Part 62

Shells should be loaded with no more powder than is requisite to burst them into the greatest number of pieces, and the length of the fuzes should be exactly calculated according to the required ranges; for, should the fuze set fire to the powder in the shell, before it falls on the place intended, the shell will burst in the air, and probably do more mischief to those who fired the mortar, than to those against whom it was discharged. To prevent this, the fuzes are divided into as many seconds as the greatest range requires, consequently may be cut to any distance, at an elevation of 45 degrees.

Mortars are not to be fired with two fires; for when the fuze is properly fixed, and both fuze and shell dredged with mealed powder, the blast of the powder in the chamber of the mortar, when inflamed by the tube, will likewise set fire to the fuze fixed in the shell.

BOMBARDIERS, artillery soldiers, who are employed in mortar and howitzer duty. They are to load them on all occasions; and in most services they load the shells and grenades, fix the fuzes, prepare the composition both for fuzes and tubes, and fire both mortars and howitzers on every occasion. In the English service, shells and grenades, composition for the same, fuzes, &c. are prepared in the laboratory by people well-skilled in that business.

In most other armies both officers and soldiers belonging to the companies of bombardiers, have an extraordinary pay, as it requires more mathematical learning to throw shells with some degree of exactness, than is requisite for the rest of the artillery. In the British service a specific number is attached to each company of artillery, and do not form a separate corps as in other countries.

BONAVOGLIE, Fr. a man that for a certain consideration voluntarily engages to row.

BONNET, in fortification, implies a small but useful work, that greatly annoys the enemy in their lodgments. This work consists of two faces, which make a salient angle in the nature of a ravelin, without any ditch, having only a parapet 3 feet high, and 10 or 12 feet broad. They are made at the salient angles of the glacis, outworks, and body of the place, beyond the counterscarp, and in the faussebray. See FORTIFICATION.

BONNET à Prêtre, or Priest’s Cap, in fortification, is an outwork, having three salient and two inward angles, and differs from the double tenaille only in having its sides incline inwards towards the gorge, and those of a double tenaille are parallel to each other. See FORTIFICATION.

BORDER, in military drawings, implies single or double lines, or any other ornament, round a drawing, &c.

BOOKS. There are different books made use of in the army, for the specific purposes of general and regimental economy.

The general orderly BOOK is kept by the brigade major, from which the leading orders of regiments, conveying the parole and countersign, are always taken.

The regimental orderly BOOK contains the peculiar instructions of corps which are given by a colonel or commanding officer to the adjutant--hence adjutant’s orderly BOOK--and from him to the serjeant-major, who delivers the same to the different serjeants of companies assembled in the orderly room for that purpose--hence the company’s orderly BOOK.

The regimental BOOK is kept by the clerk of the regiment, and contains all the records, &c. belonging to the corps.

The Company BOOK, is kept by the commanding officer of every company; and contains returns of all incidents and payments.

The black BOOK is a sort of memorandum which is kept in every regiment, to describe the character and conduct of non-commissioned officers and soldiers; when and how often they have been reduced or punished, &c.

Every quarter-master belonging to the cavalry and infantry, has likewise a book which may not improperly be called a book or inventory of regimental stores, &c.

Practice BOOK. Every officer of the artillery ought to have a book in which he should note every useful fact that occurs in practice.

BOOM, in marine fortification, is a long piece of timber, with which rivers or harbors are stopped, to prevent the enemy’s coming in: it is sometimes done by a cable or chain, and floated with yards, topmasts, or spars of wood lashed to it.

BORE, in gunnery, implies the cavity of the barrel of a gun, mortar, howitzer, or any other piece of ordnance.

BOSSE, Fr. a term used in the French artillery, to express a glass bottle which is very thin, contains four or five pounds of powder, and round the neck of which four or five matches are hung under, after it has been well-corked. A cord, two or three feet in length, is tied to the bottle, which serves to throw it. The instant the bottle breaks, the powder catches fire, and every thing within the immediate effects of the explosion is destroyed.

BOTTES, Fr. boots.

Grosses BOTTES, Fr. jack-boots.

BOTTINE, Fr. half-boots worn by the hussars and dragoons in foreign armies.

BOUCHE, Fr. means the aperture or mouth of a piece of ordnance, that of a mortar, of the barrel of a musket, and of every species of fire-arms from which a ball or bullet is discharged.

BOUCHES à feu, Fr. is generally used to signify pieces of ordnance.

BOULER la Matiere, Fr. to stir up the different metals which are used in casting cannon.

BOULETS à deux têtes, chain-shot.

BOULEVART, Fr. formerly meant a bastion. It is no longer used as a military phrase, although it sometimes occurs in the description of works or lines which cover a whole country, and protect it from the incursions of an enemy. Thus Strasburgh and Landau may be called two principal boulevarts or bulwarks, by which France is protected on this side of the Rhine.

The elevated line or rampart which reaches from the Champs Elysées in Paris beyond the spot where the bastille was destroyed in 1789, is stiled the Boulevart.