Shell (explosive)

“ These containers may be special cylinders for cloud gas attacks, special bombs for Livens’ projectors and mortars, or artillery shell, and even aviation bombs. Some of the liquids which have a very low boiling point volatilize quickly upon exposure to air, and hence require only enough explosive to open the shell and allow the liquid to escape. Practically all solids have to be pulverized by a large amount of high explosive, or driven off as smoke by some heating mixture. ”

“ If the explosive proves sufficiently insensitive to indicate that it will stand the impact or shock of penetrating armor plate, it is then tested to determine its explosive power. A forged steel armor-piercing shell is filled with the material and armed with a very powerful exploder, which is set off by electricity. The force of the explosive is shown by the number and character of the fragments. Small shells are burst for fragmentation in a steel-walled chamber; larger shells are buried in the sand and exploded, the fragments being recovered by sifting the sand. ”

“ Shells are fired, shrapnel in some cases, explosive shells in others, which are timed to the second, so that when fired from guns many miles from the objective point, they explode at a measured distance from the earth. They are exploded within a gauged distance of the target, and the execution is done over a measured area. On the shells are indicators. Within the shrapnel shells are hundreds of small shot. As the shell explodes the shots are scattered over the enemy, and death and destruction are unavoidable. ”

“ One steel bullet, or one shell, fired from a modern high-power gun into a chest of shells or bombs, loaded as they are with highly explosive material,—one such bullet or shell thus fired, might set off a chest of shells and carry death to all around, these shells, exploding other chests of shells, and these still others, creating a sort of hell in all directions. The possibilities thus created by modern highly explosive ammunition materials are terrible, horrible to contemplate. ”

“ After the fuse factory we pass through the high-explosive factory, where 250 girls are at work in a number of isolated wooden sheds filling 18-pounder shell with high explosive. The brass cartridge-case is being filled with cordite, bundles of what look like thin brown sticks, and the shell itself, including its central gaine or tube, with the various deadly explosives we have seen prepared in the "danger buildings." ”

“ The explosive effect of the modern shell is so tremendous that were one to get through the upper case-mate and explode immediately after entering, it would undoubtedly disable several guns and kill their entire crews; it is, therefore, usual to isolate each broadside gun from its neighbors by light nickel steel bulkheads a couple of inches or so thick, and to prevent the same disastrous result among the guns on the opposite side, a fore-and-aft bulkhead of about the same thickness is placed on the centre line of the ship. ”

“ Each of these guns is capable of hurling a projectile carrying five hundred pounds of the most powerful explosive known to man, and is able to destroy the strongest iron-clad. In the naval battle of Sinope in the Crimean War, a shell designed to explode on striking the object was used for the first time. When the high explosives, such as dynamite and gun-cotton, appeared, the idea suggested itself that they might be used in the shells with vastly greater effect than gunpowder, which had been employed. ”

“ A shell bursts because solid explosive becomes gaseous. To use shell which in bursting wounds and kills men is to use gas in war; therefore if one uses gas in the other form of poison, disabling one's opponent with agony, it is all one. ”

“ For this reason equal weights of high explosives and of gunpowder enclosed 26 in strong shells will not produce the same relative effects in forming craters, &c., that they would if contained in paper cases. The effect of the high explosive is relatively much greater when contained in a strong shell. ”

“ The gun will stand up under the repeated firing of radite charges and is very light and compact and gives an accuracy of fire control heretofore deemed impossible. From this he planned to construct a larger weapon which would fire a shell containing an explosive charge of two and one-half ounces of radite at a rate of fire of two hundred shots per minute. The destructive effect of each shell will be greater than that of the ordinary high-explosive shell fired from a sixteen-inch mortar, and all of the shells can be landed inside a two-hundred foot circle at a range of fifteen miles. ”

“ It is possible, for instance, to charge a shell with an explosive which has the power of reducing it to tiny fragments; a result which would of course almost nullify its effect. It is sometimes perhaps necessary to throw dust in the eyes of an enemy, but certainly not in a sense so literal as this. Again, many compounds would cause a shell to burst with the concussion it receives when blown from the gun; and thus prove more destructive to friends than foes. Such an accident is next to impossible with either gunpowder or cotton. ”

“ The most terrible missile in modern warfare is the explosive shell. Records show that the greatest loss of life occurs from artillery fire and not from rifle bullets. In the Civil War these shells were especially feared. The solid shot and the grape and the canister were bad enough, but when a great, smoking shell dropped into the midst of a regiment, the bravest men fled for shelter. ”

“ We want, however, the shell to be fractured with violence into numerous pieces, each acting as a separate projectile, and for this a more energetic explosive is required. Many exist, but the difficulty hitherto has been to obtain one which with great power, will combine safety in handling and withstand the great concussion of the enormous powder charges now fired in guns. ”

“ The chief efficiency of small quantities of high explosives having reduced itself to the case of armor-piercing projectiles, it next became evident that there was an entirely new field for high explosives into which powder had entered but little, and this was the introduction of huge torpedo shells, which did nor rely for their efficiency upon the dispersion of the pieces of the shell, but upon the devastating force of the bursting charge itself upon everything within the radius of its explosive effect. ”

“ This is due to the fact that when the gun is fired, the inertia of the charge in the shell is overcome by a pressure proportional to the mass and acceleration, which pressure is communicated to the shell charge by the rear surface of the cavity, and the pressure per unit of mass will vary inversely as this surface. If, then, the quantity of explosive in the shell forms a large proportion of the total weight of the shell, we approach in powder guns a condition of shock to it which is always dangerous and frequently fatal. ”

“ Much as people throng to the spot where some appalling catastrophe has occurred, so, a minute after the shell exploded, people appeared from all directions to run to the scene, and although the shell had caused no very great damage, the noise which it had made, its unusual size and explosive force, did not tend to pacify people. ”

“ Our guns were simply pouring shells on the Bosche. The first of the 15-inch came over and exploded with a deafening roar. The sight was stupefying.
I began to expose my film, swinging the camera first on one side then the other. Shell after shell came roaring over; one dropped on the remaining walls of a château, and when the smoke had cleared there was absolutely nothing left. How in the world anything could live in such a maelstrom of explosive it is difficult to conceive. ”

“ We may take it, then, until further evidence (which may possibly exist) is produced, that explosive shell were first used in large numbers and with good effect in 1588.
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CHAPTER XV
IGNITERS Charges of incendiaries and explosives confined in guns, shells, mines, &c., are not fired directly: for convenience and safety they are ignited by means of some intermediate agent, or agents, such as priming powder, fuzes, &c., which are themselves in turn ignited by some other agents. These collective agents are here called Igniters. ”

“ Bang! rumph! r-r-r-rumph! Bang! Shrapnel and high explosive seemed to come together.
Another and another shell followed, then a [147] blinding crash as I was turning my car and a shell burst in the square not far away, showering bits of shell and débris over me. ”

“ These ingots are the raw material of the shell casing only. The production of the explosive that serves as the bursting charge is an industry in itself, while the construction of the mechanism of the fuses requires almost as much skill as watch-making.
In the first year of the war, the critical period of the conflict, France led all the Entente nations in the production of shells. As was the case with guns, France had to supply her ally, Russia, with the munitions so necessary to the effectiveness of the armies fighting in Poland and the Carpathians. ”

“ It is a shrapnel with a detachable head filled with high explosive. When burst during flight it acts like an ordinary shrapnel, and the bullets fly forward and sweep the ground in front of it; at the same time the head, with its explosive burster, flies forward and acts as a small but efficient high-explosive shell. These projectiles have been introduced for howitzers and for anti-aircraft guns, and some of the nations with new [285] equipments, such as the Balkan States, have them for their field-guns. ”

“ As soon as the animal feels the wound, it makes a sudden bound, whereby the hooks on the shaft spring into a horizontal position; by which action, again, through an ingenious piece of mechanism, the explosive in the shell is fired, and the latter bursts with such a force that death is almost instantaneous. ”

“ Hal and Chester, braving the enemy fire, both crawled out of their funk holes and started for Sergeant Bowers, who had fallen just outside the funk hole in which he had sought refuge. But they were back quicker than a man could say "Jack Robinson."
A shell can be heard coming when it is passing to one side or overhead, but when it is headed straight toward you its cry is heard usually after the explosion, or is drowned out by the explosion. Common mathematics will show why. Air conditions also help. ”

“ Noiselessly except for a little click, with chickens clucking in a field near by, the big breech-block which held the shell fast, sending all the power of the explosion out of the muzzle, was swung back and one looked through the shining tube of steel, with its rifling which caught the driving band and gave the shell its rotation and accuracy in its long journey, which would close when, descending at the end of its parabola, its nose struck building, earth, or pavement and it exploded. ”

“ Sometimes a shell would not explode until it had made its full journey and landed among the buildings or in the streets and then havoc and destruction ensued. The most of the people lived in bomb proofs, which protected them from the fragments of the shells which exploded in the air, but were not proof against those which exploded after striking. ”

“ Anti-aircraft shell are of small caliber and are usually tracer-incendiary. Such shell are filled with pyrotechnic mixtures which ignite at the moment of firing, or by time fuse, and are effective against highly inflammable material. Shell filled with thermit which explode and scatter the molten iron have been used against aircraft and ground targets, but with rather poor results. Large shell, which burst upon impact and scatter units of burning materials, have been used with some success against ground targets. ”

“ It is a curious fact, and one which greatly increases the efficiency of the shells, that owing to the bursting charge requiring a minute space of time to mature its ignition after the firing of the fuse by impact, the shell is enabled to travel four or five feet after striking an object before disruption takes place. Hence, therefore, it acts as a shot before it bursts as a shell. When it perforates a target the explosion may be seen to take place at a few feet beyond, and when it grazes it has time to rise, and may be observed to burst after clearing the ground. ”

“ The shell-fire grew more and more intense. The air was thick and choking with smoke and chemical fumes, and vibrant with the rush and shriek, of the shells, the hum of bullets, and the ugly whirr of splinters, the crash of impacting shells, and ear-splitting crack of the guns' discharge, the 'r-r-rupp' of shrapnel on the wet ground, the metallic clang of bullets and steel fragments on the gun-shields and mountings. ”

“ Few shells fall near the guns, though many pass over with a shriek to burst in the neighbourhood of those conspicuous earthworks, whose parapet must be a very shell trap, so continuous are the explosions on it. An occasional heavy shell rumbles up from the South, and, passing over with the noise of an electric tram, detonates in a fountain of yellow earth near the same target. ”

“ Gas-shells are mixed in with shrapnel and high explosives, and when thus employed are often very deadly. Fired alone, they are distinguishable because of their peculiar explosive sound; but, when they are sent over in a general bombardment, the only way to be sure of escaping them is to use the mask continuously. ”

“ When a shell passes very near to one its whistle increases to the roar of an express train, and when there is anything like a heavy bombardment on it is only those shells which pass dangerously close that one can hear above the general din.
More disconcerting than the actual burst of the shell is the ‘whirr’ of the splinters or, in the case of shrapnel, the loud ‘miaow’ of the flying bullets. ”