Tombstone epitaph., 1915-07-25

d U~ let-showering projectile- 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 wireiessed across the Atlantic to real ire the an-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 protectile Is filled with spherical bullets. The fuse is fixed in the point of the projectile, and communicates with the powder or bursting charge through a central pipe, and is timed so as to explode the shell during its flight. at a point about sixty or eighty yards short of the target
 The bursting charge is only strong enough to blow oT the head of the projectile, which is lightly attached, and thus release the bullets. which fly forward in cone-shaped shower. GOV ering a large front. The bullets de- pend for their force upon the speed at which the proiectile 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 jectiles 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 it is 8 story little known outside military circles.
 On July g, 1779, commission as 8 second lieutenant in the Royal artil- lery was issued to Henry Shrapnel- Shrapnel was then eighteen years years of age. It was a period in the worlds history when great wars. which were to culminate 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 1779 until I7s3
 From the very first day of his serv- ice Shrapnel was a student Arriving at Gibraltar, he viewed the situation from a scientific rather than a mili- tary standpoint, and history states that the young oficer was most i'm pressed, or rather depressed, because of the poor effect of the British gun nery. Shrapnel noted that on one oc- casion when more than two thousand twenty-four pounders were fired from the rock at a 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.
 Mercier recommended that -an ex- pertinent. namely, the firing of mortar shells. with short fuses so that they should burst :s :hc air st close prox- imity to the target, be tried. On the first trial the shells did terrible exc. cution- Shrapnel witnessed the ex- pertinent and then and there was born the idea out of which has been per. fected the dreadful bullet-stufYed pro.