The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-26
HOW ARTILLERY is AIMuD
me Art Explained Apropos of the
news Now Arriving From Africa


"S NOW Arriving From Africa.
From the London News
notice in many reports from the seat
oi war tnat 1t is mentioned that from the
artiltery the first shot fell short the sec-
ond went over, but that after thai tbo
lrlng seemed to become deadly. This NAV
perhaps be read by many as meaning that
the nrst two shots were bad shots ana
lhat the process of getting the correcr
range was rather slow. The fact &c met
the opposite. The method bv which Of
iate years, taking example from the Ger
mans, we have incidentally improved o,lr
artillery practice, depends on the firing Of
at least those two shots-one over one
uhder. Indeed, as l shall explain present
~ gunner would on reading such reports
De little tempted to think that the hat.
terry commanders had been rather over
anxious to think that they had obtained
the range before they had really done So
A battery commander is exceptionayv
lucky If he gets the range by two trial
shots. These he does not fire with the
deadly time" fuse which makes his sheIl
burst at the point he wishes in the air.
out only with percussion fuse, as it is
caled-that is to say, with one that
makes his she'll burst only when ii strikes
the ground As ] am quite sure from
reading the various reports that the dead
~ et1ciency of our artillery in its practice
as compared with the Boer artillery, de-
spite their much longer range of weapons.
has been due to the Beers being ignorant
of our methods. it may interest many
readers to understand them
There is very little difficulty for artillery
to lay their guns accurately in point of Ill
rection right and left. Our instruments are
so fine that can be easily accomplished
al ~aVa- t..
shooting too short or too long as il will
be observed that both the Boer artillery
and the machine guns" which are prac-
tically a number of infantry barrels placed
together SO as to deliver by mechanical
means a vast volume of infantry fire did
at Modder Spruit. When a ssarapnel she'll
burst in the air, or when a shell that does
not burst is fired into the middle of a
town, it is excessively difficult for the OBJ
server some thousand of yards away from
the object to know whether it has been a
good shot or quite ineffective one. It
has been calculated that the Beers by an
expenditure of little short of 5000 shells
on Ladysmith, many of the shells being
large, heavy and costly, have succeeded in
killing eight men. Obviously for war. pur-
poses artillery would be a very inefficient
instrument if that represented its best
work. Yet substantially when the great
change took place which multiplied more
than twenty-fold the effective range or
the guns 1t Waterloo, that was the kind
of practice which we were carrying on.
In those days we had no practice ground
for artillery such as we have now at Olxe-
hampton in other places. The Germans
had practice grounds connected with every
garrison town in the country. There they,
having made a horrible mess of their ar
tillery work during q war with Austria IN
1866, set themselves to improve their prac-
a.. l..
ing method. Though. when shell bursts
in air you cannot tell whether it has been
fired effectuslly or quite uselessly you can
gel certain indications from shell which
bursts on she ground. such as enable YOU
to know whether IL has gone under or over
the object at which you aim. Thus the
shell raises O certain amount of dust and
smoke and II you see that the object is
partly obscured by this you may be pref
ty sure that your shell has fallen short.
IT, en- the contrary, you see the object
standing out clear and the dust behind
it. you know that your shell mas gone be-
yond the object.
Suppose, then. that estimate O. range
al $500 yards ] want to be quite sure
of seeing that don't fire over the object
because II I do. not only viii my shot be
useless. but I shah have no means OF cor
recting L.. Therefore. a. first I fire at
3,1o0 and II I find that my shot is shot
/ fire a second round. say $500. in order
20 20 beyond the object "If I see that
my shot does go over. am satisfied that
] have established what is callsd "a long
bracket" that Is 10 say. I have found
two ranges. 800 yards apart between whi,h
the object must lie. II does not, however
follow thar r. lies exactly midway b..
tween them. and 10 rs very probable. N f5cf
almost certain. that n VIII fc bette to
yet TAO Shots nearer together within
which The target must b. This We call
on fhe same principe o. iho other Hn
fhori bracket" J 10y then 90 Gre a shof