SHORT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
119 
be used either as a time, or as a percussion shell to greater advantage than the 
shrapnel; and that it is much better adapted for the general requirements of war 
in which the attack of villages, entrenchments, stockades, &c., must be included. 
3. The segment shell should never be used with two fuzes ; in most cases the 
percussion fuze will be found best suited for H, and this should be considered as 
its ordinary fuze ; but when the ground is unfavourable to the action of the per¬ 
cussion fuze, the time fuze should be substituted for it. The employment of the 
two fuzes at the same time seems to lead to no good result, whilst it causes delay 
in serving the guns, and adds unnecessarily to the expense of the projectile. The 
F fuze, which acted well as a time fuze, is also a percussion fuze ; but this double 
action appears to me to be objectionable, and it adds greatly to the expense. 
4. The cost of the segment shell is less than half that of the shrapnel, but the 
fuzes used with it are much more expensive than those used with the shrapnel; but 
if one fuze only is used at a time with the segment, its total cost will be far less than 
that of the shrapnel. 
5. The shrapnel shell has proved itself to be a very valuable projectile as a time 
shell, and in some cases superior to the segment shell; and if it should be considered 
desirable to introduce it into the service for the 12-pr. and 9-pr. rifled guns, in con¬ 
sequence of any difficulty in providing a suitable time fuze for the segment shell, the 
proportion of one-fourth would in my opinion be sufficient. 
6. The time fuze supplied with the shrapnel shell is perfectly safe, but a very con¬ 
siderable number were blind. 
The service E time, and the C.F.S. (Freeth) percussion, fuzes for the segment 
shells are altogether unreliable and unsafe, and should be no longer retained in the 
service. Steps should therefore be taken to provide proper fuzes for the segment 
shells, and to ensure that the construction of the shell shall in future be more in 
conformity with the design of the inventor than appears to be the case. 
7. The unsatisfactory practice at unknown ranges whilst manoeuvring rapidly, 
shows that a large quantity of ammunition may be wasted without the fact being 
observable from the battery, and points to the necessity of some means being pro¬ 
vided for ascertaining in the held, and within reasonable limits, the distance of the 
object to be fired at. For this purpose an instrument, invented by Lieutenant 
Nolan, E.A., was fitted to two guns of the 12-pr. battery ; it was worked by the 
gun detachments, under Lieut. Nolan’s instructions, and the ranges were measured 
with sufficient accuracy in about one minute and a-half, or during the time which 
a field battery must take to come into action, and get ready its ammunition for 
firing. This was the only instrument submitted to the committee ; and they were 
so favourably impressed with it that they recommended its further trial. 
Should this or some other instrument for the purpose be introduced into the 
service, the fullest advantage might be obtained from the guns of precision of the 
present day, an advantage which was signally lost in the rapid manoeuvres at 
Dartmoor, where the peculiar features of the ground made it most difficult to 
ascertain the ranges by means of trial shots.” 
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