ign of the tail frustrating completely any tendency to wobble or
to turn turtle while falling.

Other types of missile may be used. For instance, incendiary bombs have
been thrown with success in certain instances. These bombs are similar
in shape to the shrapnel projectile, but are charged with petrol or some
other equally highly inflammable mixture, and fitted with a detonator.
When they strike the objective the bursting charge breaks up the shell,
releasing the contents, and simultaneously ignites the combustible.

Another shell is the smoke-bomb, which, up to the present, has been used
only upon a restricted scale. This missile is charged with a certain
quantity of explosive to burst the shell, and a substance which, when
ignited, emits copious clouds of dense smoke. The scope of such a shell
is somewhat restricted, it is used only for the purpose of obstructing
hostile artillery fire. The shells are dropped in front of the artillery
position and the clouds of smoke which are emitted naturally inter fere
with the operations of the gunners. These bombs have also been used
with advantage to denote the position of concealed hostile artillery,
although their utility in this connection is somewhat uncertain, owing
to the difficulty of dropping the bomb so accurately as to enable the
range-finders to pick up the range.

Dropping bombs from aloft appears to be a very simple operation, but
as a matter of fact it is an extremely difficult matter to strike the
target, especially from a high altitude. So far as the aeroplane is
concerned it is somewhat at a disadvantage as compared with the airship,
as the latter is able to hover over a position, and, if a spring-gun
is employed to impart an initial velocity to the missile, there is a
greater probability of the projectile striking the target provided it
has been well-aimed. But even then other conditions are likely to arise,
such as air-currents, which may swing the missile to one side of the
objective. Consequently adequate allowance has to be made for windage,
which is a very difficult factor to calculate from aloft.

Bomb-dropping from an aeroplane is even more difficult. If for instance
the aeroplane is speeding along at 60 miles an hour, the bomb when
released will have a speed in the horizontal plane of 60 miles an hour,
because momentarily it is travelling at the speed of the aeroplane.
Consequently the shell will describe a curved trajectory, somewhat
similar to tha