"Bits of Shrapnel"

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 January 1916, Page 2

"Bits of Shrapnel"

- WRONG JLUI'ItESiSION. -M>;ijui'-GeiH'r;il Desmond O'Gallaghan writes to "The Times'*' pointing out the common .error oi referring to fragments ul shell ai> fragments or pieces ol "siirapnel." "To the gunner jiiiml," says the writer, "tliia is a strange misappropriation of terms, since shrapnel ; <s the only shell whiih does not break up. Named after its inventor, Lieutenant iShrapnel, of the ftoyal Artilery, it consists of. a. cast iron or steel case surmounted a.t its jtoint iby a fuse and having at its lower end or base small charge of powder, the remaining space being packed with bullets. The powder charge, when ignited by the fuze set to its appointed time to flight blows out the bullets, but the case goes 011 entire, the fuse, a diaphragm or disc separating the bullets Irom the powder, and, a small tin jfbt in which that charge is contained being the only 'fragments.' "Such fragments as do wound and kill people are those ol cannon she l ! which have stout steel bodies, and are Idled with a high explosive. These hurst into many and jagged pieces, and, unlike the shrapnel, which shoot their bullets out of the front in a cone, are distributed! in all directions, even to the rear of the buret. ft is true *hat the Germans have a highly explosive shrapnel, but it does not appear to have been .much used."