THE SHELLS THAT WIN

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 211, 4 September 1915, Page 13

THE SHELLS THAT WIN

BRITAIN HAS THE HIGHEST EXPLOSIVE, SOME SURPRISING FACTS. (From a Lecture by VIVIAN LEWES, Former Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Naval College.) Against advancing troops shrapnel is the most effective shell that can be employed. There is no shortage of this type of shell. In all the bases you see stacks of them. The shortage has been in the high-explosive shells, the need for which has only arisen in this war. • • • • The high-explosive shell smashes away all obstructions. Its effects are simply tremendous. It wil] even kill eimply by concussion, merely by the impact of the wave set up in the air. • # ♦ # There have been cases where men have had theJr hearts displaced a couple of inches by the concussive power of the air wave set up by these high-explosive shells. Vital parts have been ruptured by this displacement, death following instantaneously. • • * * When the war first started we had stories of Germans being found dead in chalets, champagne glasses still held to their lips—a habit the Germans have. We were told of cheep dead in the field, still grazing—(laughter)—and it was explained that this was due to the poisonous nature of the shells being used. What had happened was that men and sheep had been killed by the concussion set up by high-explosive shells. • • • m The highest explosive known is tetraaniline, more stable an explosive than ttitro-glycerine and sufficiently inert to be perfectly safe in use. We shall hear a great deal about this in the future, especially as a splendid method of preparing it has just been discovered. • • • « The high-explosive shells used to pierce armour—the shells that smashed through the steel cupolas of Namur—are made not of forged steel but of chrome nickel steel, carefully hardened and tempered. The secret of their success is that they carry soft steel caps over the points. • • • • It might be imagined that a soft 6teel spoke would prevent rather than aosist the penetration of the shell, but the soft steel buffer gives a most extraordinary result. Fire a shell without this eoit rap and it will make an indentation of only two or tfiree inches in the plate, but put on the steel nose and it will pierce the most hardened plate that you can obtain. • • * * The discovery of the wonderful effect of the soft cap was Teally made by accident. The effect of shells on a steel plate was being tested. Now the front of a plate is hard and the back is eoft. The shells fired at the front did little damage, but tired at the back they went right through. That result gave rise to the idea of using a soft steel cap. • • • ♦ A train of gun-cotton that is not confined will take two seconds to burn 6ft. • • • • A train of gun-cotton stretching from London to Newcastle pressed closely and confined would, fired off by a detonator, the highest form of explosive, take two minutes —that is to say, it would burn at the rate of 200 miles a minute. • • • • When melinite, made from picric acid and akin to our pwn lyddite, was first invented for use in the French Army extravagant claims were made for it. In a couple of weeks our secret service discovered all about it. It was the Japanese who in the RussoJapanese war first demonstrated the practicability of a higher form of detonator with picric acid—the use of which had been looked upon unfavourably because of the risk of damage to the gunners ueing it. In the siege of Port Arthur these ehells did tremendous work, though there were thirteen or fourteen cases of premature explosion. The Germans watched , what happened with the greatest interest, noting the weakness of the high-explosive lyddite ehells being used and determining to improve upon them. The result was the discovery of T.N.T., the basis of which is toluene, a coal-tar derivative. Toluene is also being made synthetically, which will greatly increase the yield at our dtepoeal. • • • • Under eighteen tons pressure T.N.T. can be pressed into solid cartridges and copper-plated so as to render the cartridges more permanent and less liable to whittle away at the edges. In itself T.N.T. is very inert. You can fire a bullet at a cask without risk of detonating. You have considerable difficulty in lighting it, and once started it burns quietly and with a heavy flame. • • • • Detonated, the effect as extraordinary, and the damage done very far-reaching. Clouds of black smoke are thrown off, which have caused the shells to be christened in France by our troops by such endearing titles as Black Marias, Coal Scuttles, and Jack Johnsons. » • • * The Austrians, in addition to using T.N.T., use ammonite, which was discovered by them and first employed in the Balkan war. It as toluene mixed with further "oxydising material and nitrate of ammonia, and is an explosive stronger than T.N.T. 1 The war has revived the use of grenades popular a hundred years ago. These arc small shrapnel shells, the case made of serrated steel—that is, steel cut up into a number of divisions. There 'is a cartridge of T.N.T. fired by a detonator. One is designed for use in the service rifle which grips the rod at the end and prevents it falling out when the rifle Iβ inclined. • • • « The hand grenade is thrown by means of a bit of rope with a tassel at the end attached to it, and has a range of 45 or 50 yards.