The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-04
Local Industrial Operators Have Considered Advisa-
 bility of Entering Field
NO MOVEMENT IN THIS
 DIRECTION AS YET
Manner of Construction of Shrapnel Is Explained to Age-Herald Re- porter--Method of Exploding
 Shell at Any Desired Point

There has been considerable discussion among industrial operators here In the | last few weeks of the advisabillty of an attempt to secure some of the war or ders'' for shrapnel which are giving boom | times to iron and steel centers of the north and east, by plan of consolidation or cooperation of local machine shops. As far can be learned, however, no serious movement in this direction has I yet been started.
 | It is stated that in order to secure a share of the shrapnel business of foreign governments, the manufacturer must pass a certain inspection, the chief feature of which is a requirement. that a certain I output of the goods be maintained There l Is no one-shop in Birmingham large enough to attain this output, 1t is said, but by two or three of them working on the same order, it is stated. such could be done.
 Little Profit in Venture 1 A prominent industrial man, in discuss | ing the matter with reporter yesterday, stated, however, that. there was little if any profit to be made out of the manu- fracture of shrapnel by an ordinary ma- chine shop where the only equipment for such work was machine lathe. Thus there was no way to do but lathe a piece of steel to the required size and then bore out the inside until there remained nothing but a thin steel shell, causing much waste and labor. The way this product Is made in an arsenal equipped for the work is to heat the piece of metl red hot and then force a plunger into it endways thus leaving nothing to be done but ream out the inside to the required regularity and lathe the out side. There Is said to be none or this equipment in the Birmingham district.
 Incidentally, the mannef of construc- tion of a shrapne shell was explained to an Agc-Herald reporter in this con- nection and it is interesting to say the least. Every day war reports carry stories about artillery four or five miles behind the trenches of comrade soldiers shooting shrapnel shell over their com rades and exploding them with deadly accuracy above the trenches of the en- emy not over 100 yards further away.
 To do this, the modern shrapne shell Is equipped with cap, which is the pointed nose at the front of the shell, and is about the most important part of the whole device
 This cap is made of aluminium and brass and inside of 1t is wired with 21 separate fuses. each sufficiently longer than the other that it will burn one sec- ond longer. On the outside of the cap Is a brass ring. with grooves on the inside ilra responding grooves inside the cap, with number on the ring ranging from l to 2l. By turning this ring to any desired num- ber. the fuse of corresponding length that will burn that many seconds is connected up with the base fuse which lights when the shell is discharged from the cannon. Thus, after locating their target and est- mating the distance the gunners screw on to their sharpnel shells these deli cately constructed pieces of mechanism known as the cap and set the ring ac- cording to their computation.
 Aim Is Corrected
 The shell Is watched and if through wind resistance or some similar agent It explodes too soon or too late, on the next one the cap is adjusted to correct the error and after two or three shots, 1t said modern gunners can shoot the shell four or five miles and explode 1t within a few feet of the desired place.
 Further than this. the cap Is equipped with plunger trigger to discharge 1t upon striking the ground or any other obstacle. which Is very simple of con struction. similar to torpedo plunger, and is intended to explode the shell only in case the other mechanism fails.
 The cost of the average shrapnel shell Is about $i6. 1t Is said. of which the shrapnel maker or machine shop which turns out the shell gets about per cent Or 90 cents. 50 that the manufacture of them could not be very profitable unless done with the proper equipment.