GUNS THAT FIRE GUNS
During the War of the Revolution, cannon were fired at short range, and it was the custom to load them with grape-shot, or small iron balls, when firing against a charging enemy, because the grape would scatter like the shot of a shot-gun and tear a bigger gap in the ranks of the enemy than would a single solid cannon-ball. In modern warfare, guns are fired from a greater distance, so that there will be little danger of their capture. It is impossible for them to fire grape, because the ranges are far too great; besides, it would be impossible to aim a charge of grape-shot over any considerable distance, because the shot would start spreading as soon as they left the muzzle of the gun and would scatter too far and wide to be of much service. But this difficulty has been overcome by the making of a shell which is really a gun in itself. Within this shell is the grape-shot, which consists of two hundred and fifty half-inch balls of lead. The shell is fired over the lines of the enemy, and just at the right moment it explodes and scatters a hail of leaden balls over a fairly wide area.
It is not a simple matter to time a shrapnel shell so that it will explode at just the right moment. Spring-driven clockwork has been tried, which would explode a cap after the lapse of a certain amount of time; but this way of timing shells has not proved satisfactory. Nowadays a train of gunpowder is used. When the shell is fired, the shock makes a cap (see drawing facing page [77]) strike a pin, E, which ignites the train of powder, A. The head of the shell is made of two parts, in each of which there is a powder-fuse. There is a vent, or short cut, leading from one fuse to the other, and, by the turning of one part of the fuse-head with respect to the other, this short cut is made to carry the train of fire from the upper to the lower fuse sooner or later, according to the adjustment. The fire burns along one powder-train A, and then jumps through the short cut B to the other, or movable train, as it is called, until it finally reaches, through hole C, the main charge F, in the shell. The movable part of the fuse-head is graduated so that the fuse may be set to explode the shell at any desired distance. In the fuse-head there is also a detonating-pin K, which will strike the primer L and explode the shell when the latter strikes the ground, if the time-fuse has failed to act.
When attacking airplanes, it is important to be able to follow the flight of the shell, so some shrapnel shell are provided with a smoke-producing mixture, which is set on fire when the shell is discharged, so as to produce a trail of smoke.
(C) Committee on Public Information
Putting on the Gas Masks to Meet a Gas Cloud Attack
In meeting the attack of any enemy at night, search-light shell are sometimes used. On exploding they discharge a number of "candles," each provided with a tiny parachute that lets the candle drop slowly to the ground. Their brilliant light lasts fifteen or twenty minutes. Obviously, ordinary search-lights could not be used on the battle-field, because the lamp would at once be a target for enemy batteries, but with search-light shell the gun that fires them can remain hidden and one's own lines be shrouded in darkness while the enemy lines are brilliantly illuminated.
(C) Kadel & Herbert
Even the Horses had to be Masked
Photograph by Kadel & Herbert
Portable Flame-throwing Apparatus
[CHAPTER V]
The Battle of the Chemists
Some years ago the nations of the world gathered at the city of The Hague, in Holland, to see what could be done to put an end to war. They did not accomplish much in that direction, but they did draw up certain rules of warfare which they agreed to abide by. There were some practices which were considered too horrible for any civilized nation to indulge in. Among these was the use of poisonous gases, and Germany was one of the nations that took a solemn pledge not to use gas in war.
Eighteen years later the German Army had dug itself into a line of trenches reaching from the English Channel to Switzerland, and facing them in another line of trenches were the armies of France and England, determined to hold back the invaders. Neither side could make an advance without frightful loss of life. But a German scientist came forth with a scheme for breaking the dead-lock. This was Professor Nernst, the inventor of a well-known electric lamp and a man who had always violently hated the British. His plan was to drown out the British with a flood of poisonous gas. To be sure, there was the pledge taken at The Hague Conference, but why should that stand in Germany's way? What cared the Germans for promises now? Already they had broken a pledge in their violation of Belgium. Already they had rained explosives from the sky on unfortified British cities (thus violating another pledge of The Hague Conference); already they had determined to war on defenseless merchantmen. To them promises meant nothing, if such promises interfered with the success of German arms. They led the world in the field of chemistry; why, they reasoned, shouldn't they make use of this advantage?