4 
of 500,000,000 rifle bullets and 400,000 shrapnel shell containing 100,000,000 
bullets, together with the metal required for preliminary experiments, at 10,000 
tons. But that already represents twice the amount of ore extracted, 1 and to it 
must be added the annual consumption at 5 per cent., say 500 tons of metal, or 
1000 tons of ore. 
Captain Moch objects to the General’s provision as inadequate and quotes the 
following facts. The German Field Artillery expended 350,000 projectiles in 
1870, and the weight of ammunition launched at Strasbourg in 1870 was three 
times as much as the total expenditure of the combined Prussian, Baden, and 
Hessian Field Batteries throughout the campaign. The General believes that 
20,000 tons of ore might be extracted annually, but that, according to Captain 
Moch, is not the received opinion on the subject. The General’s sanguine 
attitude as to the quantity of metal available is again observed when he discusses 
the question of cost. Its present market price is about £10 a cwt., the General 
hopes to get it for £5. However, were tungsten adopted by the various Govern¬ 
ments, a more natural result would be an increase of the present price, owing to 
the supply being unequal to the demand, for the metal is only found in Cornwall 
and in Bohemia. 
The General gives the following prices based on his assumption of the prime 
cost: — 
1°—For 1000 rifle bullets of ‘295-inch calibre, weighing 298 grains each— 
say 
£ s. d. 
i cwt. of tungsten at £5 . 1 13 4 
1000 nickel coatings . 011 2 
Work . 0 4 0 
Total... 
... £2 8 6 
Therefore for 500,000,000 of bullets the cost would be £1,212,500. 
2°—For 1000 shrapnel bullets weighing from 112 to 155 grains each, say— 
£ s. d. 
23 lbs. of tungsten at lOfd. 1 0 0 
1000 steel coatings . 0 7 0 
Work . 0 3 0 
Total.£1 10 0 
Therefore, for the bullets of one field shrapnel, say 250 of them, a sum of 7s. 6d., 
without counting the other important accessories of that shell. A stiffish figure, 
more especially when based on such favourable, though uncertain, premises. 
And we must remember that if tungsten cannot be procured in sufficient quan¬ 
tity, or if Governments deem it altogether too costly for adoption, General 
Wille’s shrapnel becomes an impossibility. 
The General condemns all the time fuzes in use in Germany on account of the 
composition absorbing moisture and thereby burning irregularly, and is in favour 
of fuzes mechanically arranged to burst after a given time of flight. Among 
them he expresses a preference for the hydraulic fuze invented by Lieutenant 
Roy, of the Belgian Artillery, in which the burst is determined by the displace¬ 
ment of a given quantity of liquid, and he enumerates the following conditions 
which such a fuze should satisfy :— 
1°—The fuze should be during transport in its place in the projectile, ready 
1 Captain Moch. does not say in what period. This metal was first discovered about 100 years 
ago, and has been used in the manufacture of dyes and of Britannia metal and of a solution for 
rendering clothes uninflammable. 
