appointing. The most
creditable record was made by an American aviator, Lieutenant Scott,
formerly of the United States Army. His first three shots missed
altogether, but thereafter he landed eight within the limits. In
Germany the same year the test was to drop bombs upon two targets,
one resembling a captive Zeppelin, the other a military camp 330
feet square. The altitude limit was set at 660 feet. This, though a
comparatively easy test, was virtually a failure. Only two
competitors succeeded in dropping a bomb into the square at all,
while the balloon was hit but once.

The character and size of the bombs employed by aircraft naturally
differed very widely, particularly as to size, between those carried
by dirigibles and those used by airplanes. The Zeppelin shell varied
in weight between two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds. It
was about forty-seven inches long by eight and a half inches in
diameter. Its charge varied according to the use to which it was to
be put. If it was hoped that it would drop in a crowded spot and
inflict the greatest amount of damage to human life and limb it
would carry a bursting charge, shrapnel, and bits of iron, all of
which on the impact of the missile upon the earth would be hurled in
every direction to a radius exceeding forty yards. If damage to
buildings, on the other hand, was desired, some high explosive such
as picric acid would be used which would totally wreck any
moderate-sized building upon which the shell might fall. In many
instances, particularly in raids upon cities such as London,
incendiary shells were used charged with some form of liquid fire,
which rapidly spread the conflagration, and which itself was
practically inextinguishable.

Shells or bombs of these varying types were dropped from airplanes
as well as from the larger and steadier Zeppelins. The difference
was entirely in the size. It was said that a Zeppelin might drop a
bomb of a ton's weight. But so far as attainable records are
concerned it is impossible to cite any instance of this being done.
The effect on the great gas bag of the sudden release of a load so
great would certainly cause a sudden upward flight which might be so
quick and so powerful as to affect the very structure of the ship.
So far as known 250 pounds was the topmost limit of Zeppelin bombs,
while most of them were of much smaller dimensions. The airplane
bombs were seldom more than sixty pounds in weight, although in the
l