70 
DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
The Chairman :—That is to say your battery fired three rounds in a 
minute. 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie :—-Yes Sir, and I also thiok it could work 
faster. I think it can be done at fifteen seconds ; but twenty seconds 
gives plenty of time to everybody. 
The weight of the shell is 50 lbs; it is a large shell and a very 
effective one. The bursting charge is Lyddite and the pattern that 
we had, Colonel Bainbridge tells me had 4 lbs. 14 ozs. or practically 
5 lbs. of Lyddite in it. The new pattern shell which he will tell you 
all about has got something like double that bursting charge and should 
be proportionately much more effective. 
Of the fuzes we had two natures: we had the ordinary direct action 
fuze and we received at the last moment some new fuzes which were 
practically direct action fuzes fitted with the safety arrangement which 
is of course very important indeed. I fired the greater part of those 
fuzes,—something like 350 of them,—and on the whole with excellent 
results. Speaking of fuzes of course the direct action fuze, as we all 
know, is intended to go off on striking the object on actual impact. If 
you put in a large shell with a large shoulder and the shell grazes the 
ground it very often happens that the fuze never touches the ground at 
all; the shell glides off its shoulder and rises, and that causes a blind. 
As a matter of fact we suffered from blinds at Omdurman, and I have 
little doubt the greater number of those blinds were due to the shell 
grazing on the shoulder and not striking on its point—the fuze was 
not struck and therefore was blind. I think it is of the greatest im¬ 
portance that a howitzer battery should be fitted with a fuze which 
will act on the graze if it can be done safely, which of course is a 
matter of the greatest importance. I felt up the Nile that there 
was only one real anxiety,only one thing to be afraid of, and that was 
what would happen in the case of our being attacked by an advanc¬ 
ing enemy, what should we do, knowing as I did, that the fuzes would 
probably be blind ? It is no good firing solid shot at them or not 
much good. That was one of the things which, fortunately perhaps, 
was never settled, but I felt very much the want of a graze fuze and 
desired to have one ; and I am sure it is an important thing to work 
for. 
The charges of the howitzer (in case anyone here has not seen them) 
are very nicely arranged things. Of course one of the points of the 
howitzer equipment is to be able to vary the charge so as, if necessary, 
to be able to drop shell into the work or at the object with a greater 
or less angle of descent as may be required. The cartridge is there¬ 
fore so arranged that it can be varied with the greatest ease. 
Our cartridge consists of a small thing shaped like a mush¬ 
room with head and stalk, and on that stalk are threaded three separate 
rings of cordite. The whole affair is the full charge of the gun. If 
I wish to reduce it, one, or two, or all three rings are removed from 
the charge, and the remainder is sent up to the gun. We have had 
that for some years past now and I have always found it satisfactory ; 
I cannot recall a case in practice of a wrong charge being sent up to the 
