Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-25
MODERN ARTILLERY.
Big Guns the Chief Factor In the
European War.
KRUPP PRODUCTS ARE BEST
The Full Value of Monster Pieces are Now Being
RECOGNIZED for the First Tme--Many New High
Explosives Add to the Terrible Effectiveness of
Artillery Fire.


eral terms, it is declared to possess
no marked feature of superiority over
the latest Krupp gun. Special recoil
features in the French gun have note
worthy qualities, but for hard. knock
about conditions of service and de-
pendable features many military men
declare that the Krupp weapon is the
acme on field guns today.
The United States has Jagged far
behind in its field gun development.
It's guns have been outranged for
many years, but the latest American
weapons are believed to approximate
close to the shrapnel range of the
average gun abroad. In the new
American feldpieces, there is claimed
a maximum shrapnel range of $500
yards. Krupp was obtaining this
range with sh-apnel as early as 1902.
The majority of field guns follow
we'll defined principles, and on the
whole there is but little deviation in
the various services. AS rule, the
standard field gun throws a projectile
weighing IA 1-2 pounds. This refers
to the Continental piece. The French
Deport gun throws a projectile weigh
ing 1913 pounds, with a muzzle We
locity Of 1850 feet per second. The
new Russian horse artillery gun
throws a projectile weighing IA 1-2
pounds with a velocity of l,775 feet
per second. The weight of this new
Russian gun is only IS 1-2 hundred
weight. This Russian gun was de-
veloped by the French works at Creu-
sot, and by military men is regarded
as perhaps the best horse artillery
gun as yet adopted to any nation.
The projectile mainly used by field
guns today is shrapnel. Shrapnel
shells contains for the majority of
field gun ammunition about $50 half
inch lead balls. The shrapnel is
burst by means of a mechanical fuse
over and short of the object aimed
at. The effect of the burst is to re-
lease the small balls within, and
these balls continue on along the ira
jectory which the shell proper would
have followed had it not burst. This
would be a descending trajectory,
something like the curve traced by
handball when thrown from dis
tance The small balls on being re-
leased carry forward and downward
in a sea-like torrent, and at an av-
erage of say, $500 yards all the $50
balls should be found in a target laid
fiat on the ground measuring 200
yards in depth by 20 yards wide.
Howitzer and Siege Guns.
Aside from the field guns proper,
the present war has brought out Won
derful showings from howitzers and
siege guns Nowadays howitzers are
sent forward with the field guns of
calibers which a few years ago would
have relegated these guns to the
seige trains. Germany in 1911
brought out the AZ inch quick-firing
howitzer having muzzle velocities of
9S5 foot-seconds and throwing
shell weighing 81 pounds. Now we see
a elimination in the muzZle velocity
and an increase in shell weight. One
of these AZ inch Krupp howitzer
weighs behind the team, 81 hundred
weight This is handy gun. design
ed to be brought up and used with
the field guns where excessive shrap-
mel work is required, as against
troops behind intrenchments or be-
hind shelters which cannot very we'll
be searched out by the more direct
fire of the standard field gun. The
trajectory of the howitzer shell, it will
be readily perceived, is much higher,
in other words. it is a greater curve
in effect by reason of the lower ini-
tial velocity.
The great aim of field guns is the
dispersion of troops through the
medium of shrapnel but to afford
also the means of producing a mine
effect against distractions. Many Of
the shells in the various services to-
day are known as universal" This
is a projectile which is effective both
as a common shell and a time shrap-
mel. The spaces between the bullets
are filled with a high explosive
which merely burns when the shell is
burst in the air. but detonate when
functioned by illuminate primer on
impact.
Urhardt, the gunmaker of Dilssel-
dorf, whose works have lately been
absorbed by Krupp, brought out
trintortoluol as an explosive, and the
Uhrhardt shell was adopted by the
German government for the field
howitZers. The French attempted
something along the same lines, but
their explosive when burned in air
melted the bullets.
Krupp Universal She'll.
Krupp lately brought out a uni
verSal shell. which is regarded as an
Improvement on all previous designs.
The bullets are packed in three sue
cessive layers of different grades of
high explosives. in the composition of
which r. y. r. predominates. The
head contains two explosives, acting
SUCCESSFULLY When burst in a time
shrapnel. the flash travels direct from
'ILLERY TRAVERSING R0l