n 
DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
cordingly they were fired under ten degrees and some of them six 
degrees. Therefore I am surprised that there was not a larger per¬ 
centage of blinds than there were. I think the number of blinds that 
occurred were 30 out of 360 rounds. Of course the advantage of this 
fuze is that for the first time in action, men have been able to stand up 
to their guns firing high explosive shells. This fuze has been tested 
by the Ordnance Committee and others as to safety by actually pro¬ 
ducing prematures in the guns ; and it did not reach the magazines and 
did not fire the shells. Therefore when they only got 30 blinds out of 
360 shells and those fired at an angle of six degrees, I think they really 
did very well. The shell used had only a bursting charge of 41b. 14 oz. 
The present Mark II. shell has a bursting charge of 91b. 15oz., that is 
to say more than double; and therefore I suppose it would have a still 
greater effect. I am sorry that the case shot and star shell were not 
tried; they were both perfectly new and were sent out there for the 
first time, 
There is one question I should like to ask. You have all tried the 
T friction tubes and you have not, I am afraid, been very satisfied 
with them owing to the pull off. Those that you have used, have been 
the Mark I. and Mark II., but I think Colonel Elmslie's battery was 
supplied with the new Mark III. tube which I hope has given satis¬ 
factory results; and when it comes to the batteries I hope it will be 
favourably thought of. I should be very glad if Colonel Elmslie 
would tell us something about this. 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie :—With regard to the tubes Sir, they were 
the Mark III. tube as Colonel Bainbridge has mentioned and they 
were most satisfactory; we had not a single misfire and we had no 
trouble at all. 
I should just like to make a slight explanation with reference to 
what Colonel Bainbridge said, and what you Sir, asked me. We were 
not firing at a horizontal plane but at walls and buildings, and that is 
the reason why (perhaps I should have said it when you asked the 
question) I did not alter the charge or the elevation; the target was 
quite a suitable one for the full charge. If I had been firing to burst 
the shells on a horizontal plane it would have been a different thing 
altogether, but we were firing at walls and buildings and not testing 
fuzes. 
Colonel Bainbkidge, c.b. :—If I may trouble you once more Sir, I for¬ 
got to say one thing, which is this :—Colonel Elmslie has said that it is 
desirable that we should have a graze fuze for the howitzer. Not long 
ago I was asked to produce a design for this and I am happy to say 
that I have satisfactorily fired them at Shoeburyness, they had the same 
safety as the others but they will act when fired at two degrees 
elevation. I fired them with the full and the lowest charge in our 
howitzers and they all acted at two degrees. 
Major-General F. T. Lloyd, c.b. :—I should like to ask Colonel 
Bainbridge, with regard to the increased bursting charge that he pro¬ 
poses to put into the 5-in. howitzer, whether it will not occupy so much 
space, that very little of the interior walls of the shells will be left and 
