Tombstone epitaph., 1915-07-25

Alter V NlnelfO Uttle IS recOrue0 or the use of shrapnel until the battle of Waterloo, following which histor ic engagement Wellington said to Shrapnel. then a colonel of artillery. that the shell that bore his name had played a most important part in the battle.
 Napoleon, after the battle of Vim eiro. issued orders that all unexploded British shells found on the field should be carefully examined, but ip some way. never fully explained. the order was apparently not carried out. and Napoleon lost a secret that might have prolonged his power for years.
 The secret of the shell was abso- lutely unsolvable by the French.
 In the Crimean war British artillery declined to use shrapnel. despite the fact that it had turned the day at Waterloo. The French made a spar ing use of it, while the Russians, who had never then heard of it, naturally trusted to the effectiveness of the old time missiles. In the Civil war both the Union and Confederate armies used shrapnel, but it was not until 1866 that the development of the mis- sile to its present deadly effectiveness may be said to have got definitely un- der way
 It was the Prussians who started if, and they continued to improve the missile until by the time the Franco Prussian war began 1t was one of the Prussian army's most effective weap- ons. The Prussian shrapnel did tre- mendous execution against the French, especially at Sedan.
 In the Russo-Japanese war both of the contending armies used shrapnel with great effect. and again in the Balkan wars of 1912. the striking sue cesses of the Serbians. Bulgarians and Greeks were largely due to their splen- did French shrapnel-firing field pieces.
 There areSseveral types of shrapnel shells. among them the percussion shrapnel." used for defense at short range and in fire for adjustment Its effect depends upon the range and the nature of the ground. It is effective against troops lodged in tall timber. Masks. branches of trees. etc, frequently cause the premature bursting of these projectiles. On striking, the projectile cuts furrow in the ground and bursts two or three meters beyond.
 Percussion shrapnel to be effective must burst immediately in front of the target Its most effective employment is against standing targets. They are also more effective at long range than Is the time-shrapneL Soft ground newly plowed fields, terrain covered with snow or underbrush, or a rising slope diminish the fire effect When the angle of fall is ten degrees or more, half of the bullets penetrate the ground, and the remainder ricochet and pass on at a greatly reduced ve- locity.
 On the other hand, time-shrapnel Is fairly independent of the terrain. The bullets in this type are imbedded in a smoke-producing substance, making 1t comparatively easy to observe .he burst for purposes of adjustment The extreme range at which this projectile can be employed is fixed by the ia. cility of observing the fire and by the remaining velocity of the shrapnel bull. lets, both of which diminish as the range increases.
 Shrapnel is most effective against prone skirmishers at ranges from l.. 900 to 5000 meters. when burst 2s to P meters short of the target, and against standing skirmishers at the same ranges when burst 66 to 45 me. ters short of the target Black also points out that a single shrapnel from a light field howitzer produces a great CT number of hits when the point of burst is favorably situated than one fired from field gun.
 Shrapnel Is also playing . most i'm portant part :n aerial warfare. and of these antiaircraft shrapnel. all ot which embody the same general es sentials, there is perhaps none more effective than that known as "Ehr hardt antiaircraft ehrapnel"