Part 460

SINUS, in English, signifies a bay of the sea, an opening of the land; any fold or opening.

SINUSOIDE, Fr. A geometrical curve, which has been imagined by Monsieur Belidor, for the purpose of balancing or preserving the equipoise of a drawbridge. See Science des Ingénieurs, liv. iv. See likewise the specific construction of this curve as explained by the marquis de l’Hopital, in a book intitled, Acta Eruditorum, published at Leipsic in 1695; and demonstrated by M. Bernouilli, who discovered that this curve was nothing more than the epicycloid, which see.

SIPHON, (Syphon, likewise Ciphon, Fr.) In hydraulics, a crooked tube, one leg or branch whereof is longer than the other. It is used in the raising of fluids, emptying of vessels, and in various hydrostatical experiments.

SIRKAR, Ind. The government.

SIROC. From Sirius, the dog-star. The wind, which we call south-east, is so called in Italy.

To SIT. In a military sense, to take a stationary position; as, To sit before a fortified place; to lie encamped for the purpose of besieging it. The French use the word asseoir as an active verb with respect to military matters, viz. asseoir un camp, to pitch a camp. Il assit son camp hors de la portée du canon de la ville; he pitched his camp out of the range of the town’s cannon.

SIXAIN. Sixth, Sexagena, in war, an ancient order of battle, wherein six battalions being ranged in one line, the second and fifth were made to advance, to form the van guard; the first and sixth to retire to form the rear guard; the third and fourth remaining to form the main corps. The word is derived from the French, which signifies the same thing. The sixain order of battle may be formed with all the battalions whose number is produced by the number six. Twelve battalions, for instance, may be ranged in order of battle, by forming two sixains, and eighteen battalions, ditto by forming three sixains, and so on progressively.

To SIZE. In a military sense to take the height of men for the purpose of placing them in military array, and of rendering their relative statures more effective. In all infantry regiments the sizing begins from flanks to centre, the tallest men being placed upon the right and left of the several companies in the front rank, and the shortest in the centre and rear ranks. By the old cavalry discipline the flank troops of a squadron must be sized in the following manner: That of the right flank, from right to left; that of the left flank, from left to right; the centre one from centre to flanks; the tallest man must, of course, be always in the part where the sizing begins, excepting the corporals, one of whom must be on each flank of the front rank of the troop, covered by a clever soldier in the rear rank. If there be only two troops in a squadron, they size the right from the left, and the left from the right flank. The modern practice now is to size all troops from the centre, beginning by sizing from the right, doubling and countermarching a rank.

SKEAN, Celtic. A knife. This word is sometimes written skeen, or skeine. It signifies a weapon, in the shape of a small sword or knife, which was anciently worn by the Irish.

SKELETON. This word is frequently applied to regiments that are extremely reduced in their number of men. Thus a British regiment that went out to St. Domingo 1000 strong, and returned to England with 20 or 30 men only, was called a skeleton regiment.

SKELETON plan. See OUTLINE.

SKETCH. See ditto.

SKILL. Knowlege in any particular art. As

Military SKILL. M. Belleisle, the French general, after the example of Xenophon, the Greek, undertook in the month of December 1742, to withdraw the French army from Prague, where it was at that time shut up, and to march over the enemy’s country, through a road of 38 leagues, upwards of 124 English miles, covered with ice, and over mountains whose precipices were concealed under the snow, having, besides, an army of between eighteen and twenty thousand men, under the command of prince Lobkowitz, to fight with. For the particulars of this famous retreat, which in count Turpin’s words, deserves to be written by Xenophon himself. See page 2, vol. I. of his Art of War.

SKINS. Sheep skins are made use of to cover the mortars or howitzers between firing, to prevent any wet or dampness getting into them.

SKIRMISH, in war, a loose, desultory kind of combat, or encounter, in presence of two armies, between small parties who advance from the main body for that purpose, and invite to a general fight.

SKIRMISHERS. Detached parties of light troops sent out in front of a battalion, &c. riflemen.

SKIRT. In a general acceptation, edge, border, extreme part. As the skirt of a country, the skirts of a wood.

SKY-ROCKET. See ROCKET.

SLASH, a cut; a wound; also a cut in cloth. It is used to express the pieces of tape or worsted lace which are upon the arms of non-commissioned officers and corporals, to distinguish them from the privates.

SLASHED, cut in stripes or lines. Hence slashed sleeves and pockets, which are peculiar to the British cavalry, when the officers or men wear long coats.

SLASHERS. A nickname which was given during the American war to the British 28th regiment of foot, and which took its origin from the following circumstance: One Walker, a magistrate in Canada, having, during a severe winter, with great inhumanity, refused to give comfortable billets to the women belonging to the 28th, and some of them having perished in consequence of the inclemency of the season, so great was the resentment of the corps, that some officers dressed themselves like savages, entered his house whilst he was sitting with his family, danced round the table, and suddenly pulling him back upon his chair, cut off both his ears. They instantly disappeared. The deed was not discovered until after their departure. From this circumstance, and in consequence of various intrepid actions which the 28th performed during the course of the war, the men obtained the name of slashers.

SLATE, in military architecture, a kind of bluish fossile stone, very soft when dug out of the quarry, and therefore easily slit or sawed into thin long squares, to serve instead of tiles for the covering of all kinds of military buildings, &c.

SLAUGHTER, destruction by the sword, bayonet, and firearms.

SLEDGE, or sledge-hammer, a large iron-headed hammer.

SLEEPERS, the undermost timbers of a gun or mortar-battery. See PLATFORM.

SLEETS, are the parts of a mortar going from the chamber to the trunnions, to strengthen that part.

SLING, a leathern strap which is attached to a musquet, and serves to hang it across the soldier’s back as occasion may require.