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Then to a measured counting "One, two, three, four, five," up to ten circles of twelve-inch diameter are described with the finger tips, the latter moving forward and upward, the arms remaining stiff and pivoting from the shoulders. On the backward movement of the circle the arms should be forced back to the limit. A complete circle should be described at each count.
And one may note further that the number of Siege Batteries on a given length of Front in France was, even at this time, more than four times as great as the corresponding number on the Italian Front. The Austrians to some extent made up for their small quantity of guns and shells by a high proportion of guns of large calibre. Their twelve-inch howitzers were disagreeably numerous.
Boom! spoke the big German guns eight miles away; but we always saw the splashes before we heard the sounds. Sometimes we could see the twelve-inch shells curving through the air big, black, clumsy fellows.
A twelve-inch shell also burst very close to the Battery's Mess, killing a number of Italian telephonists next door. Throughout these days, periods of very heavy firing alternated with periods of comparative quiet. On the 25th a party of nearly thirty British officers and men, a procession of two cars, three side-cars and twelve motor bicycles, went up Podgora Hill.
As they were doing so, the Spaniards fired one more shot. The Puritan had the range and sent a twelve-inch shell in reply. It was one of the best shots of the war. It struck the Spanish gun fairly, dismounted it, and then burst, throwing the sand high in the air. The Spanish account of the engagement stated that no damage whatever was done, except the killing of one mule!
No man would go to Bacon's works to learn any particular science or art, any more than he would go to a twelve-inch globe in order to find his way from Kennington turnpike to Clapham Common. The art which Bacon taught was the art of inventing arts. The knowledge in which Bacon excelled all men was a knowledge of the mutual relations of all departments of knowledge.
Erskine, holding on hard to the iron table to which the signalling board was bolted, saved himself from a fall. "I hope you're not hurt, Mr Lennard," said he, looking round, "that was a submarine. Let a torpedo go at us, I suppose, and didn't know they were hitting twelve-inch armour." "It's all right," said Lennard, picking himself up. "Only a bruise or two; nothing broken.
The explosion in that confined space sounded like the roar of a twelve-inch gun, and dust and splinters flew in clouds; but when the air cleared the lock was gone, and in its place a ragged hole appeared, through which a clenched fist could easily be thrust.
He was away for only a few moments. 'Nothing but a shell hole, he explained, 'but it's a regular crater. Must have been done by one of our twelve-inch guns. Two dead Turks alongside it. 'Rum place for a shell to fall, Roy answered, straining his eyes through the gloom. 'It means there's a fort somewhere near, said Ken. 'Our people don't waste shells on empty hill-sides, I can tell you.
"And only think, Gracie, it takes half a ton of powder and costs one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to fire that great gun once. We saw the steel plate, sixteen inches thick, through which a twelve-inch shot had been fired. It had cracked the plate and thrown the upper corner half a yard away. I forgot to say the projectile fired from that gun weighs a ton, and goes sixteen miles."
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