Part 446

SCIAGE, (Bois de Sciage, Fr.) Sawing. Wood that is proper to be sawed in planks, or to be made fit for any use in carpentry.

SCIAGRAPHY, (Sciagraphe, Fr.) The profile or section of a building to shew the inside thereof.

SCIE, Fr. a saw.

SCIENCE. Any art or species of knowlege; as military science, &c.

SCIENCE de la guerre, Fr. Military knowlege, or the science of war.

SCITIE, or SETIE, Fr. a small decked barge with Levant sails.

SCORPION, (Scorpion, Fr.) a sort of long thick javelin or arrow, which was used among the ancients. For a specific description, see Vegetius and Justus Lipsius. The Cretans are supposed to have invented the scorpion.

SCIMITAR, a short crooked sword, more or less incurvated.

To SCOUR, (Battre à toute volée, Fr.) This term is frequently used to express the act of firing a quick and heavy discharge of ordnance or musquetry, for the purpose of dislodging an enemy.--Hence to scour the rampart or the covert way. It likewise signifies to clear, to drive away, viz. To scour the seas: Ecumer les mers, Fr.--To scour the streets: Ecumer les rues; also to run about in a loose desultory manner, as to scour the country.

To SCOUR a line, is to flank it, so as to see directly along it, that a musquet ball, entering at one end, may fly to the other, leaving no place of security.

SCOUTS, are generally horsemen sent out before, and on the wings of an army, at the distance of a mile or two, to discover the enemy, and give the general an account of what they see. See VIDETTES.

SCREW, (Escrou, Fr.) One of the mechanical powers, which is defined a right cylinder cut into a furrowed spiral. Wilkins calls it a kind of wedge, that is multiplied or continued by a helical revolution about a cylinder, receiving its motion not from any stroke, but from a vectis at one end of it.

SCREWS, in gunnery, are fastened to the cascable of light guns and howitzers, by means of an iron bolt, which goes through a socket fixed upon the centre transom, to elevate or depress the piece with, instead of wedges.

SCREW of direction, (Vis de Pointage, Fr.) The screw of direction, used in the artillery, is formed of a brass horizontal roller, placed between the two cheeks of the carriage. The trunnions of the roller move upon two vertical iron pivots, which are fixed against the interior sides of the cheeks. By means of this screw the direction of pieces is either raised or lowered with a regular movement, and in the smallest space.

The screw of direction, or Vis de Pointage, is equally used for howitzers as well as for heavy pieces of ordnance. It has been invented by the French, and serves in lieu of the Coins à Cremaillère, or indented coins. So little progress has military science made in the United States, that there are many old officers in the U. States’ service who know nothing even of this little but important particular.

Lock SCREWS. Small screws which are attached to the lock of a musquet.

SCULLCAP. See HELMET.

SCURVY, (Scorbut, Fr.) A disease to which soldiers and seamen are peculiarly exposed, from idleness, inattention to cleanliness of person and food, eating salted meat and drinking bad water, &c.

Scute or Canot, Fr. In Dutch Schoot, and Canot, is pronounced with us as if written cannoo. Any small boat which is used in navigation for the accommodation of a ship.

SEARCHER, an instrument used by the founders to discover any flaws in the bore of cannon, &c. See PROOF.

To SEASON. In a military sense, to accustom, to enure. Soldiers are frequently sent to Gibraltar in order to be seasoned for a hot climate.

SEASONED Troops. Troops that have been accustomed to climate, and are not so liable to become the victims of any endemical disorder, as raw men must unavoidably be. The French use the word acclimater; to get accustomed to a change of climate. Hence Troupes acclimatees; troops that have been seasoned.

SEAT of war. The country in which war is carrying on.

SECANT, (Secante, Fr.) A line which cuts another, or divides it into two parts. See table at the end of the word GUNNERY.

SECANT of an arch. In trigonometry, is a right line drawn from the centre of the circle to the extremity of the tangent.

SECANT of an angle. Supposing an angle to be terminated by a base that is perpendicular to one of the sides, and that the smallest side of the angle be taken for the radius or whole sinus, the greatest of the two sides of that angle will be its secant.

SECOND, (Second, Fr.) The next in order to the first. The ordinal of two. The next in dignity, place, or station. The French use the word Second in military matters, somewhat differently from the English, viz.

Compagnie en SECOND, Fr. This literally means second company, but according to the old French regulations it signifies a company which consists of half the number of men that other companies are composed of. This was however, applied to the cavalry only.