ARTILLERY AND MUSKETRY FIRE. 193 
A battery fires 4 rounds a minute, but this could be increased to 6 
for special occasions, and if magazine fire is used, up to 12 a minute, 
but considering ordinary fire only if we multiply 4 by 2°63 the per 
centage effect to be expected from each shell, we might expect to 
destroy 10 per cent of the target in a little less than a minute at 2100 
yards range. Unfortunately figures are often very misleading and it 
takes a battery, as a rule, about 6 minutes to establish effective 
ordinary fire after they come into action at medium ranges, at closer 
ranges it would not of course take nearly so long to range the battery, 
but even so, the results of peace practice, more especially when horses 
are taken into consideration, would lead one to think that a battery 
would go through a very unhealthy few minutes until effective fire was 
established if they came into action at a range under 1500 yds. against 
infantry who knew the range and who were firing under fayourable 
peace conditions. These however are the doubtful factors, the con- 
ditions would certainly not be those of peace, and it would be very 
unlucky if the infantry knew the range ; moreover they cannot range 
as gunners can by observation, their observation can only be negative 
by watching if their fire knocks men over or not, as they cannot tell if 
the bullets fall over or short of the target. 
These observations only apply to cases where a battery might be 
caught “on the hop” or when coming into action, but in all other 
cases the comparative effects may be considered to hold for peace 
conditions after both battery and company have ranged their target. 
(4.) Fourthly we come to the space occupied in the firing line by 
the two arms. 
The mean space occupied by 100 men on the firing line at Glenbeigh 
was 90 yards ; the frontage of a 6 gun battery is generally about 80 
yds., but for all practical purposes it may be taken as the same as that 
of the company. ‘To inflict a ioss of 10 per cent. in a given space of 
time by ordinary fire, such as in preparing an attack, if it is desired to 
do so by musketry instead of artillery fire, more than 10 times the 
space must be taken up. Magazine volleys could of course be employed, 
but not for any great length of time. ‘I'o produce the same effect in 
the same time as two brigade divisions occupying a space of about 
600 yds., infantry would have to be extended over nearly four miles, 
which it will be allowed is a reductio ad absordum, as no concentration 
of fire would be possible from such a long line. 
‘To epitomize the foregoing, the following calculation is prepared :— 
Per centage of target destroyed by a battery or company firing ata 
target of equal frontage for one minute. ‘This is in fact to reduce the 
calculation in (2)—which only dealt with the number and weight of 
rounds fired—to what 100 men can do in one minute. 
The calculation of each series are given in the table of statistics, and 
the mean per centage works out at °57 in the four first series fired at a 
mean range of 2100 and at 1°82 in the eight series fired at 1675 yds. 
In artillery firing four rounds a minute the per centage of target 
destroyed per minute works out 10°5. i 
The foregoing examples will be sufficient to show the method of 
calculation employed—it is of a rough and ready kind, and the theory 
26 
