Shell (bullet)

“ The shell becomes like a boat it is true, but its inhabitant neither points a sail nor plies the oar, but propels itself along stem foremost by a muscular action, which by alternately compressing and loosening a kind of siphon, throws out jets or gushes of water, which by the resistance they meet with from the surrounding fluid, give the desired onward motion, and away the swimmer goes, his long arms gathered closely together, and streaming behind like the tail of a comet, and its round eyes keeping a sharp look-out on either side. ”

“ As a ship by its cable, so commonly the Mussel, by its bissus or beard, is made fast to its anchorage-ground, be it pebbly or sandy beach, or jutting rock. Sometimes, however, the mollusk travels, and this is how it manages to do so; it has a stout fleshy foot, in shape something like that of a chubby child, and this it can advance about two inches beyond the edge of the shell, then fixing the point of it to a piece of rock or any other body, and contracting it, the shell is drawn onward, and sure, though slow, progress is made in any desired direction. ”

“ The noise of the shells from field guns is exactly like that of a rocket going up. When the shell is coming towards you, there is a sharper hiss in it, like a whip. It gives you a second or two to get under cover and then crack-whizz as the shrapnel whizzes out. ”

“ The shell for firing into whales from a gun, is the best invention with which I am acquainted, for the aid of the fishery, for a shell bursting in the body of a fish, will, no doubt, instantly destroy its power; and when used in attacking wicked fish, will be invaluable. ”

“ Derek was being attacked savagely by giant band shells. They swarmed around him, slashing at him with their claw-shaped, horny shells.
Biff whipped out his knife and shot into action.
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The giant band shells, many times the size of the ordinary conch shell, are the only known shell fish to attack human beings. They have a tough, scimitar-shaped muscle which they use as a door to close the opening at the large end of the shell. While other conches use this muscle only as a door, the giant band shell uses it as a weapon. The end of the muscle is hooked and razor sharp. ”

“ It is in accordance with certain variations in the shape and disposition of this mantle and collar, that shells assume such very different shapes. Sometimes the whorls or spiral ridges, are projected or thrown far out, and this produces the turbinated shell. Sometimes they scarcely rise above each other, but rather spread towards the sides, and then we have the discoid shape. Generally speaking, the whorls of a shell take a direction from left to right, but occasionally an opposite one ”

“ One of the commonest examples is the oyster shell; if broken across it will be seen to consist of very thin plates, or laminæ, as they are termed, closely packed together. The thinner these laminæ may be the more lustrous and beautiful appears the lining of the shell; that shifting play of colours which we call iridescent, from iris—the rainbow, is then brightest and most noticeable. A very remarkable substance is this mother-of-pearl; smooth, and shining, and delicately-tinted. Who would expect to find such a beautiful lining to the rugged, rough, dingy-looking oyster, or mussel shell? ”

“ These Naidæ have not a bissus like the Marine Mussels, they are therefore never attached to one object; they use their foot as a propeller in traversing the muddy floor of the pond or river, and they have a very funny way of getting along indeed; first, they open the valves of the shell, put out the foot, and after some little hard work, manage to set themselves up on edge ”

“ Secondly, besides this general arch-like form, the shell is further strengthened by the insertion of ribs, or transverse arches which give to many of the species their most characteristic feature, and produce in all, that peculiar beauty which invariably accompanies the symmetrical repetition of a series of spiral curves. (See Pl. 37, Fig. 1—-10.)
From the disposition of these ribs over the surface of the external shell, there arise mechanical advantages for increasing its strength, founded on a principle that is practically applied in works of human art. ”

“ The shell beads are strung at regular intervals. The specimen illustrated is ornamented with a design in minute conical pits, arranged precisely as are the circlets in the crosses and encircling bands of the New York and Ohio specimens. The edges and surfaces are much worn by use. The substance of the shell is well preserved, and has an ivory-like appearance although in the specimen shown in the cut the lamination of the shell is distinctly seen. The perforations in these three specimens are quite symmetrical, and suggest the use of machinery. ”

“ In some shells the operculum is small, in others large, and progressing step by step we find some, such as the scallop and oyster, [Pg 9] with one side round, and the other (really an operculum) flat and as large as the shell; until we come to the perfect type with each valve the same shape and size. Then the operculum disappears, as in the limpet, and the covering shell becomes smaller and smaller, till in the Scutum ambiguum (Plate IX., Fig. 23) the shell bears about the same proportion to the animal that the little bonnet, fashionable a few years ago, bore to the lady that wore it. ”

“ The shells boomed and clattered in the sheet-iron troughs.
“These are a fine line of shells, Alp!” the buyer said. “Glad you sorted out the pistol butts and fancies!, You've a ton of them—double rates on them, too! Hi-i! They're fine cutting shell! plenty large and running very nice in color——”
While he talked, the darkies forked the shells into the pan, where they were weighed in eighty-pound lots. They worked fast, but it was a long job, for there were a heap of shells in that pile. ”

“ I had thought a shell was a hollow ball of iron, filled with powder and furnished with a fuse, and that they threw it over into your ranks, and there it lay, hissing and spitting, till the fire reached the powder, and the shell burst and killed a dozen men or so; that is, if some venturesome fellow didn't run up and stamp the fire off the fuse before the miserable thing went off! Of a conical shell, shaped like a minie-ball, with ridges on the outside to fit the grooves of a rifled cannon, and exploding by a percussion-cap at the pointed 111 end, I had no idea in the world. ”

“ First, The entire shell, (Pl. 35,) is one continuous arch, coiled spirally around itself in such a manner, that the base of the outer whorls rests upon the crown of the inner whorls, and thus the keel or back is calculated to resist pressure, in the same manner as the shell of a common hen's egg resists great force if applied in the direction of its longitudinal diameter. ”

“ My ear, accustomed to differentiate sounds of all kinds, had some time ago, while we were still advancing, noted a remarkable discrepancy in the peculiar whine produced by the different shells in their rapid flight through the air as they passed over our heads, some sounding shrill, with a rising tendency, and the other rather dull, with a falling cadence. A short observation revealed the fact that the passing of a dull sounding shell was invariably preceded by a flash from one of our own cannon in the rear on the hill, which conclusively proved it to be an Austrian shell. ”

“ The shell is shaped something like that of a whelk, but is very smooth and porcelain-like, and is generally white, ornamented with several coloured bands. It is, however, one of the most variable of shells, differing not only in colour but in form. It always inhabits the belt of the shore between tide-marks, and preys upon other Molluscs, such as the mussel and periwinkle, literally licking them to pieces with its long riband tongue. ”

“ The color-patterns of the shell vary to a wonderful degree. The young shell has a thin epidermis, a sharp lip to the aperture and a more or less prominent spire, the rolled over and toothed lip and polished surface not being acquired until fully adult. No more beautiful sight can be imagined than one of these gorgeous animals, as seen through the clear water, crawling over the sandy bottom or on the branch of some coral. ”

“ I shouted. Then, shrinking from the hysterical loudness of my own voice, I lowered my tone. "Something that looks human has occupied some of those prickly, six-foot shells. I saw arms—and a man's head! I swear it!"
"Nonsense! How could a human being stand the cold, the pressure—"
Here I happened to glance at the wall of the shell through which the searchlight shone.
"Look! See for yourself!"
Squarely in the rays of the light showed a head, projecting from one of the shells and capped with a wide flat helmet of horned bone. ”

“ The present form of shell is carried out into a tolerably bold curve on the outer side, no doubt for the purpose of covering the knuckles and arm, which, in a right-handed man, are exposed on this side, while on the reverse side the shell does not project to quite half the same extent. ”

“ A British Aviator making Observations over the German Lines CORRECTING THE AIM
It is one thing to know where the target is and another to get the shell to drop upon it. In the firing of a shell a distance of ten or twenty miles, the slightest variation in the gun will make a difference of many yards in the point where the shell lands. Not only that, but the direction of the wind and the density of the air have a part to play in the journey of the shell. If the shell traveled through a vacuum, it would be a much simpler matter to score a hit by the map alone. ”

“ The shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle; the drill being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner ”

“ To choose a shell from the shore, rubbed and made smooth by the tossing of the waves; to take hold of the shell in a horizontal position with the fingers; to whirl it along sloping and as low down as possible upon the waves, that when thrown it may either skim the back of the wave, or may swim as it glides along with a smooth impulse, or may spring up as it cleaves the top of the waves, and rise as if lifted up with repeated springs. That boy claimed to be conqueror whose shell both went out furthest, and leaped up most frequently. ”

“ Experience has shown, that if a shell is only half or two-thirds filled with gunpowder, it breaks into a great number of pieces, and on the contrary, if completely filled, it separates only into two or three pieces, which are thrown to a very great distance. ”

“ Afterwards I view’d it every way with a better Microscope and found it on both sides, and edge-ways, to resemble the Shell of a small Water-Snail with a flat spiral Shell: it had twelve wreathings, a, b, c, d, e, &c. all very proportionably growing one less than another toward the middle or center of the Shell, where there was a very small round white spot. I could not certainly discover whether the Shell were hollow or not, but it seem’d fill’d with somewhat, and ’tis probable that it might be petrify’d as other larger Shels often are, such as are mention’d in the seventeenth Observation. ”

“ On the hill above us, the earth was literally covered with fragments of shell—Parrott, shrapnell, canister; besides lead in all shapes and forms, and a long kind of solid shot, shaped like a small Parrott shell. Minié balls lay in every direction, flattened, dented, and bent from the contact with trees and pieces of wood in their flight. ”

“ SCALLOP.
[Pg 91]
"Here, Charley," said uncle Brown, "is a very beautiful shell for you, called the Nautilus. The [Pg 92] animal is very plentiful in the Mediterranean Sea. It has several arms, which, people used to think, it stretched out like the sails of a ship, and so skimmed over the water in its shell. But this is a mistake, for it covers its shell with these arms, and in fact makes the shell by a secretion from them. It pushes itself through the water by throwing water from a tube, which it has. ”

“ In the centre of each shell is a small charge of powder, intended only to open the shell twenty-five yards or so in front of an enemy’s line, and let the leaden bullets with their initial impetus hurl themselves like hailstones into the faces of the troops. ”

“ The shell is pierced by what look like hundreds of minute pin-holes, arranged in a complicated pattern; these are the holes through which it pokes its feet, which greatly resemble those of a Star-fish, being white suckers with a disc at the end. When thrown out to their full length they are, however, much longer than those of the Starfish, for they are naturally obliged to be thrown out to a distance longer than the length of the animal's own prickles. When moored by all its feet, extended from all sides of the shelly ball, the animal presents a curious and pretty sight. ”

“ The oyster is not the only kind of shell-fish that the drill eats. When the drill goes after the poor shell-fish that have no heads, he eats them at his ease.
They cannot help themselves. They do not know how to get away from Mr. Drill. The shell-fish that have no heads live in shells made of two parts, like the covers of a book. ”

“ The shape and coloration of the shell change likewise much with age. In the very young the shell is round, and the shields are rough and slightly keeled, uniform dark brown above, black below, with a yellow spot on each marginal and plastral shield. When half grown the dorsal shields become quite smooth, and are striated or spotted, with yellow upon a dark ground. The head, limbs, and tail are dark, with yellow or light brown spots and small dots. In very old specimens all these yellow marks disappear on the shell, which then becomes uniform brown or almost black. ”