CARE OF THE CARTRIDGE CASE
"As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its
fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar it will cease to
attract."
WILDE.
All good sportsmen know what is a cartridge, whether for gun or rifle;
they know too that the nice brightly-polished little disc on the end of
it contains the percussion cap by means of which the shot or bullet,
as the case may be, is fired. Beyond this they do not worry. They load
their gun or rifle; if the former, they are naturally pleased supposing
forthwith they wing their bird, a "right and left" raises themselves in
their own estimation no end of a great deal; if the latter, and they
succeed in laying low the quadruped object of their strenuous quest, a
haunch of venison, maybe, is their reward, their trophy a particularly
fine head, a "Royal" displaying no fewer than a dozen "points." In
either event, the little cartridge once having served its purpose is
in due course extracted from the breech and flung unceremoniously away
to be trodden with scant courtesy underfoot, carelessly consigned to
oblivion.
So too in war, or at any rate during the early phases of the Great
War, when questions of expense and of economy were seldom, if ever,
mooted, and when, during the great retreat and the subsequently
feverish advance to the Aisne heights, transport was more or less
improvisatory and problematical and every moment precious, ammunition
cartridge cases (turned and finished to thousandth parts of an inch
and beautifully polished), no sooner having served their immediate
purpose, were hastily extracted from the smoking breech of the gun and
inconsequently thrown aside.
Distorted and not infrequently cracked or split, of what further use
could they be? An occasional enthusiast would pick one up. At home, at
least, it would be regarded as an authentic relic of the battle-field.
Besides, any one with a spark of inventive genius could see quite a
number of uses to which a cartridge case could be put; articles of
domestic ornament and convenience could be evolved--anything, for
instance, from a flower-vase to a lady's powder-pot.
Those were early days however, and few there were, whether at home
or at the front, who realised the extent to which "the war could be
protracted" or "if its fortunes should be varied or adverse" were able
to grasp the import of the warning that "exertions and sacrifices
beyond any which had been demanded would be required from the whole
nation and empire" (Lord Kitchener, House of Lords, August 25th, 1914).
When, however, it became increasingly apparent that "the operations
not only of our Army but of our Allies were being crippled or at any
rate hampered by our failure to provide the necessary ammunition,"
and since the cartridge was one of those "particular components which
were essential" to the firing of the shell, the edict in due course
went forth to the effect that "all fired cases should be returned at
the first opportunity," for the very reason that with comparatively
little trouble and at a minimum of cost (especially when the railway
companies began devoting their attention to the task) these cases could
be repaired, and that not only once, but frequently as many as half
a dozen times before they were finally rejected as being totally and
permanently unfit for further military service, in fact dangerous.
Cartridge cases varied, of course, in depth and diameter according
to the type of shell, whether shrapnel or H.E., to which they were
destined to be fitted, and to the type of gun, whether field gun or
howitzer, within the breech of which they were to be fired. Thus the
field gun with its long range and well-nigh flat trajectory (_i.e._
the curve described by the shell on its flight) required a heavier
propellant charge with a high velocity than did the howitzer or
high-angle gun, which throws a shell at a shorter range and with a high
trajectory.
The "marks" of cartridge cases treated in Crewe Works were those
appertaining to the 18-pounder gun and the 4·5 howitzer, and it so
happened that just at the time of the formation of the Coalition
Government in May, 1915, when, under the auspices of Mr. Lloyd George
as Minister of Munitions, in the words of Sir J. French, "to organise
the nation's industrial resources upon a stupendous scale was the
only way if we were to continue with success the great struggle which
lay before us," cartridge cases, bruised, and mud-bespattered, first
commenced to make their appearance at Crewe. The earliest arrivals were
the 18-pounder long or shrapnel shell cartridge cases, and the 30,000
odd of these cases which were repaired may be regarded as a foretaste
of what was to follow, and were to some extent indicative of the
then prevailing position in regard to the supply of ammunition to the
B.E.F. in France. "As early as the 29th of October," writes Sir John
French in his remarkable production entitled "1914," "the War Office
were officially told that during the most desperate period of the first
battle of Ypres, when the average daily expenditure of 18-pounder
ammunition had amounted to 81 rounds per gun, and in some cases the
enormous total of 300 rounds, the state of the ammunition supply had
necessitated the issue of an order restricting expenditure to 20
rounds, and that a further restriction to 10 rounds would be necessary
if the supply did not improve."
Actually during the winter 1914-1915 the number of rounds per
18-pounder gun fell to less than five! Shrapnel (which it is
interesting to remember was first used in the Peninsular War of
1808-14, and of which the older form of shell was filled merely with
gunpowder as compared with the modern filling of bullets) was, however,
"ineffective against the occupants of trenches, breastworks, and
buildings," consequently guns required 50 per cent. of high-explosive
shell "to destroy many forms of fortified localities that the enemy
constructs, more particularly his machine-gun emplacements"; and
in a secret memorandum despatched by Sir John French to the War
Office in the spring of 1915 it was urged that "large quantities of
high-explosive shells for field guns have become essential owing to the
form of warfare in which the Army is engaged." Evidently the "Talking
Men" at the back were beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, if
nothing else, in face of the reports which the "Fighting Men" at the
front were sending home with a firm persistence, for in spite of "the
disinclination of the War Office prior to the war to take up seriously
the question of high explosives" due to the assumption that their true
nature and the correct particulars which govern their construction
were not properly understood, as they (the War Office) "had too little
experience of them," and perhaps because of the fact, for instance,
that "the battle (of Neuve Chapelle) had to be broken off after three
days' fighting because we were brought to a standstill through want
of ammunition," occasional consignments of 18-pounder long cases
at Crewe grew less and less until they finally ceased altogether,
being thereafter superseded by the shorter cases of the 4·5-inch
high-explosive shell, which, as time went on, were showered on the
Works in ever-increasing quantities; in fact, a total of close on two
million had been dealt with when the All-Highest finally "threw up the
sponge" and accomplished his memorable "bunk" into Holland.
To pick a cartridge case up and look at it, one would say that there
was literally nothing in it; yet on second thoughts it is surprising
what a number of features are embodied in its hollow and simple form.
It is solid drawn, of a substance the colour of brass called yellow
metal, which is composed of 60 per cent. electrolytic copper and 40 per
cent. zinc, and which costs actually £25 per ton less than brass. The
base is integral and thick, with an external rim, behind which a clip
automatically engages as the breech of the gun closes, for the purpose
of extracting the case after the gun is fired. Into a hole in the
centre of the base is screwed the percussion cap, which acts virtually
in the capacity of a "sparking plug" to the gun, differing only from
the familiar petrol-engine sparking plug, in that the spark which fires
the propellant charge inside the cartridge case is created, not by the
break of an electric current, but by the sudden shock or percussion of
a striker against a cap in which is contained a thin, albeit highly
explosive layer of fulminic acid and gunpowder.
The walls of the case are thin, thereby expanding against the walls
of the breech of the gun, and preventing any escape of the propellent
gases; and for the purpose of easy extraction they (the walls of the
case) are slightly tapered to within about 1/2 inch of the mouth which
fits parallel over the end of the shell.
[Illustration: ROLLING OUT DENTS IN 4·5-INCH FIRED CARTRIDGE CASE.
[_To face p._ 89.]
Upon receiving a returned, or fired, cartridge case in the Works, the
primer is first of all removed, then the case is boiled in a solution
of caustic soda for the purpose of removing grease and dirt. What is
known as a "hardness" test follows next in order of sequence, this
to determine whether the metal of the case is still good for further
service, and is performed by a little instrument known as a sclerometer
(derived, as our classical contemporaries will tell us, from the
Greek word [Greek: sklêros], hard), consisting of a tube marked with
a graduated scale down which a tiny metal ball is dropped on to the
side of the case; the ball should rebound to a point on the scale
approximating a height of two inches, anything below this proving
that the metal has become too soft for further use, when the case
is accordingly scrapped. The cases which show a requisite degree of
hardness are then annealed or suitably tempered round the mouth, this
process ensuring a subsequent loose fit round the end of the shell.
Rolling the mouth to internal limit gauges is effected by means of
a specially improvised apparatus rigged up on the bed of an engine
lathe, consisting of two fixed housings inside which runs a belt-driven
sleeve bored to the correct taper of the cartridge case, and in which
the latter is carried. A duplex ball-bearing roller running on a
central spindle secured in a pad fixed to a cross-slide, and operated
transversely by a pedal, applies pressure against the walls of the
cartridge case, the dents and bruises being thus gently removed and an
even surface obtained.
It should be borne in mind that the entire process of repairing these
cartridge cases (with the exception of brazing by coppersmiths with an
acetylene flame any cracks or splits which already existed or became
apparent in the repairing operations) was carried out by female labour
working three eight-hour shifts, and one of the neatest of the diverse
mechanical requisites which the girls were called upon to operate
and which was the immediate outcome of managerial forethought and
ingenuity was an adaptation of an hydraulic press for the purpose of
correctly reforming the taper walls of the cartridge case to the true
form of the gun chamber or breech. A cast-iron block with recesses
cored in (in which are fitted a rocking lever pivoted in the centre,
and two hardened cast-steel dies, one on either side) repose on rolling
bearings arranged on the bed of the press.
At each end of the rocking lever is attached an adjustable ejector ram
acting centrally inside the cast-steel dies, which latter are bored
taper to the required shape of the cartridge case. Upon inserting a
cartridge case in each die, the cast-iron block is pushed transversely
by hand across the bed of the press, bringing one of the cases central
with the ram, which, when applied, forces the case home into the die,
thereby pressing and reforming the walls to their true and original
shape. The ram being withdrawn, the cast-iron block is pulled back so
that the second cartridge case in its turn comes central with the ram
and the effect of pressing it home in its own particular die is to push
back the pivoted arm, the other end of which, advancing automatically,
expels the previous and finished case; cartridge cases being inserted
and ejected in this manner _ad infinitum_.
The cast-steel dies naturally become affected by constant use, more
especially on the protruding shoulder against which the thickest part
of the case (_viz._ where the walls rounded into the base) is pressed,
this necessitating the shoulder being re-radiused perhaps every
fortnight, and a slight readjustment of the die in the block.
To allow for expansion of the walls of the case when being ejected
after compression, the dies are turned slightly smaller (say 3/1000
parts of an inch) than the required finished size.
After being pressed, the primer holes of the cartridge case (known
as the plain and platform holes respectively) are rectified by a
double-reamer, the case revolving in a sleeve bored to correct taper of
the outside diameter of the case, this assuring concentricity of the
two holes, and ensuring that the primer face and percussion cap lie
flush with the base of the case. A forming tool, having a non-cutting
face which acts as a depth guide against the base, corrects the outer
rim and shoulder.
A hand-tapping machine clamped centrally to a suitable fixture on a
bench was devised for re-tapping primer-holes. This consists of a
floating bracket which accurately guides the tap into the existing
thread, at the end of the tap being fixed a hand-operated capstan
wheel, and on the tap a stop to regulate the depth of the screw.
A similar apparatus fitted with a sliding screw-driver removes the
primers; the cartridge case in either event being securely held and
easily fixed or released in a central clamp.
Finally, after being immersed for a couple of minutes in a solution of
sulphuric acid, the cartridge case is polished with sand and sawdust
on a wooden pad covered with tapestry and revolving in a lathe at 300
or 400 revolutions per minute.
The result of garnering in and renovating these cartridge cases instead
of turning them adrift in the battle area, reckoned in figures of
pounds, shillings, and pence, was undoubtedly very considerable; for
apart altogether from the saving effected in the cost of labour when
repairing old cartridge cases as compared with the manufacture of new
ones, the weight of metal alone contained in a couple of million cases
may be taken at approximately 1500 tons; and with yellow metal costing
£82 12s. 0d. per ton, the saving in metal alone amounts to no less than
£123,900.