Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1915-07-16

H1 0nrapneI, the oHlcer VINO al
/ ZM the age of eighteen years
AE conceived the idea of bull.
Nv let-showering pro1ectile-
.g the missile which, in all
countries, is known by the name of
shrapnel, and which remains to this
day one Of the most effective man-kill-
ing projectiles yet devised.
In all armies the field artillery units
today use shrapnel. One has only to
read the war news that is cabled or
wirelessed across the Atlantic to real
lie the all-important part shrapnel
shells are playing in the conflict now
raging.
The shrapnel projectile consists of a
hollow cylindrical body with an ogival
or conoidal head; in the interior, near
the base, there is an explosive charge,
and Immediately above the charge
there is an iron disk, and between
this disk and the head the body of
the projectile is filled with spherical
bullets. The fuse is fixed in the point
OF the projectile, and communicates
with the powder or bursting charge
through central pipe, and is timed
so as to explode the shell during its
flight, at point about sixty or eighty
yards short of the target
The bursting charge is only strong
enough to blow off the head of the
projectile, which is lightly attached,
and thus release the bullets, which fly
forward in a cone-shaped shower, COW
ertng large front. The bullets de-
pend for their force upon the speed
at which the projectile is travelling
when they are released. For effect
they should have a momentum of not
less than four hundred feet per sec
ond. Consequently, as the ballistics,
or the force and velocity, of the pro-
iJectiles increase, the striking effect of
shrapnel becomes more formidable,
In all the history of warfare there
are few more interesting stories than
that which tells of the evolution of the
terrible weapon invented by General
Shrapnel in the latter part of the
eighteenth century. Likewise 1t is a
story little known outside military
circles.
On July Q, 1879, commission as a
second lieutenant In the Royal artil.
lery was issued to Henry Shrapnel.
Shrapnel was then eighteen years
years of age. 1t was a period In the
worlds history when great wars,
which were to eliminate in the over
throw of Napoleon, were being fought.
an era when an officer of the inventive
genius of Shrapnel was sorely needed
In practically every army in Europe
AS soon as he was commissioned
Lieutenant Shrapnel was ordered to
Gibraltar to take part in the defense
of the great rock then besieged BY
the Spaniards. The siege lasted In
termittently from 1879 until 1888
From the very first day of his serv-
ice Shrapnel was student Arriving
at Gibraltar, he viewed the situation
from scientific rather than a mill.
tary standpoint, and history states
that the young officer was most i'm.
pressed, or rather depressed, because
- vic pONA CnCGl Vi ING bTltlSn gum
merry. Shrapnel noted that on one oc-
casien when more than two thousand
twenty-four Founders were fired from
the rock at body of Spanish troops,
that out of the entire command only
twenty-six men were put out of action,
Another officer who was impressed as
a result of the poor results obtained
was a Captain Mercier, perhaps an
ancestor OF the great Belgian cardinal
of the present day.
MERCER recommended that an ex
pertinent. namely, the firing of mortar
shells, with short fuses so that they
should burst In the air at close prox
Unity to the target, be tried. On the
hrst trial the shells did terrible exc
cution. Shrapnel witnessed the ex
pertinent and then and there was borr
the idea out of which has been per
fected the dreadful buIlet-stuffed pro