296 
ROCKET SHELLS, AND ARTILLERY OE THE FUTURE. 
burning will be quicker; the velocity will be reduced, and the flight 
will be to some extent more irregular. In field service, once the shell 
has reached its zone of action, these qualities will, I believe, increase its 
effects ; and finally the gun-cotton will explode the shell amongst the 
reserves and supports in rear, if the fuze is adjusted to allow for the 
burning of the composition. 
It is not to be expected that the bursting of this shell will be so 
effective as even a common shell, because of the violent action of gun¬ 
cotton; and from the want of some transmitting medium, it will not 
break up into as many pieces as it would with gunpowder.* 
It is against cavalry, however, that I believe this shell will be most 
effective. Infantry with a good cause and by a good training, &c., can 
be brought into action with a very large amount of moral resolution, 
which will enable it to bear up against the greatest odds and the most 
trying conditions. With the cavalry soldier it is, however, different; 
the stability of cavalry depends on the horse as much as the man. The 
horse is essentially a timid animal, and, however well trained, is more 
inclined, as a rule, to fly from danger than his rider. In fact, of all arms 
cavalry is the one to which moral force is of the greatest importance. 
Therein lies its strength as much as its weakness. Once fear or panic 
seizes any portion of a body of horse, disorder soon follows amongst the 
whole, and it becomes not only useless in itself but an embarrassment to 
the other troops. Here, then, we have an object particularly vulnerable 
to the forces of moral disorganisation, and on which, therefore, the rocket 
shell would have the best ohance of success. Besides this, the power 
of cavalry of manoeuvring in front of an enemy renders it a very transi¬ 
tory mark for artillery fire, and the better it is handled the shorter will 
be these intervals of exposure. Now, if during’ these periods—which 
are often too short for common and shrapnel shell to take effect, sup¬ 
posing even that the varying ranges can be accurately estimated—rocket 
shells were employed, if there be any value in them at all, their results 
would be perceived almost instantaneously. Squadrons that would face 
with equanimity a salvo or two of rocket shells, well directed, would not, 
I imagine, be much embarrassed by any number of such fireworks. 
It is here to be remarked that the same accuracy of fire is not needed 
with the rocket shell as with others to reap its full moral effects; hence 
the same deliberation to discover the ranges will not be required. * 1 
Carcass shells might also be constructed something after this pattern. 
Rangoon, 
October, 1877. 
* It is stated in “Treatise on Ammunition,” 1874, p. 205, that tlie 16-pr. common shell with 
1 oz. of gun-cotton, and filled of course with water, burst into 262 pieces. 
