Part 371

A PLOMB, Fr. The perpendicular position of any body or substance. Une muraille est à plomb. A wall built in a straight perpendicular direction.

Donner à plomb, Fr. To fall vertically, as the rays of the sun do in certain latitudes

Etre à plomb, Fr. To stand upright.

Marcher à plomb, Fr. To march with a firm, steady pace.

This word is sometimes used as a substantive, viz. Perdre son a plomb. To lose one’s balance.

Manquer d’a plomb, Fr. To be unsteady.

PLONGEE, Fr. A term used in artillery to express the action of a bomb, &c. which from the highest point of the curve it describes, takes a downward direction to strike its object.

PLONGEE du Rampart, Fr. The slope of the upper part of the parapet, belonging to the rampart, is so called. The slope is likewise named talus supérieur, or upper talus.

PLONGEONS, Fr. Artificial fireworks, which are shot into water and rise again without being extinguished.

PLONGEONS, Fr. Plungers or divers. Men of this description ought always to accompany an army, for the purpose of swimming under bridges of boats, &c. and making apertures in their bottoms.

PLONGER, Fr. To plunge any thing into the water. This word is likewise used to express the discharge of ordnance from top to bottom, as canon plongé.

PLUIE de feu, Fr. literally a shower or rain of fire. It signifies a certain quantity of artificial fireworks, whose discharge falls in regular sparks, without ever deviating into a serpentine direction.

PLUMB, PLUMMET, a leaden or other weight let down at the end of a string, or piece of catgut, to regulate any work in a line perpendicular to the horizon, or sound the depth of any thing. It is of great use to the artillerist, as well as to the engineer.

PLUME, feathers worn by soldiers in the hat or helmet.

PLUMET, Fr. plume, feather. An ornament which is worn by military men in their hats. It succeeded the pannache or bunch of feathers, that formerly adorned the helmets.

PLUMMET. This word is derived from the Latin Plumbum, lead, as a piece thereof is fastened to the end of a thread. The instrument itself is used by masons, &c. to draw perpendiculars with, in order to judge whether walls, &c. be upright planes, horizontal, &c. Pilots, at sea, likewise ascertain their soundings by it. In the forming of recruits it is used to fix lines.

Plummets which vibrate the required times of march in the minute, are of great utility, and can alone prevent, or correct uncertainty of movement; they must be in the possession of, and be constantly referred to by each instructor of a squad.

A musquet ball suspended by a string which is not subject to stretch, (and must of course be kept constantly dry) and on which are marked the different required lengths, will answer the above purpose, may be easily acquired, and should be frequently compared with an accurate standard in the adjutant’s, or serjeant-major’s possession. The length of the plummet is to be measured from the point of suspension to the centre of the ball.

Accurate distances or steps of 24 inches must also be marked out on the ground, along which the soldier should be practised to march, and thereby acquire the just length of pace.

PLUNDER, hostile pillage, or spoils taken in war.

PLUS, in algebra, commonly denotes majus, more, or addition: its character is +. Thus 5 + 7 is read 5 plus 7, or 5 added to 7 is equal to 12.

PLUTEUS, a defensive machine, which was used by the ancient Romans. It was composed of wicker hurdles laid for a roof on the top of posts, which the soldiers, who went under it for shelter, bore up with their hands. Kennett, in page 238, of his Roman Antiquities, observes, that some will have them, as well as the vineæ, to have been contrived with a double roof; the first and lower roof of planks, and the upper roof of hurdles, to break the force of any blow, without disordering the machine. The plutei, however, were of a different figure from the vineæ, being shaped like an arched sort of waggon; some having three wheels, so conveniently placed, that the machine would move either way, with equal ease. They were put much to the same use as the musculi. Father Daniel, the Jesuit, in his history of the French militia, makes mention of this machine. He quotes a passage out of a poem, intituled the Siege of Paris, by Abbon, the Monk; the meaning of which is, that the Normans brought up a large quantity of machines, that were called plutei by the Romans, and that seven or eight soldiers could be put under cover beneath them. He further adds, that these machines were covered with bull hides.

The moderns have imitated these plutei by adopting mantelets. The chevalier Folard mentions having seen one at the siege of Phillipeville, of a triangular figure, made of cork, interlaced between two boards, and supported by three wheels that turned upon a pivot.

PLUSH, a kind of stuff with a sort of velvet nap or shag on one side, consisting of a woof of a single woollen thread, and a double warp; the one of two woollen threads twisted, the other goat’s or camel’s hair; though there are plushes entirely of worsted, others of hair, and others again of silk, cotton, &c. White plush breeches have been often worn by dragoons. They resist moisture, and are easily cleaned.

PNEUMATICS. The doctrine of the air, or the laws whereby it is condensed, rarefied, gravitated, &c.

PNEUMATIC Engine, denotes the air pump.

PNEUMATIQUE, Fr. Pneumatics.

POIDS, Fr. Weights.