392 
FIELD ARTILLERY FIRE. 
Round 8 burst 200 yards short of the target and 20 feet up in the 
air; now if it had not burst it would have travelled, with an angle of 
descent of 1 in 28*5, 190 yards before it touched the ground, that is 
to say it would have been 10 yards short of the target. All the 
rounds are worked out in a similar manner, and from inspection it can 
be seen which rounds were badly laid; in the above example round 
No. 10 was badly laid. If desired, the relative range of the shrapnel 
can also be worked out and compared with that of the common for 
the same elevation. Columns 7 and 8 of the above give the relative 
range as 1263 yards. 
Still further information may be got from the above, namely, as to 
the fuze setting of the battery, for this purpose, however, there should 
be at least four fuzes of the same length fco calculate from. In the 
above case rounds 11 to 15 give a good example. If the distances 
that these shell burst short of the target be added together and 
divided by the number of rounds, viz., 5, this will give us the mean 
point of burst of the group of shell, namely, 84 yards short of the 
target; each individual burst must now be referred to the mean point. 
Thus round 11 was 120 yards short, or 36 yards on the battery side of 
the mean point of burst, the results are tabulated thus:— 
2STo. of 
rounds. 
Distance of burst 
from mean point of 
burst. 
84 yards short. 
- 
+ 
Yards. 
Yards. 
11 
36 
~ 
12 
16 
- 
13 
— 
44 
14 
16 
— 
15 
— 
24 
Total 
... 68 
68 
As in the case of the relative range, if the two sums be added 
together and divided by the number of rounds it will give us the mean 
error of the fuzes; in the above case 68 + 68 ™ 5 = 27 yards. 
From working out many hundreds of rounds with the 12-pr. the 
writer has found that at average service ranges, from say 1800 to 3200 
yards, the mean error of the fuzes set by a well instructed battery is 
on the average about 19 yards. In the above case this has been 
exceeded, and it may be said that the setting of the fuzes of rounds 
11 and 13 might have been better. 
Mean errors of fuzes taken from the practice reports of a well- 
trained battery :— 
