and infinite variety of ground, 
all War Department property, presenting nearly every difficulty which 
would occur on service, and every salient feature of which has its own 
name and is marked on the map ; besides which the constant field-days 
afford the best opportunities for sending out the instructors in attend¬ 
ance on batteries to note the positions they take up and the objects 
they fire at for subsequent practice with the range-finders. 
The preliminaries to the establishment of the school would therefore 
be as follows. 
The staff of instruction, consisting of an officer instructor and two 
N.C.O. assistant instructors, having been selected, should be sent to 
Aldershot at the commencement of a drill season. They should attend 
R.H.A. and field batteries on all field days. They should be provided 
with a 6-in. map, on which they should note every position the 
batteries take up, also the points upon which they receive orders to 
fire. If these points are troops, the nearest stationary object should 
be noted and marked on the map, also any difficulties, such as proximity 
of other troops, &c. The ranges should be measured rapidly at the 
same time, and the results compared, with the map; and next day the 
same ranges should be measured, both deliberately and against time 
by the staff, no matter what the weather may be. After a montiffs 
practice, a dozen or twenty officers and N.C. officers or men may be 
selected from different batteries and sent to the school for a montiffs 
instruction in range-finding and the construction and care of instru¬ 
ments, and should be exercised only over the ground occupied by the 
batteries and in all weathers. 
In this manner the tendency to select only easy ground, objects, 
and weather would be overcome, and greater confidence in the instru¬ 
ments would be the result. Otherwise the instructor inevitably selects 
for himself a few elevated plateaux, whence a number of church spires 
or factory chimneys are visible, of which he and his pupils find the 
range ad infinitum (on fine days). 
Practice is required in finding the ranges of ill-defined objects 
such as troops, lines of entrenchments, woods, tops of hills, points 
in roads, rivers, or ravines, from positions presenting difficulties of 
ground and obstacles such as intervening buildings, trees, hillocks, 
ditches, &c., not only between the ends of the base but also between 
the ends of the base and the object. Such practice will gradually 
bridge over difficulties which at first appear insurmountable. 
Of course the present service range-finders would be used at first, 
but the school once established, more attention would be directed to 
the subject, and there would be increased facilities for giving new 
proposals a fair trial; and the conditions to be fulfilled would soon 
become apparent when systematic attempts were made to instruct 
officers and men in the use of the instruments under varying conditions 
of ground, objects, wind, and weather. 
