Part 502

TRAINEUR d’epee. A parasite; a man who has never done a day’s duty, but wears a sword and looks big.

TRAITS, Fr. Drag-ropes, &c. used in the artillery.

TRAJECTORY line, is the curved line formed by the shot after the explosion to the end of its career.

TRAJET. See FERRY.

TRAMONTANE, Fr. The north wind in the Mediterranean is so termed by the French. It is so called, because it blows beyond the hills that are near Rome and Florence.

TRANCHANT, Fr. Cutting.

Une epee à deux TRANCHANS, Fr. A two-edged sword.

TRANCHEE, Fr. See TRENCH.

TRANCHEE double, Fr. A double trench, one side of which serves as a traverse to the other; by which means they are mutually covered from a reverse or enfilade filing.

TRANCHEE a crochet, Fr. A bending trench, or one in the shape of a hook. This species of trench is found where the line turns, at the extremities of the places of arms, and at the ends of the cavaliers.

TRANCHEE directe, Fr. A trench which is carried, or run out in a strait forward direction, and which serves to shut up any spot from whence you might be enfiladed.

TRANSFERS. Soldiers taken out of one troop or company and placed in another are so called.

TRANSFIXED. An ancient term used to express the state of being desperately wounded by some pointed instrument, as being run through by a spear, javelin or bayonet; pierced through so that the weapon is fixed in another body.

TRANSOMS. In artillery. Pieces of wood which join the cheeks of gun-carriages; there is but one in a truck-carriage, placed under the trunnion-holes; and four in a wheel-carriage, the trail, the centre, the bed, and the breast transoms.

TRANSOM-plates, with hooks.--There is one on each side of the side-pieces, against each end of the transom, the bed-transom excepted, fastened by two transom-bolts.

TRANSOM-bolt, with bars. They serve to tie the side-pieces to the transom.

TRANSPIRATION, Fr. This word is used by the French in hydraulics, to signify the oozing of water through the pores of the earth. It often happens, in digging a canal through sandy ground, that the transpirations or oozings, are so plentiful as not to leave water enough for the intended purposes of navigation. This occurred at New-Brisac, when a canal was dug in order to convey materials for its fortifications. The waters having been let in, the whole body was absorbed in the space of twenty-four hours. This evil or inconvenience can, however, be remedied; as may be seen in the fourth volume of Belidor’s Architecture Hydraulique.

TRANSPORT. A vessel in which soldiers are conveyed on the sea. See EMBARKATION.

TRANSPORT-Board. An English office established in 1794, which has the entire arrangement of the transport service, and of prisoners of war, in conjunction with the sick and hurt board. It consists of five commissioners, who are captains in the navy, and a secretary.

TRANSPORTER, Fr. To transfer, to remove, to change the situation of any thing.

TRANSPORTER les files et les rangs d’un bataillon dans les evolutions, Fr. To change files or ranks in military evolutions. To countermarch any given number of men so as to place the right where the left stood, and make the front rank take the ground that was occupied by rear, with a different aspect. See COUNTERMARCH.

When the countermarch is effected on the centre, or by a central conversion, the French distinguish, and use the phrase--Faire le moulinet; from the similarity of movement round a central point; moulinet signifying capstan, turn-stile, &c.

TRANSPOSER les files d’un bataillon dans les évolutions, Fr. To change the relative position of files in a battalion, that is, to countermarch the whole so as to make the natural front stand where the rear did, and to place those on the left that originally stood on the right.

TRAP. See AMBUSH, STRATAGEM, &c.

TRAPE, Fr. A falling door.

TRAPEZE, Fr. See TRAPEZIUM.

TRAPEZOID, (Trapezoide, Fr.) A figure in geometry which is formed by the circumvolution of a trapezium, in the same manner that a cylinder is by that of a parallelogram.

TRAPEZIUM. A quadrilateral or square figure whose four sides and angles are unequal, and no sides are parallel.