ROCKET SHELLS, AND ARTILLERY OE THE FUTURE. 
298 
destroyed, tlie fewer men are killed, and tke fresher he is for carrying 
out his pursuit. All serviceable 'materiel falling into his hands is a 
double advantage to him, as it not only destroys the enemy^s force but 
transfers it undiminished to his opponent; and as to men, for every one 
hors cle combat on the one side there is a corresponding proportion on 
the other, varying approximately between 100 and 75 per cent., whereas 
large captures in retreat are effected with comparatively small losses. 
The guarding and marching to the rear prisoners of war can, as a rule, 
be safely executed by small forces of inferior troops, which may be 
diminished the further the prisoners are removed. 
These are, then, the advantages I conceive to belong to the destruction 
of moral force as rapidly as possible; and it is only by due consideration 
and development of all the agents at work on the battle field that the 
result can be obtained. Physical destruction, no doubt, stands out 
among the other agents; but it is by no means alone in the field. 
Now, the real advantages claimed for rockets are of this nature:— 
Their direct physical effects are but small at the best of times, yet the 
moral effect they produce by the volume of flame they pour out, their 
hissing noise, &c., is considerable, especially when they can be directed 
on troops suddenly and with some degree of precision. On the other 
hand, when occasionally they hit their mark, the force of impact is very 
trifling; they have no bursting arrangement, and even their power of 
setting fire to buildings is uncertain A 
The special defects which have opposed the employment of rockets 
as warlike projectiles may thus be summarised :— 
1. The difficulty of laying them properly.f 
2. Irregularities in flight (lateral), 
3. Uncertainty of range. 
4. Height of trajectory. 
5. Low velocity at long ranges. 
6. Small momentum after bursting. 
7. Great weight of each round. 
8. Considerable deflections after graze. 
In the construction of the rocket shell I have endeavoured to lessen 
or to obviate these evils, to increase as far as possible the special 
qualities of rockets in their moral effects, and at the same time not to 
lose sight of the more common qualities in material destruction, 
The reader will have observed in the above list of defects that none 
of them can fairly be attributed to projectiles fired from modern rifled 
ordnance, except perhaps No. 8, and that only in a very small degree. 
* Sir Samuel Baker observes that rockets pass through, native huts constructed of reeds without 
firing them; and this was also my experience in the Perak expedition, Malay Peninsula, 1875-6. 
t Defects in the trough have been pointed out in the reports of Major Rait and Lieut. Knox on 
the ammunition used in the expedition to Commassie. I would also observe that the elevating?, 
bar is graduated on the supposition that the trough is resting on a level plane. In bill and jungle 
warfare, for which Hale’s war rocket is admirably adapted, it is therefore generally impossible to 
lay the trough accurately without spirit-level and quadrant. At short ranges I have therefore 
invariably laid my rockets by eye, and made in this way very fair practice indeed in the. ?fialay 
native states. 
