Evening star., 1915-06-13

~ HRAPNEL and shell appear to be the
~ dominating factors of the war,
W. and the man who makes the am
rnunition seems to be sharing honor
and responsibility with the man behind
the gun. There never was war In
which artillery played SO important
mart as In this. Even now in the uniteo
states the military text books ana the
military experts classify artillery as
one of the auxiliary arms" but 1t
might be and there are soldiers who
believe It will be that the war now
being fought will force reaoJus'
ment of the Official appraisement OF
artillery as an Auxiliary arm
Ammunition and more ammunition Is
the call of the allies. especially OF the
British and the Russian. And by am
munition" is not meant small rms
ammunition-cartridg for hand rlnes
and machine guns-so much as can
non cartridges. Rapid firing preecn-
loading cannon that automatically re-
coil and recover between shots with
ton at an amazing rate and they are
being fred at rate hitherto unnearo
Of.
Cannon are loaded with fixed" or
made up ammunition. Each charge
is a giant cartridge. Percussion
primer, brass cartridge case. propell.,
ing charge, shrapnel case. mechanical
fuse, fame tube. bursting charge, balls
and their high explosive and smoke
producing matrix are all assembled at
the factory and may be showed into
cannon, fired and the cartridge case
elected with about the same speed that
q man can load. fire and reload the
magazine hand rife. About as many
shots may be fired from a single neld
gun today as could be fred from
twenty field guns during the American
civil war, the accuracy Of the modern
gun Is beyond comparison with that OF
the civil war gun and its effective
range Is twice as great as an old war
gun Of twenty times its weight.
The skill and time required in making
a charge for the new gun, even with the
aid of the ingenious machinery used. Is
also beyond comparison with the skill and
time required in making ammunition for
the old gun 1t takes greater skill and
more time and a more complex and costly
plant to make the nitrate powders used
under many names than it did to make
the old charcoal-sulphur- -saltpeter pow
der. The fuse bears no resemblance to
the thing which gave to 1t the name, but
is an intricate clock-work bit of mechan-
ism set by an instrument called a fuse
setter. which, with another device called
the "corrector,'' will cause the shrapnel
to spray Its cone OF bullets at any point
In the path OF the projectile between the
gun and target, whether the target be SO
or so yards in front Of the gun, or 5000
yards. or nearly three and a half miles
away.
So the cry is for ammunition to feed
these guns. David Lloyd George, Great
Britafn's new minister of munitions, in a
recent speech to employers and working
men at Manchester, said: 1T depends
more upon the masters and men occupied
in running workshops than upon any part
Of the community whether Great Britain
will emerge from this colossal struggle
beaten. Inundated. stripped Of power,
honor and influence. and mere bond
slave OF cruel, military tyranny, or
whether 1t will come out triumphant free
ana more powerful than ever for good in
the Affairs of men. The Germans have
acheved great success not because Of
the superior Value of their soldiers or
strategy Of their generals, but because Of
an overwhelming superiority Of shot and
smell and munitions and equipment. Two
hunored thousand shells were concentrat-
ed In single hour on the heads of the
gallant Russians"
The United States has suddenly be-
come large producer of high explo-
sive shell and shrapnel. A recent writ
er in the Wall Street Journal on the