The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-27 00:00:00

Shell Exp3riments at Shoc-buryness.

The few experiments which took place yesterday
under the direction of the Ordnance Select Com-
mittee in an exceedingly quiet manner will, never-
theless, rank as the most important of all that have
been made upon this classof missiles for rifled guns,
and will be in years to come a memorable stand
point in the history of the progress of modern artil-
lery. Some short time since we described the terrific
effects produced by the new shrapnel shells designed
by Col. Boxer, and the experiments of yesterday
were specially undertaken as the crucial test between
the Boxer shrapnels and the segment shells admitted
into the service in 1859. The original shrapnel was a
hollow sphere filled with bullets,
commingled with
the bursting charge of powder. The chief improve.
ment made in this form was the separation of the
bursting charge of powder from the bullets, and
thus avoiding the drawback to the use of the origi-
nal shrapuels that they were liable to burst in the
gun on the firing by the sudden impact of the bullets
on the powder through the contrary action of the
inertia of the free contents and the momentum im-
parted to the shell. After rifled guns had been in.
troduced Sir W. Armstrong designed a bolt-shaped
shell, in the extreme internal circumstance of which
was built up a cylinder of small square iron seg-
ments around a central bursting charge of consider-
able capacity. These segments were soldered toge-
ther with lead, and the whole enclosed in an outer
metal cylinder or shell. After the first experiments
referred to with the new Boxer shell, which is the
shrapnel proper, namely, an iron shell filled with
bullets, modified and improved to suit the pre-
sent rifled guns, the Ordnance Select Committee did
not fail to appreciate its decisive advantages ; and
there is little doubt that the further manufacture of
segment shells would have been suspended. As,
however, the service segment shells had been issued
to the land forts, for the field, and to the ships ;
and as the officers of both the military and
naval services entertained convictions as to their
efficacy for use as shrapnel, Col. Boxer, differing in
opinion from thiS general belief, urged upon the
committee to put both systems to the most rigid
practical test. This was done yesterday, the little
shell practice of last week recorded in the columns
of a contemporary being merely a trial of
two kinds of the new shrapnel to test the
efficacy of some made to certain iron balls
instead of lead bullets, with a view to diminish
the cost of these projectiles, those with iron balls
costing about 10s. a piece less than those with lead
bullets. The iron balls being of less specific gravity,
however, than the lead, their penetration was less,
and the question, therefore, for the present is an
open one of whether a slight inferiority should be
permitted in the missile for the sake of economy of
manufacture. Before we record the experiments just
made we may add that the two principles involved in
the two classes of shells are these. In the segment
shells the missiles contained in the shell being
cubes are of the worst forms for correct transmis-
sion through the air after the bursting of the shell.
Moreover, in the segment shell the bursting charge
is large, and large charges tend to scatter wide the
internal missiles, and especially to spread them and
the fragments of the shell laterally on each side of
the trajectory, or course of flight, and thus to make
the cone of the dispersion of the widest character,
and approaching to the form of a hemisphere.
Col. Boxer aims at simply peeling off the iron shell
with the smallest possible bursting charge, and thus
to liberate the bullets in their direct onward flight,
with only the resistance of the air and the modified
centrifugal action of the original spin of the rifle
projectile to spread them out into a shower of balls
against the Lead of au advancing line or column
of men. In this way the elongated cone of the
dispersion tends towards, though not to come
near t), a proper cylinder of ballets ; and the great
value of this elongated cone of dispersion is its direct

course forward and the great limits of varia.

tion of distance short of tha enemy at which the
shell may be exploded with effect. Indeed, at from
100 yards short to 200 yards She smaller missiles of
the new shrapnel continue their onward course with
terrific effect. And it will be obvious that with the
capability which the present rifled guns possess of
throwing such shells effectively for from 1,000 to
4,000 yards before bursting extreme accuracy in the
judgment of distances will not be possible in actual
warfare, and that therefore to be possessed of a
shrapnel shell that will be perfectly effective under
errors of judgment•amounting to 300 yards will be
a most valuable addition to the artillery service.

To test the Boxer shrapnel and the segment shells
three rows of targets, each row 54 feet in frontage
by 9 feet in height, were erected on the sands, and
were fired at by the 9-inch muzzle-loader Wool-
wich gun, and the 7-inch breechloader Arm-
strong gun, the missiles being exploded by the
concussion of their fuzes against a thick wooden
screen through which they bad to pass ire their flight.
With the 9-inch muzzle-loader, fired with 301 b.
of powder, experiments were confined to the Boxer
shrapnel, with lead or iron balls ; the 9-inch gun
being of recent introduction there have been no
segment shells made adapted for it. The first three
rounds fired missed the screen which was placed to
make the burst at 200 yards short of the target. The
effects were of course not taken. The projectile in
the fourth round contained lead or rather inixel
metal balls, and was fired from the gun at 1 deg.
47 min. elevation ; it passed through the screen at
19i feet above the plane of the ground, burst close
behind it, and the effects were—On the front row
of targets, 149 balls through,:on the second row, 133
through, 2 lodged ; on the third row 49 through, 47
lodged, and 31 struck ; these rows being respectively
1,000, 1,020, and 1,040 yards from the gun. In the
fifth round the Boxer shrapnel was filled with sand
shot or iron balls. The elevation of the gun 1 deg.
42 min., the shell passing through the screen 20i ft.
above the plane, and bursting in going through. The
effect was—On the front row, 188 balls through and
1 struck ; on the second row, G 4 through, 77 lodged,
and 23 struck ; on the third row, 21 through, 8
lodged„ and 7 struck. The sixth round was also
Boxer shrapnel with iron balls; gun at 1 deg. 42 min.
elevation. Tho shell hit the screen at 231 feet abovo
the place and burst in going through. The effect on
the front row was 142 balls throughand
e,2, and 19
strtick;
on the second row, 46 through, 60 lodged,
struck ; on the third row, 26 through, 6 lodged, and
8 struck. The bursting charge of all these shells
was 12 ounces.

The practice was next made with the 7-inch
breechloader gun, fired with 111 b charge. The two
first rounds missed the screen, which was placed so
as to burst the shell at 50 yards short of the targets.
The third round was fired from the gun at 2 deg.
elevation ; the shell, a Boxer shrapnel with mixed
metal balls, passed through the screen at 51 feet
above the plane of the ground, and burst on going
through. The effects were—On the front row, 285
balls through, 2 lodged, and 1 struck ; on the second
row,l 8
thirdrow,
£7 lodge], and .24 struck.
The bursting charge of the shell was 8 ounces. The
7 through,6 1 through, 5 lodged, and 3 struck ; on the
fourth and fifth rounds were not effective. The
sixth rJund was with segment shell gun, 2 deg. 15
min. elevation. The shell struck the pole of the
screen 111 feet above the plane and burst. The
effects were—On the front row of the targets 8
segments through, 4 lodged, and 7 struck ; on the
second row, 1. through ; on the third row, 1 through
and 1 lodged. The seventh round was also with
segment gun, 2 deg. 12 min. elevation. The shell
grazed close in front of the screen; went through at
4 feet high, and burst in going through. The effects
were—On the front row of targets 7 segments
through, 2 lodged, and 3 struck ; on the second row,
3 through, 2 lodged, and 1 struck ; on the third
row, 1 lodged and 1 struck.
To sum up, tho total effect of the new 9-inch
shrapnel with mixed metal balls was 331 through,
49 lodged, and 31 struck ; the average effect of the •
two 9-inch new shrapnel, with iron balls, was 236
through, 75 lodged, and 30 struck. With respect