The range having been given to the officer in command of the gun from the range-finding station on another part of the ship, the telescope is set to the correct angle. Then the gun is elevated or depressed until the ship being aimed at is precisely in the centre of the field of view of the telescope, in other words, until the telescope is pointing exactly at the ship. Then the gun is fired.
The effect, therefore, is this. The telescope always points (while the gun is being fired) at the object aimed at, but the gun is pointed upwards at a certain angle, which angle depends upon how the telescope is set upon the divided circle. Thus the setting of
the telescope for a given range produces the correct upward tilt of the gun for that range.
The breech-block carries a trigger and hammer arrangement whereby the firing can be done and also an electrical arrangement so that an electric spark can be employed. Both these firing contrivances are so made that they cannot be operated until the breech-block has been inserted and made secure. Thus a premature explosion is guarded against.
CHAPTER X
SHELLS AND HOW THEY ARE MADE
Modern warfare seems to resolve itself very largely into a question of which side can procure the most shells. During the great war there was a time when the British and their allies were hard pressed because they had not sufficient shells. The enemy had in that matter stolen a march upon them and had during the winter, when military activity is at its minimum, rapidly produced large supplies of high-explosive shells.
Discovering their lack the British set about remedying it in true British fashion. It is quite characteristic of this strange people to let the enemy get ahead at the commencement, after which they pull themselves together and put on a spurt, so to speak, and after that the enemy had better prepare for the worst, for defeat is only a question of time. So, finding themselves short of shells, they set to and dotted the whole country in an incredibly short time with huge factories entirely devoted to making shells. Older factories also were adapted to the same purpose. Places intended and normally used for the manufacture of the most peaceable things—ploughs, gramophones and piano parts for example—were soon
turning out shells or parts thereof by the thousand. Electric-light works, waterworks, cotton mills, technical schools, all sorts of places where, for doing their own repairs or for some similar reason, there happened to be a lathe or two, all these were organized and in a few weeks they too were working night and day "something to do with shells."