LAND AND .WATER. 
May 15, 1915. 
w^ton 01 tne cartridge 'z all of one substance with tlie sides, 
but apparently no substitute for brass, with its due propor- 
tion of copper, can give quite the same results in this respect. 
Missiles thus discharged are of two kinds — those dis- 
charged from small arms, called small arm am7nvnition, or 
generally hnlletn, and those discharged by artillery, generally 
callsd shrll. Both the bullet and tlie shell, both the ammu- 
nition discharged from the rifle and that discharged from the 
gun, are in longitudinal section parallelograms, terminating 
in ogives. lu cubical shape, cylindro-couical. In more 
simple language each is a round barrel, tapered off to a point 
in front, but with a circular base. With this shape, though 
it is quite modern in concepl-ion, everyone is now very 
familiar. It has been adopted for two reasons. It is the 
shape that flies most steadily and gives the best results in 
activity; it is also that which, on the whole, offers the least 
resistance to the air, and would therefore travel furthest 
with the same propellant charge. 
As between the bullet and the shell, between the small 
arm ammunition and the ammunition for artillery, there are 
three radical differences of dimension, construction, and ob- 
ject in use. 
The modern bullet averages round about a third of an 
inch iu diameter, the size var3'ing slightly with the different 
services, but the shell begins round about three inches in 
diameter, and increases iudeilnitely with the calibre of the 
gun discharging it, the largest shells at the present moment 
being over 16 inches in diameter. It is obvious that the 
size of the shell varies not with the diameter but with the 
cube of the diameter. The two characteristics which dif- 
ferentiate the two kinds of missiles are first and most obviously 
their size — small arm ammunition is handled; a quantity of 
it goes into a light packet; it is insignificant in weight com- 
pared with man's strength. Artillery ammunition mu.st be 
lifted, and after quite the first and smallest specimens cannot 
be lifted by man without the aid of mechanical contrivances. 
But much more important a distinction nowadays is the 
nature of the blow struck. Small arm ammunition has for its 
object the disablement of an enemy with one wound. It is 
but rarely that a bullet will strike more than one man, and 
it is obvious that, in comparison with the total number of 
bullets discharged, only a small number of men v/ill be hit. 
The shell, save in certain exceptional cases, is de- 
signed to explode at that point in its career where 
it will do most damage to the enemy, and the 
fragments of the exploded shell and the bullets which it iu 
particular cases contains disperse and may strike a number 
of men or inflict many wounds upon one man. Artillery am- 
munition is essentially an ammunition which is not intended 
to strike with solid effect, but to act by explosion upon reach- 
ing its most useful point, either upon impact or in the air 
just over the object to be attained. Shell, therefore, is pro- 
vided with a bursting charge, and the bursting charge is of 
different composition from the propellant charge which drives 
the missile out of the weapon. This bursting charge is not 
based upon cotton, and can be composed of such different 
materials that almost any nation can decide upon one typa 
the materials for which will be found within its boundaries 
in spite of any pos-sible blockade. Thus, most of the bursting 
charges in the German service are based upon the by-products 
of the distillation of coal, of which, of course, Germany pos- 
sesses an inexhaustible quantity. 
Roughly speaking, the reason that the bursting charge 
and the propellant charge are made of different materials 
is this: In a bursting charge what you want is imme- 
diate action of the most violent kind, or, as it is technically 
called, rapid combustion, but in the propellant charge you 
want gradual action. You want the pressure upon the pro- 
jectile within the bore of the piece to be exercised with a 
sort of increasing push; only thus can you get the maximum 
efficiency of a gun with the minimum of material. Of course, 
the combustion is really inconceivably rapid in both cases, 
but if we could put time under a microscope, as we can put 
dimensions in space under a microscope, and turn the seconds 
into hours we should see a bursting charge acting all at once 
as an explosion of gunpowder does in the actual time of our 
experien. J, while we should see the propellant charge in the 
shape of a much slower and cumulatively increasing expan- 
sion of gas from the dissolution of the solid chemical com- 
pound forming the original explosive. 
The bursting charge in a slicll is brought into action by 
a device known as a fuse. This fuse is fixed upon the point 
of the shell, the conical shape of which has just been de- 
scribed, because that is the part of the shell most likely first 
to strike an object at which the shell is aimed, and, there- 
fore, a fuse there situated can be used for exploding the shell 
on impact as well as for exploding it in the air. 
The fuse that explodes the shell on impact acts in a 
fashion which evoiyone understands and which need not be 
explained. The same fuse acting in a different fashion, 
which explodes the shell wliile it is still iu the air, has been 
brought to extraordinary perfection in our time, and the 
nicety with which the exact moment of explosion can be cal- 
culated has made a totally different thing of modern field 
artillery from what the same arm was within living memory. 
This action of the fuse wliich explodes the shell while 
it is still in the air is known as time-fusing, and the fuse 
when it so acts is a time-fuse. The principle of its action is 
the same as that which worked in the extremely crude fuse 
of an older period. It is essentially a train of combustible 
material, whicli is set alight at the discharge of the missile 
from the piece, which is timed to burn for a certain period, 
at the end of which it will explode the bursting charge, and 
the fuse is " set " to such and such a number of seconds and 
fractions of seconds as will cause the explosion to take place 
just over the point where the effect of that explosion will be 
most damaging. 
When a shell thus explodes at a particular time chosen 
in its flight it creates what is technically known as " a cone 
of dispersion." If the projectile were to be stationary at 
the moment it exploded its fragments would disperse through 
a sphere on all sides; as it is in rapid movement, they dis- 
perse as a fact through a cone, the apex of which is at the 
point of the explosion. In timing a fuse the object is to get 
the shell to explode just where this "cone of dispersion" 
will do most execution against the enemy. 
For instance, if you are shooting against a swarm of 
men charging against you across the open, you try to set your 
time-fuse so that the shell shall explode rather above the 
heads of the men and a little in front of the advancing mass. 
In this way the cone of dispersion, coming down upon them, 
will cover the greatest area of the target at which it is aimed. 
If, on the other hand, you are trying to search a trench (a 
thing which the shell does most imperfectly, unless it is of 
high angle fire) you time it so tliat it .shall burst just above 
the trench and a little in front of it, but so nearly upon it 
that the cone of dispersion will take effect entirely within the 
trench. 
Shells are fitted with fuses which will always explode on 
impact, and may, if it is so desired, explode to time instead — 
that is, in the air before impact takes place. But, generally 
speaking, shells are of two kinds: those which are intended 
to explode on impact and the work of which is done upon 
thsir striking the target, and those which are normally in- 
tended to be exploded with a time-fuse. Of the former sort 
are high explosive shells, the object of which is to destroy 
earthwork, and to stun, bewilder, kill, and wound men 
sheltering behind earth and in trenches. Of the latter sort 
are the shells of field-guns, which, with the exception of a 
small proportion to be used for the destruction of the target 
aimed at, are shrapnel — that is, shells which not only burst 
into a number of fragments but also discharge on bursting a 
great number of missiles in the shape of rounded or slightly 
flattened bullets which they contain. 
MR. HILAIRE BELLOC'S WAR LECTURES. 
Derby Assembly Rooms.. Thursday 13 May, 3. 
Sheffield Town Hall Thursday 13 May, 8. 
York Opera House Friday 14 May, 3. 
Harrogat* Kursall Satm-day 15 May, 3. 
Dover Town IlaU Wednesday 19 May, 3. 
Folkestone Town Hall Wednesday 19 May, 8. 
Next lecture. Queen's Hall, Wed., June 2, 8.30. 
OUR FRONTISPIECE. 
Copies on Art Paper of the series of War 
Portraits, specially drawn for Lanb and Water 
by Joseph Simpson, R.B.A., may he had, price, 
2s. 6d. each, on application to the Publisher, Land 
AND Water, Central House, Kingsway, London^ 
W.C. 
Last week's portrait. General Joffre. 
This week's. General Foch. 
