necessitates two openings, one for the insertion of the gunpowder, and one for the shot. The former is filled up, when the projectile is employed, by the bursting fuze; the other by a metal screw plug. The fragments of the shell and diaphragm join with the fuzes and shot in adding to the number of wounds that may be inflicted on troops when the projectile is exploded.

The efficiency of shells of the shrapnell kind chiefly depend on their rate of progressive motion, for the quantity of powder in the powder chamber is only just sufficient to burst the shell open. They are intended to burst at a height of ten or twelve feet above the ground, and at a distance of about fifty yards in front of bodies of troops.

The spherical forms of shrapnell are no longer issued for general service, but they still exist in some colonial stations.

Water-shells.-These shells, invented by Professor Abel, are common iron shells filled with water. Fixed to the base of the fuze is a metal 'burster' containing compressed gun-cotton, and having a small receptacle above for a detonator of fulminate of mercury. When the fuze is screwed in, this burster occupies the centre of the shell. On the fuze being ignited, the flame is communicated to the fulminate, and this in turn detonates the gun-cotton. An enormous force is instantaneously generated, which is communicated evenly in all directions by the water to the interior of the iron shell. The shell is broken up into a large number of fragments which are projected on every side. This shell, according to some published experiments, effected five times more hits against a target than when a shrapnell shell was used. One ounce of compressed gun-cotton in the burster broke a 16-pounder shell into 300 fragments, ounce into 121 fragments. The latter were considered to be the most suitable, as to size, for inflicting injuries.

Carcasses. These projectiles are like shells, so far as they are hollow cases of thick iron, but are essentially different in purpose. They do not contain any explosive substance. A carcass is filled with a compact composition of a highly combustible nature. It is ignited at three openings in the shell by fuze composition which passes down into the carcass composition. The flames that issue from the burning composition through these openings are intensely strong, and will set fire to any combustible substance within reach. The light issuing from the flames is white in colour and very bright, so that carcasses are sometimes projected from mortars to light up positions at night from which attacks are expected, in the same way as light balls and parachute or suspended lights. A 12-pounder carcass burns for 3 minutes, a 13-inch carcass, 12 minutes. They were in frequent use for this purpose at the siege of Sebastopol.

Rifled guns and their projectiles.-The manufacture of smooth-bore guns and spherical projectiles has been abandoned

since the introduction of rifled guns, and the old issues are now only retained for use under special circumstances. The projectiles used with rifled guns are similar in their general nature and purposes to those which were used with smooth-bore guns, as common shell, shrapnell shell, and case, but they are altered in their forms, and adapted in sundry particulars to the different condition of rifled armament. Like the old patterns, they vary in their dimensions, weights, and details of construction, according to the sizes and peculiarities of the guns from which they are fired. They are elongated and are nearly all cylindro-conoidal, or rather, as the front passes from one radius of curvature to another, cylindro-ogival in shape.

Some few of their characteristic features, with illustrations of an example of each class, will alone appear in this work; those who are desirous of more detailed information regarding such projectiles will find it given in works specially devoted to the subject of artillery material.11

Common shell for rifled guns.-The elongated common shells in use in the service are of various patterns. Some are made of cast

FIG. 8.

iron, others of cast-steel, and others, again, of forged steel; they have various calibres, from 4 to 12 inches, according to the guns with which they are employed. The bases and walls have to be sufficiently thick to resist the shock of the discharge from the gun, but must not be so thick as to reduce the cavity for holding the bursting charge within the limits which are required for a sufficient charge to burst the shell into a large number of fragments. The larger kinds are chiefly employed against such materials as earthworks; the smaller kinds against troops when they are protected by such cover as would prevent its penetration by the shot contained in shrapnell shell.

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Various methods are employed for causing such large projectiles to be acted upon by the rifling of guns. In some the desired rotation is obtained by coating the projectile with a covering of a softer metal; in some the soft covering is replaced by a single rim of soft metal, as copper, near the base; in some the projectile is furnished with studs or ribs to fit the grooves of the cylinder of the gun; in others, again, the rotation is obtained by means of a copper shoe, or sabôt,' fitted to the base.

The fragments into which these elongated shells burst are scattered in a different way from the fragments of spherical shells. In consequence of the revolving movement of these projectiles on their long axes, and the manner

in which the bursting charge is disposed along the cavity within, the fragments, as a rule, take a lateral direction in their flight; they are not scattered equally in all directions, as mostly happened with spherical common shells.

FIG. 9.

Shrapnell shell for rifled guns.-These are the most frequent sources of wounds inflicted by artillery projectiles. Twothirds of the projectiles in the equipment of field and mountain guns belong to this class. The external appearance of a shrapnell shell is very similar to that of a common shell. Inside the shell is a number of bullets, and the bursting charge of powder is placed behind them. The bullets for 16, 9, and 7 pounder guns are of two sizes, the smaller ones being added to fill up the space. They are packed in melted rosin. The case of the shell is very thick behind the bursting charge, and there is an iron disc between this charge and the bullets. The front of the shell consists of an easily separable head, with a fuze at the apex when ready for use. The fuze is ignited by the flash of the gun or by percussion, and fires the primer, and the flash is communicated through the central tube to the bursting charge. The shell always points apex forward in its flight, as a small-arm ritle bullet does, owing to a similar arrangement as regards the rifling of the gun. When the bursting charge explodes, the head is blown off, and the shot, in addition to the onward movement which they had in common with the whole shell, now receive the increased velocity which is impressed on them by the explosion of the powder behind them. The bodies of the shells used with the guns mentioned consist of cast-iron; the studs for the grooves of the rifling are made of copper. These studs, on the bursting of the shell, become detached, and in warfare occasionally join in the infliction of very severe wounds. Shrapnell shells are used when the troops fired at are beyond the range of case-shot.

There are also in the service shrapnell shells in which the bursting charge is in front, instead of behind. In these the head is very firmly connected with the body of the projectile, while the base is very lightly attached to it. The head and base are made of cast-iron, while the body of the cylinder is composed of steel. When the charge of powder explodes, the head and body,

FIG. 10.

remaining together, pass over the bullets and fall to the ground, while the bullets are left to proceed onwards and become scattered. More bullets can be carried in these shells in proportion to their sizes, because there is no central tube or diaphragm in them; and the walls, being made of more resisting steel, can be made thinner than those of cast-iron. The cases of these projectiles are merely for holding and conveying the bullets; they are not intended to be broken into fragments for inflicting wounds. The bursting charges are consequently very reduced, and are only just sufficient to open the shell without interfering with the flight of the bullets. The pattern figured is one for a 15-pounder gun, and is filled with 100 mixed metal bullets 35 to the lb., 70 buckshot, and 10 cast-iron segments. There is a smaller shell of the same construction, which only weighs 7 lbs. 10 oz., and contains 100 mixed metal bullets 35 to the lb., 11 buckshot, and 10 cast-iron segments. In each instance the bursting charge only consists of half ounce of gunpowder; just enough to open the shell and set the missiles free.

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Case-shot for rifled guns.-Case-shot are fired from all descriptions of rifled ordnance. They are very similar in their general aspect to the case-shot which were tired from smooth-bore guns, excepting that they are more elongated in shape. They are not intended to take the rifling of the guns from which they are fired, and so are not, like other projectiles fired from rifled guns, provided with studs or other fittings for this purpose. If case-shot were made to rotate like common shell, the direct forward range of the bullets contained in them could not occur. The case used with the 8-inch breech-loading gun contains as many as 1415 8-oz. cast-iron shot packed in clay and sand; the relatively small 4-inch case shot shown in the figure contains 245 mixed metal 1-oz. bullets. The shot contained in case fired from the larger kinds of rifled ordnance have penetrating power up to 1000 yards and upwards; those contained in case discharged from field-guns are effective up to 300 yards.

Armstrong gun projectiles. In the latter end of the year 1854, Sir William Armstrong submitted to the Minister at War a proposal for a rifled gun with projectiles on a new plan of construction. This gun was subsequently adopted among the armament

FIG. 11.

of the War Department, and there are now (1892) guns of six different calibres, from 6-pounders to 7-inch inclusive, on this principle in the service. Its peculiarities were the tough wrought-iron of which it was made, the rifling of its bore with 34 small grooves, and the fact of its being a breechloader, with some special features in the mechanism for closing the breech.

The lead-coated projectiles for these guns include segment, common, and shrapnell shell, as well as case-shot. They afford points of interest to military surgeons, especially those known under the name of segment shells. They are made of cast-iron, thinly coated with an alloy of 19 parts of lead to 1 part of antimony; and being of somewhat larger diameter than the bore of the gun, the soft outer coat, when the gun is fired, is crushed into the grooves, and thus both rotation is given to the shell and at the same time windage prevented. The greatest recorded range obtained by the Armstrong projectiles has been 5 miles.

The segment projectiles can be used Section of 4-in. Case-Shot effectively as a solid shot, as a shrapnell shell, or as a canister shot (fig. 12). Within the thin cast-iron outer case there are a certain number (42) of wedge-shaped segments of iron; and these are built up in arched layers around a central cylindrical cavity. This cavity is designed to contain, when required, the bursting charge.

When used as a shot, this projectile requires no preparation; the arrangement of the wedge-shaped segments of iron is such that their compactness is uninjured by external pressure. The effect is much the same as pressure on the crown of an arch. Such projectiles have been fired through a mass of oak timber, 9 feet in thickness, without fracture.

When about to be used as a shell, and it is in this way that these projectiles are chiefly intended to be used, a bursting charge, if not already filled, and a concussion fuze are inserted. If the fuze be well timed and adjusted, the shell will burst within a few yards of the object; but if this should fail, it will burst from the effects of the concussion arrangement when it strikes the object, or grazes the ground near it. Some of these lead-coated shells were exploded in closed chambers where the pieces could be collected; and in one instance the following fragments were found-106 pieces of cast-iron, 99 pieces of lead, and 12 pieces of fuze, in all 217 pieces. At another time, in experimenting on