487 
RANGING BY CLINOMETER. 
BY 
CAPTAIN P. J. R. CRAMPTON, R.A. 
As any new methods which may possibly render the process of ranging 
a quicker matter than itis at present, will no doubt be of interest to all 
gunners, I will make no apology for offering the following :— 
At practice camps, the average of rounds fired to fix the elevation is 
about 7, and the time taken about 3 minutes from the Ist round, or 26 
seconds per round, and altogether 4 minutes are expended after coming 
into action before the fire of a battery can be expected to have any 
perceptible effect, the completion of the process of ranging—fixing the 
length of fuze—takes a further average of 2 minutes, but in this 
portion of the process some effect may reasonably be expected, and 
though improvements in the graduation and means of setting fuzes 
may reduce this period somewhat, it is in the first period that of ranging 
for elevation that there is most scope for greater celerity. 
A certain time must be allowed the battery commander for obser- 
vation ; to make up his mind whether the shot is + or — and to give 
a fresh order for elevation. The time taken largely depends on the 
individual, and is not dependent on any “adjuncts” except on a good 
pair of glasses. It is after the fresh elevation is ordered that an 
unnecessary delay occurs—unnecessary in that this period could be 
shortened by improved adjuncts and sub-division of duties at the gun. 
For before another round can be fired, the tangent or Scott’s sight 
has to be reset, replaced in the sight holes or on the bracket, and the 
gun relaid over the sights, and this especially with the Scott’s sight is 
a comparatively long matter. 
Various methods have been employed to make the laying quicker, 
such as the Lowther wheel, the Swiss method of giving a turn or 
portion of a turn to the elevating wheel, a new experimental indicator, 
etc., etc., all being attempts to alter the elevation of the gun without 
relaying by using what is practically quadrant elevation, but all these 
plans have, I believe, been found to be too inaccurate. 
The only satisfactory way of giving quadrant elevation to field-guns 
is by clinometer, but the instrument must be a reliable one and, there- 
fore, a short review of clinometers in general will not be out of place. 
The present field-service clinometer is now practically obsolete, but 
its defects are interesting if only as a warning. 
(1). It requires close observation and careful adjustment to 
place it correctly on the cut plane of the gun with the 
axis of its level in or parallel to the vertical plane of 
the axis of the gun. 
If not correctly placed an error is the result. 
10, vou, xxrIr 
