"Surprise Packets.”

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 47, 19 June 1917, Page 2

"Surprise Packets.”

MASTERPIECES WHICH COST POUNDS, AND LAST A FEW SECONDS. One of the outstanding features of modern warfare is the amazing consumption of shells, which is greatly increasing the cost, to put the matter bluntly, t "if killing a man ! Statisticians art, mostly agreed that for many years, on an average, the cost of this operation was about £3,000, and that in South Africa, where the conditions were exceptional, it rose to £B,OOO. But experts give higher figures, pointing out that in the Russo-Japanese War every man killed represented an expenditure of more than £4,000. If the cost prove to be greater in the European War, it will be mainly due to the prodigality in shells. In Northern France, the French, thinking that the Germans were about to attack, hurled into their position 40,000 shells in thirty minutes, and in'the Vosges they have frequently rained 4,000 on a front of only 2CO yards. No less generous are the Germans, as they showed most conclusively during the battle for Przemysl, when they fired into the Russians 700,000 high-explosive shells in tour hours. Why, then, have we hitherto been unable to follow suit ? What has prevented us from blowing the Germans to bits ? Briefly, the complexity and delicacy of the modern projectile, the workmanship of which Is at least as fine as that of a watch, and cannot, therefore, be “rushed.” Let us begin with the propellantcordite. Some of the final testing in the manufacture of this explosive involves accuracy up to .0001 of a grain, and for the small ammunition, In gauging the strands —a' bunch of eleven of which are used to fill even the rifle cartridge—a micrometer is employed. Equally minute ia the care exercised to detect any chemical changes that take place in the course of manufacture. Long ago, Sir Frederick Abel made cordite safe to handle. Visited one day by some high officials who wished to know whether his experiments to that end had been successful, he took a cigar from his mouth, and horrified them by thrusting the lighted end into a lump of the stuff big enough to blow them all into the next world, calmly remarking :

“That is just to show you that we have made no mistake, gentlemen ! But chemical reactions cannot he guarded against, and while the cordite is being pressed into strands, cut up, etc., it is tested by heat and filtering paper. Changes are indicated by slight variations in colour that'.only the keenest eyes can appreciate, and to women is entrusted this extremely delicate work. We will turn now to the shell body. Germany is said to use cast-iron for the bodies of some of her high-ex-plosive shells, but ours are all turned out of forged steel, though in the case of shrapnel shells a simpler process can be adopted. Now, a turret lathe can produce only about twenty shells of Sin. diameter in a working day, and consequently the French blew away in half an hour projectiles roughly equivalent to the output of 2,000 of such lathes for two days ! Acres of lathes —not to mention other machinery—are, therefore, required for a comparatively modest production of shells. Indeed, not only England but the whole of AmerL ca, has been ransacked for lathes. To pick up a single second-hand one on the other side of the Atlantic is now considered a stroke of good fortune.

During its travels the shell-body Is tested with a care nearly as great as that lavished on cordite. It is measured and weighed and inspected time after time, and only the most minute variations are permissible. The walls, for instance, must be "so,” else the consequences may be lerious. Only a few months ago, by a remarkable oversight, a thin-walled iijgh-explosive shell reached France, and when it was fired from one of our guns it exploded only a few yards irom the muzzle. Had it burst a fraction of a second sooner —that is, Before leaving the gun—the whole of the men would have been killed. Again, no finished shell must be more than a few drachms over or under the specified weight. Why ? Because otherwise we might kill our own men. A brave observer recently clung like grim death to a trench only ten or twelve yards from that occupied by Germans, on whom shell was being rained, and, telephone-re-ceiver in hand, he directed the fire with as much coolness as if he had been seated in an office at home. As it was, though a single shell did land in his place of concealment, he escaped unhurt. But if the projectiles used had been a trifle over weight, he would invariably have been distributed along the German line. Weight is an important factor in the manufacture of the shrapnel shell also. The bullets in it arc of such a size that forty-one weigh ITb., and the allowable variation in tijat number is only one drachm. Yet there is an American machine which automatically casts rods of metal into shrapnel bullets at the rate of 200,000 per hour. If the bullets produced by this machine, or in some other way, are too heavy, they can be reduced in weight by the tumbling barrel, by the action of which they work on themselves and so become smoother, with the necessary result that they lose weight. The process is essentially the same as “sweating” sovereigns and half-sovereigns, only not so profitable ! Next, the fuse. For this the workmanship is even finer than for the other parts of the shell. Some of the

noics are ground by minute wheels, which revolve at a speed up to no fewer than 40,G00 turns a minute, and in the production of a single complete fuse one hundred different gauges are required. Gauges ! In sober truth, they arc the bane of the shell-superintendent’s life. Some are so extremely delicate that they must he used quickly, or the heat of the hand will seriously affect them, and in many cases the unavoidable wear consequent on friction in measuring soon makes them untrue, and therefore useless. At present, indeed an immense amount of highly-skilled labour is employed solely in making gauges and . check gauges for shell-works. We can go further still, we can say with literal truth that an army of craftsmen is making machines and appliances for making shells. If we just take into account, finally, the manufacture of the shell-case and the filling, we shall have some idea of the processes that go to the manufacture of a shell, and it is this masterpiece of ingenuity and skill which is wasted by the hundred thousand in an hour ! Shells, however, are not ready for the field even when they have undergone their last inspection at the factory. Out of every batch a few are taken haphazard and actually fired from a gun. If they are unsatisfactory, some more, are put to the practical test, and if these, too, prove faulty, the whole lot is unhesitatingly condemned. In practice, it is not often necessary to take this course, but it is taken on occasion—to the loss, of course, of the makers. For these reasons it is impossible to extemporise in a few weeks factories capable of producing an “unlimited supply” of shells. Still, we have already done work in providing munitions that “will astonish the world. ’ ’—‘ ‘Answers. ’ ’