A NEW PROJECTILE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 273, 24 July 1880, Page 2

A NEW PROJECTILE.

The refined and attractive exhibition of firiii" girls out of mortars, shown at some of the London music-halls, furnishes the New York Times with the lollowing reflections “While Italy and Germany nave succeeded in constructing cannon larger than any yet constructed in England, the latter country is giving renewed attention to the subject of projectiles. The English Government has tested by care ful experiment a hundred different kinds of projectiles, including solid and hollow, spherical and conical, iron and steel shot. None of them have been found perfectly satisfactory, and of late a large number of experiments have been made in the use of girls as projectiles for large guns. These experrments have naturally excited a good deal of attention, but as they are still in progress, it is evident that the English Government have not yet come to any final decision as to the merit of the new projectile. It has however, been abundantly proved that the impact of a heavy girl, even when fired witu a moderate charge of powder, is very destructive. A girl of 15in. in diameter, and weighing 1501 b., was recently tired at a stout not ting, and pierced it as easily as a rifle bullet would pierce a heavy ulster. Another girl of 16in. in diameter and 1401 b. weight, accidentally struck a large English grocer who unwarily came within range of the gun from which she was fired and smashed his ribs to an extent that scarcely admits of repairs. Of course, the ‘energy’—to use the technical term —of a girl of given weight, moving at a given velocity, is precisely the same as an iron hall of the same weight, and moving at the same velocity. The effect of the one may, however, be very different from that of the other. It is for this reason that tire material and shape of the projectiles demand the most careful consideration. It is remitted that as yet girls have been fired exclusively from smooth-bores, since no method has been invented of fitting them to the groves of rifled guns. The English Government ought to import some of our angular Boston girls before deciding that girls cannot be 1 fired from rifled guns. There is a strong probability that the projections of the typical Boston girl could be readily fitted to taking the rifling of any pattern of gun, thereby greatly increasing its range and accuracy. Whether other nations will regard the use of girls by the British artillerists as contrary .to the laws of nations is a grave question. In former days the use of chain-shot was not permitted to be used except in sea-fights, on the ground that it inflicted an unnecessary amount of sufferirg., But a girl, when

fired into a compact body of men, would do far greater execution than any chainshot. Her limbs would mow down scores of men, and hundreds would be wounded by flying hair-pins and buttons. It may be urged that as girls cannot be made explosive, they would really do less injury than‘U inflicted by an Armstrong shell, but .we feel very confident that unless till other nations were to" adopt the girl projectile, there would be a general outcry against its use by a British army. Without waiting the final result of the experiments no w in progress, we may assume that girls will prove very destructive when used against unprotected bodies of men, but they will bo useless when used, against heavily-plated ironclads. Of their effect when used against earthworks we have no data sufficient to justify our opinion.’’