THE MANUFACTURE OF SEELLS.
PIO Tax Emu,. OT Tax "ElascraT0a.”) SIL—I have read Mr. Brampton's letter in your last issue with interest. I should like to point out that there may be a good many grades between what Mr. Brampton calls a " rough- and-tumble piece of mechanism" and what he calls "a very correct piece of workmanship that requires absolute agree- ment with an unvarying standard of precision." The War Office specification is no doubt the latter, and woe betide the average workshop that tries to turn out the specified article. Such precision shells are no doubt necessary for firing at a small target at long range; but why this precision for huge targets at short range P I venture to suggest, Sir, that we smaller workshops with ordinary lathes be allowed to make the name shell, but to wider limits of precision, say to
one-sixty-fourth of an inch instead of one-thousandth. The high-grade shell is made on an automatic machine by com- paratively unskilled labour, The small works can make a precision high-grade shell on an ordinary lathe, but only with the extreme care of highly skilled labour and much time. But is this necessary P Why not a second-grade shell equal in effect in smashing the enemy trenches Give the small works a chance, and both masters and men will soon show whether they are patriotic or not —I am, Sir, lice.,
SE. Andrew's Place, Plyntoulh. A. C. LEMPRIERE BACK.
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