Part 241

Stink- } Poisoned-} Red-hot- }Balls. See BALLS. Chain- } Stang- } Anchor- }

Message-Balls. See SHELLS.

Fire-Barrels are at present not much used: they were of different sorts; some mounted on two wheels. The inside of the barrel is loaded with powder, and the outside full of sharp iron points, intermixed with grenades loaded, and fuses fixed. Sometimes they are placed under ground, and made use of to annoy the enemy’s approach.

Carcass, in military affairs, was formerly of an oval form, made of iron bars, and filled with a composition of mealed powder, saltpetre, sulphur, broken glass, shavings of horn, pitch, turpentine, tallow, and linseed oil, covered with a pitched cloth; it is primed with mealed powder and quick match, and fired out of a mortar. Its design is to set houses on fire, &c. See CARCASS.

None but round carcasses are used at present, the flight of the oblong ones being so uncertain. The composition is, pitch 2, saltpetre 4, sulphur 1, and corned powder 3. When the pitch is melted, the pot is taken off, and the ingredients (well mixed) put in; then the carcass is filled with as much as can be pressed in.

Cartridges are made of various substances, such as paper, parchment, bladders, and flannel. When they are made of paper the bottoms remain in the piece, and accumulate so much, that the priming cannot reach the powder; besides other inconveniencies. When they are made of parchment or bladders, the fire shrivels them up, so that they enter into the vent, and become so hard, that the priming iron cannot remove them so as to clear the vent. Nothing has been found hitherto to answer better than flannel, which is the only thing used at present for artillery cartridges of all sorts; because it does not keep fire, and is therefore not liable to accidents in the loading: but, as the dust of powder passes through them, a parchment cover is sometimes made to put over them, which is taken off when used.

The best way of making flannel cartridges, is to boil the flannel in size; which will prevent the dust of powder from passing through, and render it stiff, and more manageable; for without this precaution cartridges are so pliable, on account of their size and the quantity of powder they contain, that they are put into the piece with much difficulty.

The loading and firing guns with cartridges is done much sooner than with loose powder, and fewer accidents are likely to occur. The heads of cartridges, especially for musquetry, are sometimes wrapped in coarse cotton.

In quick firing the shot is fixed to the cartridge by means of a wooden bottom, hollowed on one side so as to receive nearly half the shot, which is fastened to it by two small slips of tin crossing over the shot, and nailed to the bottom; and the cartridge is tied to the other end thereof. They are fixed likewise in the same manner to the bottoms of grape shot, which are used in field pieces.

Grape-shot, in artillery, is a combination of small shot, put into a thick canvas bag, and corded strongly together, so as to form a kind of cylinder, whose diameter is equal to that of the ball which is adapted to the cannon.

To make grape shot, a bag of coarse cloth is made just to hold the bottom which is put into it; as many shot are then thrown in as the grape is to contain; and with a strong pack thread the whole is quilted to keep the shot from moving. The bags, when finished, are put into boxes for the purpose of being conveniently carried.

The number of shot in a grape varies according to the service or size of the guns: in sea service 9 is always the number; but by land it is increased to any number or size, from an ounce and a quarter in weight, to four pounds. It has not yet been determined, with any degree of accuracy, what number and size answer best in practice; for it is well known, that they often scatter so much that only a small number takes effect.

Of the three different sorts of cannon which are used for throwing grape-shot, the 3-pounder seems rather the best; especially when two are used, as the effect of two 3-pounders is much greater than that of one 6-pounder. But the 8-inch howitzer, which can be made to throw in from three to five of its charge (from 12 to 20lb. of shot) becomes thereby a very formidable piece, when it can be used for grape-shot; and this is the howitzer used by the French light or horse artillery.

Proper charges for grape-shot have never yet been effectually determined: we can only give our advice from some experiments; that for heavy 6-pounders, ¹⁄₃d of the weight of the shot appears to be the best charge of powder; for the light 6-pounders, ¹⁄₄th of the weight of the shot; and for howitzers, ¹⁄₈th or ¹⁄₁₀th answers very well.

This kind of fire seems not yet to have been enough respected, nor depended on. However, if cannon and howitzers can be made to throw ¹⁄₃d or ¹⁄₄th, and sometimes half their charge of grape shot into a space 39 by 12 feet, at 200 and 300 yards distance, and those fired 7 or 8 times in a minute; it surely forms the thickest fire that can be produced from the same space.

Tin case-shot, in artillery, is formed by putting a great quantity of small iron shot into a cylindrical tin box, called a canister, that just fits the bore of the gun. Leaden bullets are sometimes used in the same manner; and it must be observed, that whatever number or sizes of the shot are used, they must weigh, with their cases, nearly as much as the shot of the piece.

Case shot, formerly, consisted of all kinds of old iron, stones, musquet balls, nails, &c.

Tubes, in artillery are used in quick firing. They are made of tin: their diameter is ²⁄₁₀ths of an inch, being just sufficient to enter into the vent of the piece; about 6 inches long, with a cap above, and cut slanting below, in the form of a pen; the point is strengthened with some solder, that it may pierce the cartridge without bending. Through this tube is drawn a quick-match, the cap being fitted with mealed powder, moistened with spirits of wine. To prevent the mealed powder from falling out by carriage, a cap of paper or flannel, steeped in spirits of wine, is tied over it.

Flambeaux, a kind of lighted torch, used in the artillery upon a march, or the park, &c.

Formers, are cylinders of wood, of different sizes and dimensions, used in the laboratory, to drive the composition of fuzes and rockets.

Funnels, are of various sorts, used to pour the powder into shells, and the composition into fuses, and rocket-cases.

Fire-ship, a vessel filled with combustible materials, and fitted with grappling irons, to hook, and set fire to the enemy’s ships in battle, &c.

From the bulk head at the fore castle to a bulk head to be raised behind the main chains, on each side and across the ship at the bulk heads, is fixed, close to the ship’s sides, a double row of troughs, 2 feet distance from each other, with cross troughs quite round, at about 2¹⁄₂ distance; which are mortised into the others. The cross troughs lead to the sides of the ship, to the barrels and to the port holes, to give fire both to the barrels and to the chambers, to blow open the ports; and the side troughs serve to communicate the fire all along the ship and the cross troughs.

The timbers of which the troughs are made, are about 5 inches square; the depth of the troughs, half their thickness; and they are supported by cross pieces at every 2 or 3 yards, nailed to the timbers of the ship, and to the wood work which incloses the fore and main masts. The decks and troughs are all well paved with melted rosin.

On each side of the ship 6 small port holes are cut, from 15 to 18 inches large, the ports opening downwards, and are close caulked up. Against each port is fixed an iron chamber, which, at the time of firing the ship, blows open the ports, and lets out the fire. At the main and fore chains, on each side, a wooden funnel is fixed over a fire barrel, and comes through a scuttle in the deck, up to the shrouds, to set them on fire. Both funnels and scuttles must be stopped with plugs, and have sail cloth or canvas nailed close over them, to prevent any accident happening that way, by fire, to the combustibles below.

The port holes, funnels, and scuttles, not only serve to give the fire a free passage to the outside and upper parts of the ship, and her rigging, but also for the inward air (otherwise confined) to expand itself, and push through those holes at the time of the combustibles being on fire, and prevent the blowing up of the decks, which otherwise must of course happen, from such a sudden and violent rarefaction of the air as will then be produced.

In the bulk head behind, on each side, is cut a small hole, large enough to receive a trough of the same size of the others; from which, to each side of the ship, lies a leading trough, one end coming through a sally port cut through the ship’s side, and the other fixing into a communicating trough that lies along the bulk-head, from one side of the ship to the other; and being laid with quick match, at the time of firing either of the leading troughs, communicates the fire in an instant to the contrary side of the ship, and both sides burn together.

Fire barrels, for a fire-ship, are cylindric, on account of that shape answering better both for filling them with reeds, and for stowing them between the troughs: their inside diameters are about 21 inches, and their length 33. The bottom parts are first filled with double-dipt reeds set on end, and the remainder with fire-barrel composition, which is, corned powder 30lb. Swedish pitch 12, saltpetre 6, and tallow 3, well mixed and melted, and then poured over them.