SHRAPNEL FIRE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 16, 13 October 1917, Page 8

SHRAPNEL FIRE

SCATTERING DEATH

WONDERFUL TIMING DEVICE

Shrapnel is much discussed nowadays because shrapnel is ono of the greetings wo accord to the. air-raider, and i( is shrapnel llial; doc.-( souio of iho, damage in- places raided. There are few, however, -who know what is shrapnel. The bullets, technically shrapnel, are embedded in resin and fill Iho steel cylindrical casing above the diaphragm which closes up the powder pocket in the base of the casing. In this powder pocket is confined the powder charge which "explodes" the shrapnel. A timing devise, from which emanates the flash which ignites the.pnwder charge at some predetermined instant, cups fho shell casing and forms the nose of the shrapnel. All this has become familiar enou»h to many within the last few years, with the possiblo exception 'of the timing device and its operation. On firing a gun loaded with shrapnel, the cylinder or 'cartridge- case is left behind, just as is the cartridge case when discharging an ordinary shotgun. The complete shrapnel, with its time-i'usc, etc., is projected at a high rate of velocity, revolving rapidly in its flight, and travels as a unit until such instant as the flash from the fuse reaches the powder poclcet. When ignition of tho powder charge occurs the diaphragm, separating the powder pocket from the section containing tho ehrapnel balls, is driven forward. This strips the fuse from the end of the shell casing, while the forward travel of the casing is seriously retarded, if not arrested or reversed. On issuing from the casing, the diaphragm ploughs through .the mass of shrapnel balls and scatters them in all directions, the resin which bound them logefhei having been melted by the l.eat of the explosion and the friction created in driving tho collection of shrapnel and partly melted resin from the shrapnel casing. The- blast of the gaess formed by the explosion of the powder charge on issuing from tho open end of the casing scatters the shrapnel still further and imparts to Hie balls a velocity which makes them very destructive- within ;i radius of about GO feet of where the shrapnel "breaks." After the break ot a ehrapnel, the head' of the projectile continues in advance, with a certain accelerated speed, followed by the diaphragm, powder tube, etc., and the spread of scattering shrapnel. . Should the force of the explosion within the powder pocket uot be sufficient to strip the threaded connection between the fuse, body and the shell casing, tho steel shell would explode, but only in such a case. To vetain the effectiveness of the shrapnel, the fracture would be limited to a section near the mouth of the casing, where its walls are. comparatively thin, and fho shrapnel would be scattered from tho remainder of the easing as before. A shrapnel which breaks properly during <liight simply scatters shrapnel balls, not fragments and pieces of jagged shell such as fly from an exploding high-explosive shell. When a shrapnel, through failure of the time-fuse to respond, docs not explode until it comes in contact, with the ground or some other firm object m its path, then, and then only, the steelshell is fractured and pieces scattered in all directions. A properly-built shrapnel can be timed to break accurately at any pre-determined distance in us flight, notwithstanding fho fact that on leaving the muzzle of tho gun it may be travelling at. a speed of close lo >000 feet per second. . Adjustment of a iimmg-ring regulates ihe time required for transmitting lie flash of the sensitive explosive on the end or the explosive slug to the powder under the diaphragm, so that the shrapnel will break at any pre-dcternnned point in its flight. This regulation is accomplished by simply increasing or decreasing the length ot fuse which has to be consumed between the point: at which it is ignited by the flash from ihe explosive slug a.nd its connection with the train leading to the guncolton.