The projectiles in use by our navy may be classed as solid shot, shell and shrapnel. Although some excellent solid shot is still manufactured, such as the Johnson fluid compressed shot, solid shot have given place to shell as the standard projectiles of the navy.

8-inch

4-inch

10-inch

5-inch

12-inch

6-inch

13-inch

Group Of Common Shell At The Washington Navy Yard.

Shell is formed with an interior cavity of considerable dimensions, in which is placed a charge of powder or high explosive. It is provided with a fuse for the ignition of the charge, which is of the percussion or timefuse type. The former acts at the instant of striking; the latter is set to explode the shell a certain length of time after the shell has left the muzzle of the gun.

Shrapnel is the modern form of the old case shot, which consisted of a large number of balls put up in a case or envelope, which merely served to hold them together until they left the muzzle of the gun. In the case of shrapnel the envelope is made sufficiently strong to bear the shock of discharge, and a time-fuse is provided.

The best armor-piercing projectiles are now made of chrome steel, the small admixture of chromium serving to impart to the steel a remarkable amount of toughness. The projectiles are cast, forged, and carefully annealed and tempered, the hardening being confined to the point or nose. The latter is ogival in form, the point being struck with a radius which is two or three times the diameter of the shell. The point has to be sharply pointed to insure its penetration of the hard face of the armor, but if it is made too fine, it will lack the necessary resisting power and will be fractured before it can get through. The best proportion of radius is found to lie between two and three times the diameter.

There are two kinds of armor-piercing projectiles. The first is made solid, or practically so, a small core being formed to give the best results in the forging process; the other type is known as semi-armor-piercing. It is formed hollow, with a core of moderate dimensions, large enough to hold an explosive charge that will insure the bursting of the thick walls of the projectile. It is made of chrome steel, and requires in its manufacture to be treated with great care to secure the combined hardness and toughness to enable it to pierce solid armor without fracturing and carry its explosive charge intact into the interior of the ship. When such shell is filled with common powder the heat engendered by passing through the armor is depended on to explode the shell just within the ship; no fuse is used.

The object at which projectile makers are aiming just now is to make a shell which can carry a charge through the best armor and burst on the inner side of the armor. It is already possible to put solid shot through plate that is as much as one and one-half the diameter of the shot in thickness, and the success of the projectile makers is such as to make it likely that before long a bursting shell can be made to perform the same feat.

It will be evident that penetration of the armor belt by a shell will be vastly more destructive to the ship than penetration by solid shot. The damage wrought by the latter will be confined to its direct path, where the zone of destruction of a shell will be almost as extensive, if it is of the larger calibres, as the whole area of the deck on which it strikes. The effects moreover, will be greatly augmented if a high-explosive, bursting charge be substituted for common powder, although the sensitiveness of such charges renders it very difficult to carry them through armor plate and burst them on the inside. Excellent results, however, have been achieved in this direction against armor of moderate thickness.

The group of shells shown in our engraving includes one of each of the sizes used on our warships, from the 4-inch 33-pound shell up to the 13-inch 1,100-pound shell of our largest guns. They are all of the class known as "common shell," and are used against fortifications and earthworks and against the unarmored or lightly armored portions of warships. They are usually formed of cast-iron, though sometimes of cast-steel, and the interior cavity is large, enabling a big bursting charge to be carried. Unlike the forged chrome steel shell, they are unfit for armor-piercing, not having the necessary strength to carry them through the plates.

The particulars of these shells are given in the following table :

It will be noticed that the point of the shell is cut off. It is here that the percussion fuse is inserted. The fuse consists of a hollow threaded brass case, which is screwed into a hole bored through into the interior of the shell. Inside the case is a cylindrical lead plunger, in the center of which is a fulminate and a priming charge. When the gun is fired, the plunger moves to the rear of the fuse, and at the moment when the shell strikes an obstruction it flies forward, the fulminate striking a small anvil on the fuse cap. This ignites the primer, the flame of which enters the shell and explodes it.

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