THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
399 
altogether unprofitable expenditure of time and trouble to investigate the 
claims thus set up, and to see what can be said on behalf of the brave old 
General who can no longer speak for himself, and to whom it is no longer 
permitted to vindicate his own claim. 
It seems to me that if his title to his shell be General Shrapnel's^only 
monument, and the one which his family, who best knew what his wishes 
would be on this matter, selected for him, upon us has devolved in some sort 
the custody of it, and we are bound to guard it jealously from those who 
would deface it, by scribbling upon it other names, and by obliterating the 
one which we are in the habit of thinking should be there alone. 
In short, was General Shrapnel the inventor of the shell, or class of shell, 
which bears his name, or not ? 
The term u inventor '' is variously applied: men are sometimes called 
inventors who rake up some forgotten principle or design long since 
laid aside; or who import into their own country without acknowledge¬ 
ment the little known inventions of other lands; or who lay hold of a 
principle imperfectly applied, and walking up the ladder which another 
man has laboriously constructed, proceed to build above his head on their 
own account, maturing his defective or incomplete details, and associating 
their own names with the first practical application of the principle; or 
who first perceive the principle but fail to apply it usefully; or who gather 
together fragments and shreds of other men's inventions, and build up a 
whole of their own,—all these men are sometimes called inventors. But 
there are inventors of another, though less numerous, class,—less numerous 
because the process by which they acquire their title, being a sort of double 
process, is slower and more laborious:—these are the men who first clearly 
perceive and appreciate the principles upon which the operation and success 
of their own invention will depend, and who first apply these principles 
practically and in a useful form. It is among inventors of this latter 
class that I desire to rank General Shrapnel; it is his title to be ranked 
among inventors of this class that the foreign authors I have referred to 
dispute.* 
It will be necessary before proceeding to discuss General Shrapnel's title 
to be considered as the inventor, in the broad sense which I assign to the 
word, of the shell which bears his name, to establish clearly; (1) What 
was the nature and proposed application of the shell; (2) What the 
principle of action upon which that application depends. 
1st. The nature and proposed application of the shell. The Shrapnel Shell 
“ originally consisted of a thin iron shell filled with musket or carbine balls, 
sufficient powder being inserted, with the balls, to cause the bursting of the 
shell when ignited by the fuze."t 
* I hare nowhere seen it disputed that the credit of perfecting, or procuring the re-introduction 
into the service of, shells of the Shrapnel class is due to General Shrapnel ; so much, at least, seems to 
he universally admitted. But it will be seen by my text that the credit thus accorded appears to me 
to involve a much lower order of merit than that to which I think the General has a claim, and which 
this paper is written to establish. 
f Synopsis of Ordnance Select Committee Reports.—Shrapnel Shell , p. 5. 
