4 
SHORT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
(1) Armstrong E time fuzes, meal powder composition 
Approximate 
Mean time 
mean initial 
of burning 
velocity. 
1 inch in 
ft. 
sec. 
B.L. 20-pr..., 
. 1150 
1-85 
n 12-pr.... 
1-93 
a 9-pr.... 
2-10 
i, 6-pr.... 
2*18 
(2) Boxer’s wood time fuze in elongated shells 
In B.L. shells. In M.L. shells. 
ft. sec. ft, sec. 
B.L. 7". 1015 4-84 9".1160 4-49 
„ 64-pr. 1120 4-71 8".1180 4*56 
„ 40-pr. 1200 5-06 7".,... 1220 4-20 
64-pr....1120 4*55 
(3) Boxer’s wood time fuze in spherical shells 
ft. sec. ft. sec. 
10-5" (150-pr.)... 1640 6-56 68-pr....l791 5-21 
10-0". 1257 6-49 32-pr....l912 4-94 
8-0". 1465 6-19 
(4) Boxer’s wood time fuze in mortar shells :— 
ft 
sec. 
13".... 
6-75 
10 // .... 
.. 300 „ 500 
5*50 
8".... 
... 300 „ 500 
5-70 
8. The Engineer of January, 1867, contains a series of articles by Mr Mallet 
“ on the trajectories of elongated rifled projectiles on striking and in penetrating 
solid resisting media” based on two memoirs, the titles of which are not given, by 
Major-General Mayefski of the Russian service. A work whose pages are described 
as “ in a perfect foam of formulae,” where “ the highest analytical devices, elliptical 
functions, &c. are freely brought into play,” will have few readers anywhere, and 
not many in the British service, in which high attainments in pure mathematics are 
rare as they are in most active professions of our eminently practical country. The 
conclusions however to which the writer and his annotator are led have a wider 
range of interest. We here find a theoretical refutation of the fallacy long 
supported by eminent mechanical authorities that flat-fronted shot are the best for 
penetration: on the contrary it is proved, according to Mr Mallet, “ First, that 
not only is the ogival form the best for penetrating armour plates when fired 
normally , but that it is the best for oblique fire at any angle. Second, that directly 
contrary to the popular notion upon the subject, the ogival shot is much less 
likely to glance off in oblique fire than a flat-faced one of equal mass and diameter 
and equal velocity of projection, or than any form of round nosed shot.” Itfurthur 
follows that “the ogival pointed shot may penetrate and not glance at angles of 
oblique fire more acute than half the vertex angle of the ogive : so oblique indeed 
that no spherical shot, much less any flat-ended cylinder would have a chance of 
delivering anything more than a glancing blow.” 
It scarcely requires the skill of a great analyst to predict in general terms what 
will happen when a pointed shot encounters an inclined surface which it is able to 
enter. The resistance in front and on the side of the angle of incidence, tends to 
throw over the rear part towards the side of reflection, and the axis tends more and 
more as it enters, towards a normal to the surface. This has been very well 
exemplified in several of the rounds fired at the inclined target at Shoeburyness, 
especially Nos. 1245, 1247, and 1293; the particulars will appear hereafter. 
