Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-07
THE NAVY SHELL ALL RIGHT
What Officers of the Bureau of Ordnance
Say.
Found to Be Entirely Satisfactory i'm
ed to Explode on Striking.

Naval ordnance experts are somewhat
amused ovec the statements recently made
by various military critics, foreign and do
mestic, to the effect that the recent Span
fsh war had demonstrated the Ineffective
ness Of the naval service shell. The prin-
cipal criticism against the shell was its al
legged failure to explode in several instances
in commandments in the vicinity of San
tiago. Star reporter gathered some in
teresting information on this subject in
conversation with several officers of the
naval bureau of ordnance today, and the
substance of their comments was that the
American shell was ''all right"
The fuses used in the naval service are
what are known as percussion fuses-that
is, they act only upon impact of the pro-
jectile with some resisting substance Two
sizes of percussion fuses are used-a small
one in the one, three and six-pounder shell.
and similar, but larger, one in all other
shells. These fuses were developed at the
naval proving ground at Indian Head, and
are so adjusted as regards constituencies
that the small shell viii burst upon impact
with a steel plate three-sixteenths of an
inch thick, and the large shell on impact
with q INSTRUMENTATION plate. Ten fuses
from each lot of 100 of the small fuses are
actually tested, and a failure to act proper
~ is unknown. That the fuses We're equal
" efhcient in actual use against hostile
ships was abundantly demonstrated at Ma
Mia and at Santiago, when the Spanish
shlps We're set on fire and destroyed by the
impact of a very few SHELLS. There is no
evidence 10 support the statement which
has b zen made that some of our shells fail
ed to explode on impact with the Spanish
ships; this error has probably arisen from
the fact that some of our ships used armor-
piercing projeetiles, which do not carry
bursting charges, and these Of course. went
through whatever plating they struck with
out exploding.
When Shells Failed to Explode.
1t was, however, in the various lombard
ments that the navy shell is said to have
proved specially ineffective and many
statements, much exaggerated in the opin-
ion of the ordnance officer. have been made
in this connection. The fact is admitted
that the fuses did not act in some cases.
due TO the shell striking soft earth or some
other comparatively unressting material.
but ii is suggested that most of the bonn
bardmerts took place at very long range,
50 that the shells struck with low velocity.
ana also, in many instances, undoubtedly
not exactly point on. Even then, however
the percentage of failures to explode was
Ii * claimed, very small Most of the shells
exploded, and when they struck anything
which could be damaged they proved fully
as destructive any one could have ex-
pected. In the bombardment of Santiago
over the hills into the city itself, whenever
a house was struck it was wrecked and al
most completely destroyed.
Charge Due to Ignorance.
Another statement which has been made
to the effect that many of our shells were
only partially filled with powder is based
on ignorance of the action of projectiles
when fired from modern high-power guns
In such cases the shock of discharge is so
great that the granular powder in the shell
is Set back and compacted into a hard mass
and consequently no longer completely fills
the cavity.
me naval bureau of ordnance is well sat
isfed with the effectiveness Of its present
proJectiles of all sorts and contemplates
no other change than one already made
namely, the use of a somewhat more SEN
sitive primer in its fuses, so as to make
them act little more easily with view to
their greater efficiency when used against
shore defeuSaS