When the gunners are firing against troops they usually use shrapnel, which is so called from the name of its inventor, the English colonel Henry Shrapnel.[181] This also consists of a thin steel bullet-shaped case, which is divided into two parts. One part of it is filled with round bullets, and in the other part there is a charge of powder. Attached to this charge of powder is a fuse made of a slow-burning material which is lighted by the firing of the gun. The gunners "set" this fuse--that is, they make it of such a length that the burning part will reach the powder when the shell is some distance in front of its target. If a shot is aimed at troops which are two miles away, it will take about ten seconds to reach them. As the gunner wishes the shrapnel to burst about fifty yards before reaching the troops, he makes his fuse of such a length that it will explode the powder in a little less than ten seconds after the shell has left the gun. [Illustration: Royal Field Artillery in Action. Notice that the gun is hidden behind bushes. Sometimes the guns are covered with straw or branches of trees in order to hide them from observers in aeroplanes. _Photo, Exclusive News Agency._] When the powder explodes, it blows out the bullets, which fly forward in a cone-shaped shower. A shrapnel shell contains 375 bullets, and when it has burst they travel fifty yards over a space about five yards wide and fifty yards long. As you may imagine, the bullets work great havoc on men and horses within this area. Sometimes the fuse does not explode the powder at the right time. In order that the shot may not be wasted, it is provided with a cap, which causes the shell to explode when it strikes the ground. A quick-firing gun, such as is used by the Royal Field Artillery, fires about six times a minute. When necessary it can fire much more rapidly than this. As many as twenty shots a minute have been fired from a British field gun. You already know that the shells and cartridges are carried on wagons, each of which contains one hundred rounds. When a battery goes into action, each section has one of its wagons a few yards behind it. When all the shells and cartridges in that wagon are used, another wagon is brought up. When that is empty, the forty rounds carried in each gun limber are fired, and finally the two rounds in each gun carriage. After that, unless a fresh supply of ammunition is brought up, the gun is useless. The 75 mm.[182] field gun used by the French is said to be the best in existence. It is a little over 8 feet 1 inch in length, fires a projectile weighing 15-2/3 pounds, and has a range of 7,110 yards. As each piece can fire twenty shots per minute, a perfect hail of shells can be kept up on an enemy's position. * * * * *