The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-12-27
HOW ARTILLERY
Es Erred by British Two
Shots Necessary
10 TEST THE GUN RANGE
Refere the Target Is Accurately LO-
Gated Superior Gunnery Of British
oRIpts Longer Erange Of Roar
euns

London News: I notice in many re-
ports from the seat OF war that It Is
mentioned that from the artillery the
tirst shot fell short, the second went
over, but that after that the firing
seemed to be deadly. This may per-
daps be read by many as meaning that
Tho frst two shots were bad shots, and
that the process Of getting the correct
range was rather slow. The fact Is Just
the opposite. The method by which
Of late years, taking example from the
Germans. we have intellectually I'm
proved our artillery practice, depends
on the firing Of at least those two shots
lone over. one under. Indeed, as l
shan explss.. presently. gunner would
on reading such reports be little
tempted to think that the battery CONF
manders had been rather overanxlous
to think that they had obtained the
range before they had really done So
A battery commander is exceptionally
lucky Il he gets the range by two trial
shots, These he does not fire with the
deadly 'time" fuze which makes his
shell burst at the point he wishes In the
air, but only with percussion fuse, =
as It Is called-that Is to say, with one
that makes his shell burst only when it
strikes the ground. AS am quite sure
from reading the various reports that
! the deadly efficiency of our artillery in
its practice as compared with the Boer
artillery. despite their, much longer
range Of weapons, has been due to the
Hoels being ignorant of our methods, It
may interest many readers to under
stand them.
There Il very little difficulty for artll-
8 lery to lay their guns accurately In
noIAt Of direction right and left Our
Instruments are so fine that that can be
easily accomplished, The difficulty is
to prevent the guns from shooting too
abort or too long, as 1t will be observed
that both the BOer artillery and the
machine guns" which are practically
q number Of infantry barrels placed to-
eether SO as to deliver by mechanical
means a vast volume OF infantry fire,
did at Moddor spruz. When scrapnel
aheu burst in the air. or when a shell
that does not burst is fred into the
middle oG a town, 1t is excessively diff
cult for the observer some thousands
Of Yards away from the object to know
whether II has been U good shot or a
quite ineffective one. It has been call.
oplated that the Beers, by an exDendi-
ture Of little short Of 5000 shells on
Ladysmith. many OF the shells being
large, heavy and costly, have succeed
ed In Killing eight men. Obviously for
war purposes artillery would be a very
ineaicIent instrument II that represent
ed It's best work, Yet substantially
when the great change took place which
multiplied more thar twenty-fold the
effective range OF the guns at 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 okehampton and in other
places. The Germans had practice
grounds connected with every garrison
town In the country There they, hav-
ing made horrible mess OF their artil'
Iery work during war with Austria in
1886. set themselves to improve their
ptScticc. They gradually arrived at
the following method. Though. when u
shell bursts in the air you cannos tell
whether 1t has been fired effectuaIly or
quite nselessly, you can get certain in
dicaHOns from a shell which bursts on
the ground, such as enable you to know
whether 1t has gone under or over the
72lbiect at which you aim. Thus the
bhell raises certain amount of dust
Ind smoke, and If you see that the OBJ
list Is partly obscured by this you may
- petty sure that your shell has fallen
abort. II. on the contrary. you see the
object standing out clear, and the dust
behind It, you know that your shell has
gene beyond the object.
Suppose. then, that estimate the
range at $500 yards. want to be quite
sure Of seeing that don't FIRE over the
object. because IL do. not only will my