246 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Home Stations. 
Station. 
Results of practice. 
Premature 
hursts. 
Spread on targets. 
Remarks. 
Alderney. 
Very s atisfactory, 
and superior to all 
former Shrapnel. 
Very rare. 
Very satisfactory. 
Practice confined to firing 
at a mark on the water, 
when shells are often 
blind, either from fuze or 
elevation. 
Aldershot. 
Ballincollig. 
No opinion. 
No opinion. 
— 
— 
— 
Colchester. 
Very satisfactory. 
N o Royal Artillery practice, 
experience of Norfolk 
Militia. 
Devonport. 
Feeble and harm¬ 
less, as a shell. 
Effects nil. 
An unfavourable opinion 
of the diaphragm con¬ 
struction is expressed, 
as far inferior to the old 
Shrapnel. 
Dover. 
Extremely satisfac¬ 
tory, from heavy 
No practice. 
Floating targets un¬ 
suitable for judging 
effect. 
Dublin. 
,_ 
__ 
... 
Guernsey. 
Most satisfactory. 
Experience based on former 
local practice reports, and 
personal experience else¬ 
where. 
Jersey. 
Most satisfactory. 
— 
— 
— 
Leith Fort. 
Unsatisfactory as 
regards the splint¬ 
ers striking the 
target. 
Manchester. 
Very satisfactory. 
— 
Local practice very limited 
Pembroke 
Dock. 
Highly satisfactory. 
Very rare— 
1 out of 75. 
— 
■— 
Portsmouth 
Very satisfactory. 
— 
Spread on water, good 
— 
Sheerness. 
As perfect as dia¬ 
phragm shells can 
llG 
— 
Experience considerable. 
Woolwich. 
Shoebury- 
ness, School 
of Gunnery. 
No results noted. 
Reduced to 
a minimum. 
From 13th Brigade only. 
1. Colonel 
Taylor’s 
Report. 
2. Colonel 
Gardner’s 
Report. 
Generally effective, 
although some¬ 
times not altoge¬ 
ther satisfactory as 
regards breaking 
up of the shell. 
Very good from 
24-pr. and 32-pr.; 
not much lateral 
spread with 9-pr. 
Practice confined to firing 
at a mark on water. 
Colonel Gardner classifies the usual complaints under four heads. 
(1) Blind shells. They are chiefly due to want of skill, in boring or 
fixing the fuze, or its extinction on graze. The former is remedied by 
instruction, the latter incidental to all shells. 
(2) Uncertain hurst and dispersion of bullets. He does not allow that this 
complaint is well founded. 
(3) Premature explosion. It is very rare, and has been traced in some 
recent instances to the fuze having been split by the rammer. 
(4) Inaccuracy of flight. He affirms that they are much more accurate 
than common shells, and scarcely, if at all, inferior to round shot. 
