THE NOISE OF SHELLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLVIII, 22 December 1914, Page 5

THE NOISE OF SHELLS

EFFECTS ON THE NERVES. ,-■ - Nerve-shattering seems to bo one of tho great fighting implements that Germany has depended on in this war,- says the "Standard." In ancient times Manchunan warriors, well knowing the their Chinese opponents, made abominable noises, and the Chinese ran away. Somewhere about the time, however, that General Gordon came ;irU> C>una the Manchurians discovered thai ILcse' metneds were obsolete. And it is absolutely certain at the present moment that the far in E of big noisy, shells around • the widespread hiding places of British gantry , has far less effect on their nerves than . the old battle yells of the' East. ( ' r ' vr (: A German shell propelled from a hugo "howitzer contains a very interesting chargo. The mam part of it is a chemical known, as b.initro-toluene, a bright yellow substance that looks very much like Doiiherara sugar and is just, as harmless When it is left alone. If is not easy to make and not easy to destroy. .Put. a light to it, and it will flare up, ;but give no violent explosion.' Ericaso it ma shell of steel, with a.detonator—just like, , the cap at the end of a cartridge—and it will make a tremendous noise. Moreover, it will do a lot of damago in its immediate neighbourhood. .:;,.„ No shell of -this kind can. .ever stop steadv infantry. We hear stqries of men turning yellow when they have, been near an explosion, but this is probably due to some action of the nitric acid, from .imperfectly exploded material; :For . nitric _ acid has a way of staining the.skm much as tincture of iodine has.. The power, oj the shell, however, is gigantic. - If its charge were burned away cjUietly it would send some millions of cubic feet of gas into the air. If it is detonated in. a thousandth part of a second.; those .pillions of cubic feet of gas, with their steel casings, crush everything m their immediate vicinity to the finest powdor and make an abominable noise ahoiit it. This is the reason that so many-people who have no experience of high explosives believe that "dynamite.; stokes downwards." Neither dynamite nor any other explosive strikes in any. particular direction. All strike all round. II their explosion is quick they expend themselves in the air just as much as. vn.tho solid rocks. ' , 1 The effect that men see is on the rocK, not on the air; but when dynamite is carefully exploded inside a shell of steel it grinds it up in every direction, and probably peppers a lot of steel dust on anyone standing 100 yards away. A hole made bv a high oxplosivo shell, in iyi infantry entrenchment is therefore infinite- • ly less destructive than one made by the samo kind of shell in a battleship. Our men wore taught this in the Boer war, when tliov found out that lyddite verv seldom killed anyone. It frightened a hundred, possibly killed two, crushed inany rocks, and stained every organic thing—tree, grass, horso, or man—an intense yellow. ... ... '.. .■' ' Lyddite, like melinite, is a form ot picric acid. Tho only difference.hetweon. this and tho Gennan shell.' charge-Is that while the English and French is made out' of carbolic acid the Gennan is madeout of a light coal oil, knowir as toluene—-not benzine. The difference may seem subtle, | but it gives all the difference in the explosive effect. . "... ~,.-...',A "