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SHELL

SHELLEY

hard covering of beetles and other insects. The shells of eggs are formed by secreting cells within the walls of the oviduct or tube through which the egg passes before it is laid. The shell of the hen's egg has a deposit of carbonate of lime in it. Some minute animals (Radiolaria) have shells formed of quartz or silica, and some secrete a horny covering. The shells of mollusks have been used for money in islands of the sotithern Pacific, for ornaments, jewelry, for making pearl-buttons etc. The study of shells is called conchology. See Woodward's Manual of the Mollusca.

Shell, a hollow projectile filled with powder, which is arranged to explode at the right moment and is fired from cannon or other large guns. Shells were first made of cast iron and fired from mortars, and called bombs. Used first by the sultan of Gujarat in 1480, they were in general use by the middle of the i;th century. In 1842 Shrapnel shells, named after the inventor, were used in the Peninsular War. They are filled with bullets, instead of powder, and a small charge, just enough to open them when set on fire by a slow match or fuse. Other shells were filled with pieces of iron rings, but the Shrapnel shell is the one most used in warfare. It is especially a man-killing shell, while the common shell was used to destroy material. Carcasses are shells filled with some burning material which will set fire to buildings; hand grenades are small shells filled with gunpowder and exploded by a time-fuse, which are thrown by hand.

The making and use of breechloading and rifled artillery directed ideas about projectiles into new courses* The projectiles are loaded from behind, instead of from in front, as formerly. Consequently they can be slightly larger than the bore, if their excess in size be made of metal soft enough to be jammed into the rifling. Copper bands are fitted around the base, and these take up the rotation imparted by the grooves and effectually check the gas. The projectiles used in modern guns are the same, practically, as canister, common shell and shrapnel; except the armor-piercing shell. This was first designed by Palliser of England. It was made of chilled iron or steel, with an ogive-shaped head, and was strong as well as sharp. It was filled with powder and fitted with a percussion-fuse. Modern, armor-piercing shells are used uncapped or capped. The latest forms of common shell are made with hardened points, and are designed to carry bursting-charges equaling a twentieth of their weight and to penetrate armor at least half a caliber thick. Armor-piercing shells are made of forged and tempered chrome-steel and are intended, to penetrate any thickness of armor. They are fitted with fuses that

explode the shell when it hits and pierces. High explosives are sometimes used in such shells. When soft-steel caps are fitted to these chrome-steel caps, they penetrate even face-hardened armor without breaking or adhering.

The projectiles of pneumatic guns form a class by themselves. Rockets form still another class. See CANNON, PROJECTILES and SHOT.

Shel'ley, Percy Bysshe, an English poet, was born on Aug. 4, 1792, in Sussex, and studied at Eton and Oxford. At Eton he wrote two romances, and, with a fellow-studenc, published a volume of verse. While at Oxford with his friend, James Hogg, he published another volume of verse, and in 1811 a pamphlet on the Necessity of Atheism, for which the two friends were expelled from University College. These early poems are almost unknown now, and only show the erratic nature of the poec, whose mother, when a school was recommended to her as a place where a boy was taught to think for himself, exclaimed* "Thi.ik for himself! I only hope he can be taugnt to think as others do." At 19 he married Harriet Westbrook, a girl of 16, and lived in Edinburgh and Keswick, where be became a friend of Southey and De Quincey and a disciple of Godwin. His plans for reforming the world he started to carry out by scattering through Ireland his Address to the Irish People and other pamphlets and sending adrift in bottles arid boxes his Declaration of Rights. His Queen Mob, written while living in Wales, where he had gone when his servant was imprisoned ior nailing up his Declaration in public places, was at first privately distributed, because of its religious and political heresies. He left his wife in March, 1814, and in July, 1814, took a journey through France and Switzerland with Godwin's daughter Mary and Miss Clair-mont, a relative. After his grandfather's death his income became fixed, and he retired to Bishopsgate near Windsor Forest, where Atastor was written. His Mont Blanc and Hymn to Intellectual Beauty are records of his visits to Lake Geneva, where he met Byron. After the death of his wife he married Mary Godwin, and carried on a long suit to get possession of the children of the first marriage, but was allowed only to appoint their guardians and tutors. His Revolt of Islam was his last work in England, which he left for Italy in 1818. At Rome, Florence, Naples, Leghorn and Pisa he spent the rest of his life, surrounded by a circle of friends, which included Byron, Trelawney and Leigh Hunt, and wrote Prometheus Unbound, The Cenci, Adonais and some of his finest lyrics and (in prose) a Defense of Poetry. Among his most beautiful minor poems are Ode to the West Wind, The Cloud, The Sensitive Plant and The