174 
SHRAPNEL FIRE. 
at—a size of object which, if we except gun pits, is never likely to be 
the fact on service, where, as a rule, a large breadth or depth of ground 
has to be covered. In a word, neither the positions or targets have 
borne any resemblance to the exigences or realities of service. 
To obtain the maximum effect on targets of such a nature, placed on 
ground so entirely favourable, has, however, very naturally been the 
aim of officers in command of batteries; and this has led to their 
having but slight opportunities of observing how greatly the action 
of the shell has altered; of arriving at the means by which its 
maximum results might be obtained; or of having forced upon their 
attention the fact that the rules which govern the use of shrapnel 
must vary with different objects and the ground on which they may 
be in position. 
The main purpose of shrapnel must be steadily kept in view—viz., 
with a shell of a certain weight to cover any given area with as 
powerful and effective a bullet fire as possible, and thus to disable a 
large number of the enemy. To take an extreme case, for instance, 
we might suppose a battery, supplied with a solid shot of the same 
weight as its shrapnel, firing at a single rank. Each projectile 
could disable one man only; whereas it will be seen further on that 
a shrapnel, effectively burst with a time fuze, would account for from 
19 to 23. It is to this crucial test of numbers disabled that all 
practice should be referred, since a shell that looks well in a Report 
may in fact be a very indifferent one. For instance, one in the 
Okehampton Report gives a total of 121 hits in a very small area. 
When it is analysed, it will be found to be as follows :—Throughs, 2; 
lodges, 3; strikes, 116. It is therefore wholly wanting in power. 
The number of dummies it disabled are two; it has no effective 
spread; it is, indeed, a good specimen of a bad shell. 
The method generally adopted to test the practical value of any 
projectile is (1) to use it under circumstances as favourable as pos¬ 
sible to bringing out and noting its maximum effect, and then (2) to 
use it under conditions as nearly as possible those which would obtain 
under ordinary circumstances, and thus find out how much of its 
maximum effect can be obtained on service. It it proposed to follow 
out the same principle in the present paper, by attempting to show (1), 
from some experiments carried out with great care at Shoeburyness 
and Okehampton, what are the maximum effects and the conditions 
necessary to attain them; afterwards, (2), from some experiments at 
Okehampton, how far such effect can be retained in practice. 
The experiments at Okehampton must by this time be well known; 
those more particularly referred to will be shortly described in the 
proper places. The experiments at Shoeburyness are, however, less 
generally read, and may be shortly described; they may be found in 
extenso in “ Extracts from the Quarterly Report of the Department of 
the Director of Artillery,” Yol. XII., Part II., pp. 114-17. Three 
different patterns of shrapnel shell for the 16-pr. R.M.L. gun were 
to be tried. The target used consisted of a moveable screen, 
18 ft. x 18 ft., which was placed at different distances in front of four 
rows of targets, 54 ft. x 9 ft. x 2 ins., 20 yds. apart. The shells were 
