47 inches in
length by 8 1/2 inches in diameter, and varies in weight from 200 to
242 pounds. Where destruction pure and simple is desired, the shell
is charged with a high explosive such as picric acid or T.N.T., the
colloquial abbreviation for the devastating agent scientifically known
as "Trinitrotoluene," the base of which, in common with all the high
explosives used by the different powers and variously known as lyddite,
melinite, cheddite, and so forth, is picric acid. Such a bomb, if it
strikes the objective, a building, for instance, fairly and squarely,
may inflict widespread material damage.

On the other hand, where it is desired to scatter death, as well as
destruction, far and wide, an elaborate form of shrapnel shell is
utilised. The shell in addition to a bursting charge, contains bullets,
pieces of iron, and other metallic fragments. When the shell bursts,
their contents, together with the pieces of the shell which is likewise
broken up by the explosion, are hurled in all directions over a radius
of some 50 yards or more, according to the bursting charge.

These shells are fired upon impact, a detonator exploding the main
charge. The detonator, comprising fulminate of mercury, is placed in
the head or tail of the missile. To secure perfect detonation and to
distribute the death-dealing contents evenly in all directions, it is
essential that the bomb should strike the ground almost at right
angles: otherwise the contents are hurled irregularly and perhaps in
one direction only. One great objection to the percussion system, as
the method of impact detonation is called, is that the damage may be
localised. A bomb launched from a height of say 1,000 feet attains
terrific velocity, due to the force of gravity in conjunction with its
own weight, in consonance with the law concerning a falling body, by the
time it reaches the ground. It buries itself to a certain depth before
bursting so that the forces of the explosion become somewhat muffled as
it were. A huge deep hole--a miniature volcano crater--is formed,
while all the glass in the immediate vicinity of the explosion may be
shattered by the concussion, and the walls of adjacent buildings be
bespattered with shrapnel.

Although it is stated that an airship is able to drop a single missile
weighing one ton in weight, there has been no attempt to prove the
contention by practice. In all probability the heaviest shell launched
from a Zeppelin has not exce