COAST. I ARTILLERY JOURNAL, - Air Defense Artillery

PROFESSIONAL NOTES 469
III. BLUE CROSS GAS SHELLS
The following method was used in France at Pickett et Fils Breaking Down
Factories during the years 1920-1923without any accident and invented by me
when on duty as Chief Safety Inspector at this Company. The method was in due
time improved by the French General Inspection of Ammunition and consists in
the following-the Burning Ground being sufficiently far away from factories,
shops, and lodgings.
The Burning Ground must be prepared as follows: Trenches, 30 em deep,
60 em. wide at the bottom and 90 em. at the top, by 14 meters long, must be dug
out and a layer of lime 4 em. thick placed at the bottom of the trench before
each burning. 77-mm.shells (after the fuze has been unscrewed and shell plugged
with conical wooden plug) after arrival at the Burning Ground are placed close
together at an angle of 10 degrees on the edge of the trench, four rows of shells
Sectl.on 'xx'
FIC. 6
superposed. The mouths of the shells must be on the same straight line. 105
and 15O-mm.shells must be placed in the same manner, but apart from one another,
the distance between each shell two calibers in order to avoid sympathetic
explosions. There must in this case he only one row of projectiles.
The trench afterwards is :filledwith firewoodwhich should pass at least one
meter beyond the end of the row of shells, the height of wood being twice that
of the heap of shells. The residue from washing out shells, as well as some .
quantity of powdered picric acid, should be sprinkled on the wood in sufficient
quantity to keep the nre "going." The fire must be lit br means of a trail of
at least five meters of safety fuze. Immediately before the firewoodis placed in
the trench, the plugs are taken out of the shells and placed in special boxes outside
the trench. The foreman and his assistants, before lighting the Bickford Cord,
must ascertain that everybody has left the Burning "Ground. The fire must be
lighted in such a way as to have the wood burning against the wind. The foreman
should then withdraw at once. As a role the burning of shell must not begin
before all work in the factory has £nished. Although burning operations do not
last O>"Cf two hours, nobody should approach the B. G. until work starts the
next day.
The next morning, when arriving at the B. G., the representatives of the
"Empty Shells Inspection Department" must, after having put on special gloves,