Émeutes de Québec de 1918 - Témoignage d’un témoin non identifié
Témoignage d’un témoin non identifié[1]
Q. What should be the effect of that on any soft body which was hit by a bullet? What would the difference be between…
A. In ballistics we measure it with paper screens and we get results, what we call keyholing. The desirability is to avoid this keyholing as much as possible. Keyholing means that when it comes to this particular piece of paper here it comes on like this (illustrating) the bullet possibly in that direction, wobbling.
Q. It is not perfectly straight?
A. It is not perfectible straight, not necessarily.
Q. What is the consequence?
A. It makes a hole, what we call keyhole, that is, not a true hole in the paper, but may he very slightly oblong.
CORONER: Enlarged?
A. Well, not very much larger, not very much larger.
MR. BARCLAY: So that the perforation which it makes is bigger and of a different shape than once it has steadied down?
A. Than the true diameter.
Q. Then a bullet striking a person before it has steadied down will make a worse wound than once it has steadied down?
A. I have no experience in that at all, I have no experience, I could not say.
THE CORONER : According to theory ?
A. I am talking with regard to the piece of paper of which I have experience, yes.
MR. BARCLAY : That is the effect on the paper screens which you take ?
A. Slight effect, will make a hole slightly oblong.
Q. Does the Government issue or make any dum-dum or explosive bullets or soft nosed bullets?
A. Not to my knowledge.
Q. And you are the Head of the Arsenal here?
A. I am the Head of the Arsenal here.
Q. Never heard of such a thing?
A. Not for anything of this nature. They have got at the present time, are experimenting (doing some of it here now) experimenting for anti-aircraft bullets with a different shape altogether. There are none to my knowledge made in Canada; none has been made.
THE CORONER: That is the standard bullet?
A. That in the standard Mark VII bullet, all British armunition.
Q. Could they with the bullet, with a file, chizel, make it spread?
A. I imagine they could. I have not carried on any experiments with that. I would not like to speak in a technical sense without the actual experience, what they could do.
EXAMINED BY MR. LAVERGNE.
Q. What is the texture of the bullet?
A. Cupro nickel cover and lead core, aluminum tip, that is, the tip inside. It has a little tip inside to adjust the weight better.
Q. What is the thickness of the cover?
A. I am speaking from memory.
Q. Oh yes, approximately.
A. I think .036 of an inch. I am speaking from memory.
Q. Is the cover of a very resistible metal?
A. Oh yes. It is a plastic metal, one might say.
Q. Flattens on a wall or ricochets at a short distance?
A. You never can tell, in my experience, in a ricochetting you never can tell what shape a bullet will take or which direction it will go.
Q. I am not talking of the direction. I am talking of the shape the bullet would take in ricochetting.
A. It depends entirely how it is hit. You wont get two alike fired at the same place in my experience. I mean, let us take and fire half a dozen round at that wall, let us assume for the moment that they all hit exactly the same place, they wont exactly all be the same shape afterwards.
Q. Will they flatten very much or take a very different shape?
A. One might flatten out there on the wall, an other one might just take a gouge out of the side or another one might take a bit off the top and nothing else and so on.
Q. What would be the strength of a ricochetting 75 feet or 100 feet ?
A. Well, this bullet leaves the muzzle at about 2375 feet seconds. At that distance I would say — how many feet, you say?
Q. About 75?
A. It would be just about — oh, 2350 feet seconds. You never can tell what exactly would pass. It is going to go by what it strikes; in each case there is something to allow; you never can tell.
Q. It might fall dead?
A. No, I would not say…
Q. It would necessarily ricochet ?
A. If you take a bullet fired against a steel plate, armor steel plating, it will flatten straight out.
Q. And fall dead ?
A. Oh yes.
Q. A brick wall ?
A. If it was struck plumb dead I think it might do the same thing unless a brick happened to give one place. You asked me about steel plate. That resistance is considered even resistance. Into this brick wall it might take one top off the corner of the brick wall, it might chip out this way.
Q. There would be ricochetting on a brick wall?
A. Ricochetting, perhaps, Ricochetting means this, that it get a some thing to slide on.
Q. And bounces back?
A. It cannot bounce back not to any appreciable extent.
Q. It might hit a brick wall, for instance, and take another direction; that is what we call ricochetting in French?
A. Yes, that is it; you take a brick wall on an angle like that (an acute angle); it will so slide off (in whichever direction it happens to be twisting at the moment).
THE CORONER : Everything you say about the effect of bullets on the body might depend on the distance where it is?
A. Unquestionably.
Q. Because at the exit of the bullet from the gun it has great rapidity and it does not go straight, as you say there is a little wobbling?
A. There is a little wobbling.
Q. It will only settle after a certain distance?
A. Yes.
C. What distance do you think?
A. It should be clear of this keyholing, should be steadied down at about — I am speaking quite broadly — say fifty yards.
Q. Say fifty yards?
A. Should be quite steadied down.
Q. And after certain distance again it begins to wobbles and then dies?
A. That is only at the very last.
MR. BARCLAY: That is 150 feet?
A. About, about 150 feet it would fairly steady down. I am saying this just as an approximate figure.
MR. LAVERGNE: Did you see the ammunition that was issued on that night?
A. I issue no ammunition at all to the troops. We make ammunition and we deliver it in bulk to the Government Inspectors who inspect it, then pack it and deliver it to the ordnance and the ordnance do all the issuing.
Q. You know perfectly the regulations of issuing of ammunition to troops anyway?
A. Oh yes. I mean in the ordinary sense of the word.
Q. Is it not a fact after ammunition has been used there is generally a board and report on the use of that ammunition right away, immediately?
A. It depends entirely how it was issued and what the regulations generally were for the issuing. That is not really within my technical province. If you dont mind I would rather stick…
Q. Stick to your province?
A …stick to my province.
Q. I agree with you.
I certify the foregoing to be a true and correct transcript of my shorthand notes.